#nonperceptional

[polyphonetic]

7 Minutes In The Sphere Of Neither Perception Nor Nonperception (party game where two people are made to go in a closet for 7 minutes and to meditate on the fourth formless jhāna)

[astranemus]

While one is still an ordinary being, one eliminates each of the proliferations of the four extremes [of grasping at existence/non-existence/both/neither] one at a time, and then meditates [on each of these individually]. This leads to the emergence of the Mahāyāna path of seeing. At that time, the proliferations of all four extremes are eliminated simultaneously in such a way that the reality that is to be realized and the mind that realizes it do not appear as two distinct things. The object that manifests itself without proliferations and indivisibly from that mind is given the name “the ultimate truth”; but at that time, there is no apprehension whatsoever of the fact, “This is the ultimate truth.” It is intending this that the stainless word [of the Buddha] and its commentarial tradition repeatedly urge us to “see things through the method of not seeing, and perceive things through the method of nonperception.”

Gorampa Sonam Senge, in Freedom from Extremes: Gorampa's "Distinguishing the Views" and the Polemics of Emptiness by Jose Ignacio Cabezon & Lobsang Dargyay.

[unsoundedcomic]

Is the squishy, cartoony style of glamours mostly a function of your style or of an in-world justification? That smoky swirling the lions do in the latest page in response to being physically disturbed looks visually simplistic, but it would actually be one of the hardest possible things to do with the vertex-based 3d models you've described in "type 1" nonperceptive glamours.

I’d chalk it up to artistic license. When I show glamours dispersing I want it to look like the khert-lines are tearing them up into smoke and colour, and not so much like they’re just fading away or dissolving into pixels. So it’s not that the glamour is changing shape, it’s that it’s being undone or ended. The... medium it’s being projected upon is swirling, not the glamour itself.

Incidentally, I wanted doggo’s head glamour to look kind of bad, like its designer wasn’t the best artist in the world so it’s pretty janky lookin’.

[mahayanapilgrim]

1.1.2 The Hereafter Is the Main Component of Samsara

According to the Buddhist Teachings, one is not born only once but has been born countless of times and will continue to undergo the round of rebirth until the shore of Nibbana is reached. The Lord Buddha taught in the Puggala Sutta that: The beginning and the end of Samsara cannot be determined. He said that when an individual underwent the round of rebirth within just one earth age, the pile of all of his bones could already be as high as a mountain.

The Lord Buddha’s words demonstrate clearly that one’s life does not end at death but continues on to the different planes of existence for eternity. One must continue thus until one can be completely removed from one’s unwholesome attachments or defilements. These include greed, anger, and ignorance. The ‘birth-death-rebirth’ cycle or the round of rebirth means the continuation of life and death within the three spheres, the four modes of births, the five destinations, the seven durations of consciousness, and the nine abodes.

The round of rebirth continues from one realm of existence to another, from one mode of birth to another, round and round according to one’s accumulated ‘merit’ and ‘sin’.

The Three Spheres include 1) The Sense Sphere, 2) The Form Sphere, and 3) The Non-Form Sphere.

The Four Modes of Birth include

1) From the egg, 2) From the womb, 3) From contaminated moisture, 4) Spontaneous rising.

The Five Destinations include 1) The Hell Realm, 2) The Animal Realm, 3) The Peta Realm, 4) The Human Realm, 5) The Realms of Happiness (They include the Celestial Realm, the Form Brahma Realm, and the Non-Form Brahma Realm).

The Seven Durations of Consciousness includes the seven planes of consciousness as follows: 1) Beings that have dissimilar physical forms and perception; these include human beings, certain categories of celestial beings. 2) Beings that share similar perception but dissimilar physical forms such as the Brahma beings of the First Jhana (Parisajja, Purohita, and Mahabrahma). 3) Beings that share a similar physical form but dissimilar perception such as the Brahma beings of the Abhassara plane. 4) Beings that share a similar physical form and similar perception such as Subhakinha Brahma beings. 5) Beings that have attained the Realm of Infinity of Space. 6) Beings that have attained the Realm of Infinity of Consciousness. 7) Beings that have attained the Realm of Nothingness.

The Nine Abodes include the nine states of existence. They are the same as the Seven Durations of consciousness except that number five is replaced by beings that have no perception, no suffering such as the Asanyi Brahma beings. Numbers 5, 6, 7 become 6, 7, 8, and add 9) Beings that have attained the Realm of Neither Perception nor Nonperception.

The above categorization of the states and realms of the Hereafter is for the sake of convenience in terms of their description and application. Such categorization is analogous to grouping animals into two groups such as land animals and aquatic animals. Or they are grouped into three by adding amphibians. Or they can be grouped according to the number of their legs. Such categorizations are made for practical purposes.

All of the beings that are still trapped within the ‘birth-death-rebirth’ cycle of Samsara are like prisoners in a huge cell. All beings are like prisoners of war. All beings are like yoked oxen or oxen tied to a stake. In the Mahasihanad Sutta, the Lord Buddha told His Perfected Disciple, Sariputra, about life within Samsara that: In His long journey within Samsara, there was scarcely a realm that He had not been born into except for the Five Realms of Suddhavas where the Non-Returners were reborn.

[itonje]

im not nonperceptive/oblivious i just look away from the things i dont want to see like a good boy

[aeneasx]

Lilith In The Signs

LILITH IN ARIES often causes an extreme strive for autonomy, leading to problemsin partnerships, because you are very interested in partnerships. Perhaps you arechanging restlessly possible life partners without committing yourself, because thereis always anything wrong with them. With flirts you are courageously, quickly andalso successfully, possibly tending to one nite stands. Partnerships and sexual matterscan be of uncertainty. You are fair, fighting for justice and peace.

LILITH IN TAURUS gives extraordinary love for the beauty and big emotionalactivity. You look for your security needs in a relationship, contacting others byflirting. With gifts and properties others can attract you, and probably you achivematerial security in a partnership. But you maybe get disturbed by the materialdependence then, and your emotional harmony turns out of the balance.

LILITH IN GEMINI usually causes a strive for independence, particularly inintellectual areas. Perhaps you dedicate yourself to the beautiful literary arts or work in the public relations area. You have a diplomatic and psychological feeling and canentertain your fellow beings very well. Probably you tend to superficialnesses andyour objectivity is limited sometimes, because you can get enticed and bounded byideas easily. You possibly like to change your fellow beings, especially partners, if  possible without their and even sometimes your own knowledge. In this positionemotions can be suppressed unnoticed or converted to rationalities.

LILITH IN CANCER urges you to create domestic and family peace. You like tomeet many people in your home in order to have expanded meals with them, wherebyyou take part in discussions very emotionally and with psychological knowledge. Infamily matters you are inclined not to recognize things or situations correctly, or youdon't want to admit situations and circumstances because you get enticed byunrealistic opinions very easily.

LILITH IN LEO produces strong entertainment urges. Without any problems peoplecan attract you to go to parties, where you then set yourself on stage. You also wantto participate in bets and speculations, though your intuition tells you rather to leaveyour hands of it. You create harmony and peace, know how to flirt and to manipulate people to general well-being. You are probably well-known due to your charmingcharacter.

LILITH IN VIRGO blurrs the objectivity and lets you express criticism at wrong places perhaps. You simply don't want to commit yourself, are very orientationlessregarding occupation and partnership. Other people may get confused by you, because this confusive position produces paradoxes in almost all areas of life. You  perhaps tend hopelessly between commitment and autonomy urge, between socialcontacts and retreat. On the other hand, psychological and analytic abilities arealmost unsurpassably strong, and your intuition beats everything. Unfortunately the possibility exists that you are not conscious about your abilities, or that you don'twant to admit them.

LILITH IN LIBRA makes fair, diplomatically and harmony-striving. You like to flirtand manipulate your fellow beings with well-meaning intention. You permanently gointo and break or let brake partnerships, because you vary between commitment andthirst for autonomy. The cause could be that you don't want to admit your wrongconceptions about fellow beings, or you don't want to see their real characters. Surelyalso belongs to it, that you may consider yourself completely different, contrary to theothers, or that you are simply misjudged. You are of wisdom and intuition, as well as psychological ability and music love, but you may not have knowledge about it all.You wish to receive emotional loyalty from your life partner, and you want to beaccepted emotionally. Probably you have very high requirements in partnerships andwish well working interpersonal relations to yourself.

LILITH IN SCORPIO may let you be enticed by sexual attractions easily, wherebyyou subordinate yourself to a more powerful partner or in reverse, or it comes to amutually making the most of power. In this position the danger exists that you don'trecognize these powers at all, the own or those of the others. You have to deal withsetbacks, accidents and symbolic as well as real deaths, although there are usuallyopportunities to avoid it before any danger appears. You are maybe addicted todangers because you want to exceed borders. Possibly you had to make experienceswith death in the childhood, but can see the death as an inevitable part of the life dueto your large psychological regeneration ability now.

LILITH IN SAGITTARIUS surely confronts you with the temptations of education journeys. If there is something to learn somewhere, you are quickly at place and youwon't leave out a single opportunity to travel. Your contact to fellow beings is, due toyour knowledge and psychological understanding, rather missionary andmanipulative, but always with well-meaning intention. You are popular in a certainway because you try to apply diplomacy and fairness. At all your optimism and allthe generosity you spread out, it could come to the situation that other people takeadvantage of you, or that you misjudge fellow beings.

LILITH IN CAPRICORN lets you hardly resist to the temptations of fame, status and power. You could bring yourself into large difficulties, because you misjudge theactual naturenesses of these characteristics, or you don't want to admit them at all.Problems in partnerships are usually resulting therefore in this position. You couldtend to change your fellow beings and, in addition, to suppress their inner valuescompletely. You look for autonomy, but perhaps won't necessarily also grant it toothers.

LILITH IN AQUARIUS lets you misjudge your friends easily. Probably you havecompletely wrong conceptions of them or of what your friends think about you. You strive for autonomy with manipulative methods and psychological tricks, reject alltoo tight interpersonal relations and consider partnerships and relations rather asfriendships. You surely hardly tend to commit yourself, although you want to toexpress any certain inner urge. Your fairness, tolerance, global thinking and humanityare noticeable, and you may argue with degenerated art or queer music styles.Though your intuitivity is remarkable, you could tend to a nonperception of thementioned things.

LILITH IN PISCES can produce almost high-grade blurryness and impressingness.Perhaps you go voluntarily in dependence, also separatingnesses and an excessivesocial activity characterizes you. Possibly you repudiate yourself and don't recognizeyour internal needs or you don't want allow them to yourself. Fantasy, art sense andinspiration are very strong here. In addition, this position shows the danger tosuccumb to illusions and surrealities again and again. Possibly the whole life does notappear to you as real, but as virtual

[liberatingallselves]

Everyday life is the Path

Joshu asked Nansen: `What is the path?'

Nansen said: `Everyday life is the path.'

Joshu asked: `Can it be studied?'

Nansen said: `If you try to study, you will be far away from it.'

Joshu asked: `If I do not study, how can I know it is the path?'

Nansen said: `The path does not belong to the perception world, neither does it belong to the nonperception world. Cognition is a delusion and noncognition is senseless. If you want to reach the true path beyond doubt, place yourself in the same freedom as sky. You name it neither good nor not-good.'

At these words Joshu was enlightened.

 Mumon's Comment: Nansen could melt Joshu's frozen doubts at once when Joshu asked his questions. I doubt that Joshu reached the point that Nansen did. He needed thirty more years of study.

 In spring, hundreds of flowers; in autumn, a harvest moon; In the summer, a refreshing breeze; in winter snow will accompany you. If useless things do not hang in your mind, Any season is a good season for you.

 I find this koan to be a beautiful description of one’s true nature but wish here to focus on the koan’s use of the word study. Namely, the seeming contradiction of Nansen’s caution not to study the path and Mumon’s comment that Joshu needed to study thirty more years to reach Nansen’s point.

Anyone who studies koans should keep in mind that English translations may not do full justice to the meaning of a word or phrase originally written in the Japanese (or Chinese) language. In the case of this koan, ‘study’ has one meaning when used in the sentence, “If you try to study, you will be far away from it.” And another meaning when Mumon speaks of the need for thirty more years of study.

The first usage refers to intellectual study. Through intellectually study, a dichotomy or sense of separation is created, chiefly through the intellect’s dependence on language which is its main tool. Language uses a subject/object structure that by its very nature separates the subject, “I,” from the object, and any given object from all other objects. When everyday life is studied this way, separation is a natural by-product.

In his essay, “To Study the Self,” Shohaku Okumura translates the Japanese word study as “to get accustomed to,” “to become familiar with,” “to get used to,” or “to become intimate with.” He goes on to say that the Chinese character for study represents a baby bird watching its parents so that it may learn how to fly. In the koan the second usage of the word study refers to this kind of study. It is a watching that naturally turns to action, or non-action, without the intermediary of thought. It is intimate in the sense that there is no sense of separation between the Knower and the Known.

It may be concluded from the way study is used in the koan that there are two types of knowledge being presented. The first is relative knowledge, so-called because it is based upon the relationship of the subject to the object (and the relationship between objects). The second is absolute knowledge. In absolute knowledge there is no subject/object separation. Here, identity is found to be identical to the object.

The identity of the Subject with the Object is not a new idea. In his aphorisms, Patanjali referred to lower levels of samadhi as the mind achieving identity with its object of concentration. In higher levels of samadhi where there is no object of concentration identity is achieved with emptiness. In the koan, absolute knowledge is found where the path does not belong to the perception world, nor to the nonperception world. Where “Cognition is a delusion and noncognition is senseless.”

In his book, “Pathways Through to Space,” Franklin Merrell-Wolff called this type of knowledge “Knowledge through Identity.”

As Knowledge through Identity is not based in the subject/object field, language is not a reliable tool to transmit It. Language is of course used by the Mystic but often just to stir the transcendent knowledge that lies deep within his listeners. Jesus’ use of parables is one example of this kind of transmission.

Absolute knowledge is fully realized by a newly Awakened One yet when it comes to expressing it, he finds himself in the same position as a baby bird who wishes to fly. He must watch those who already know how to fly and through them learn how to express the higher knowledge through his own individual talents and abilities. He must learn how to express it in his everyday life.

Mumon suggests that it may take thirty more years of study for Joshu to reach the point Nansen did. I suspect Mumon was trying to remind us that if even the Awakened cannot perfectly express the absolute in relative terms that we should not take our understanding too seriously. Just let everyday life be your path. And don’t let useless things hang in your mind.

[intersectionedge-blog]

objectification and silence

Due to the acts of objectification I’ve resigned from many of my dreams. Ok, maybe not resigned, but I’ve hidden them, silenced which is a „step out” in the eyes of „social”,  and even not - stepping out in this case is nonperceptible, it’s just something which existed before (which existence becomes veiled, not-remembered) and now isn’t there. Many of these acts have never seemed gender-based, only the mechanism was confusingly similar. So, since I’ve discovered that I used to embrace sometimes the others’ objectification, reification of my own passions and interests, I’ve subsequently noticed that it was not the lack of my dedication or an internal „error” of what I’ve considered as such, but the act of object-making of some very intense and complex spheres of my life which were leading me to silence them and hide. Once I’ve taken the objectified perception of these from the others, a perception which is demeaning, they started to seem unattainable, cause that abstract notion of what I think and what I do had nothing to do with its complexity I’ve had felt so far. Anyway, the act of silencing in the face of objectification is one of the most spread aspects of gender inequality (or inequity), well studied within the feminist theory (but maybe not well analyzed). Right now I’m starting to think that if we really need to embrace elements of patriarchal common-sense, we should more trace not within this which is easily caught upon the gender-based structures of disapproval, depreciation, demeaningness and - inequality (or inequity). It wouldn’t be a real hegemony indeed if its particular focal points are so easy to notice. So, as many women along history have silenced their voices (as an act of presupposed agency in the face of depreciating social surrounding) or their voices have been silenced in the full variety of ways (just think about an example, or even an exemplum of suicider in Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak’s „Can subaltern speak?” essay). I've done the same many times, still underlining the mistake of such action and trying not to get hypnotized by the poetics of the agency of silence or martyrology of being silenced. Penelope, weaving and weaving, and weaving until her husband Odysseus won’t come back - her life being transformed into constant passive present after his departure, the life which can’t come into an active being, cannot reach the past, so also the future, which are the basic formats of having a sense of one’s own identity. Her life can „cling to life” only in the presence of the man who has made her his. Or, for example, the act of hiding one’s nominal and possible to situate identity in the aim of reaching  and expressing one’s identity in the sphere where accompanied by this proper nominal one it was impossible to enter - I am thinking here about many women writers and painters who were publishing under the masculine name. Many, many more examples well exposed today, but let’s come back to fragments of my own story. When we broke up with my boyfriend, my life came upon the passivity and I felt the lack of some part of myself which I used to believe I have had before we’ve met. And it’s anything I’ve decided, what’s more - even I didn’t want it since the very beginning of our relationship - I’ve been visualizing ourselves as two individuals making something together, and panicky opposed any supposed act of his bad treatment of me. Even though, the social rule was making its job above us. And I knew that he won’t experience the same sense of lack I did, which was making me even more depressed and understating my yet low sense of self-esteem. What my brain was suggesting me to do - and still is - was to cease my possible physical presence within spatial spheres in our city and among our friends which have both became common, and I know it will be a hard struggle not to do so. Cause it’s a mistake. But there were a few people, amongst which - my mum, who had advised me to „step out” „for my own own peace of mind” and self-realization without obstacles. And for the same very reasons, I won’t do this.   The small things I am trying to unveil and analyze through my own experiences lately, start to work for my image as „tilting at windmills” and this is another process of silencing ongoing. But I’m not scared of it, it’s just not worthy of a thrill. Because, once I talk about it to some other people, sometimes I hear „I’ve had a sensation like you’ve been writing about me” or „thank you, have nothing more to add”. These are not the only responses I get - I talk about my experiences to men, too, since many of them are my close friends. We even don’t imagine how many „obvious” experiences have been isolated thanks to support-based common-experiences-exchange within many women’s (family, friends) and also feminist circles. So many of them don’t even acknowledge possible man’s presence within. And yet there are so many men who really want to hear and share their opinion even if they’re not feminists. They are simply people who „want to understand”, „want to know more”. Until we won’t start speaking without a filtrating view, men will think that these experiences are only exceptions linked to particular-kind-of-men and doing so, they will never consider themselves as possible bearers of this heritage. And we are, we all are. We talk a lot about a sexist hate-speech, I’d suppose that we are not of the same grade familiar with discussing the approval-like sexist speech. And we make a mistake by our temptations to ban some kind of expressions. This language set is rooted within deeper mental structures. Focusing on the outer layer is undoubtedly important, but each time we notice that we should shift on what’s below. And some sadly experienced women, won’t gain anything by hating man, by finding a mental shelter saying that men are just oppressive, that men think with balls etc. - that way we only enact the same discursive patriarchal structure inside which it is placed a notion that women are just more quiet, and think with their hearts. It’s awful. As a woman, I bear the capacity of feeling well by creating in silence, by closing my thoughts in exclusive circles, by feeling even great working „from below” or „close-enough-to” without the aim to be in the center. Please do notice that I’m not saying about „doing so”, but about „feeling good within”, the same as I’m not assuming that this feeling isn’t also a part of some men’s lives.  And since I am a performer and I feel more comfortable by performing in the center these two feelings were always fighting with each other in some focal points in my past life until today, and for sure they will. So, turning back to what I have marked out in the title of this reflection, my dedication to dance world (in many different forms) has been strongly objectified by reducing the whole dense complexity of my feelings for dancing to simply „an ambition” which made me get hooked. By reducing it into an ambition I was gaining sometimes a subliminal message - „chill girl, don’t be so ambitious, so zealous, it’s   o n l y   your passion, or maybe even - a hobby”, a domesticated activity. „Only” is an illusive and an excellent tool of the objectification act. What has happened - I made myself quit dancing, but dancing didn’t quit me. I started to dance in darkness, in empty spaces, when there was nobody or everybody was asleep, like I didn’t want to get caught on this denuding act, which appeared almost like a tightlipped romance. And what’s more, I even found a beauty of incredible poetics which seemed to flourish from within that conspiration-like silence, strange but not an exceptional mixture of grief and pride! But I did get caught once, on my own wish. We were at my friend's house, having rest during the middle of winter. My two close friends were lying down on the couch. I turned on some music, and, accidentally, started to dance. After all, when I was lying down on the pavement still stunned of what has just happened when the last pulsations of a past event were resonating through my body, a friend of mine looked at me and said: „like... I don’t understand. Really.” and this „not-understanding” referred to the hung above question why this isn’t a part of my today’s living. It is, indeed, but a hidden part. I am still trying to trace why is it so easy sometimes to lose control while the objectification act is ongoing. Losing control means - to embrace it, even partially, but a partial embrace of passiveness always tends to totalization. This way, you leave the part of yourself behind and maybe this is what Sartre meant - „... it is not that I perceive myself losing my freedom in order to become a thing, but my nature is - over there, outside my lived freedom - as a given attribute of this being which I am for the Other”, while writing on voyeur’s shame. Only by living within lived freedom we are able to put our pieces together. It is never possible in its totality. But by acknowledging the impact of the shameful objectification, we are able to keep a compensation, which is never not fully embraced by the other’s notion what-like we are. Your space of experiencing, once objectified, becomes limited, call it a box (like today’s coaching „priests”), the square (like Beatniks), or whatever else you like. But an objectification’s goal is to close you inside an object, on the outside of which - there is only silence.

[journalgen]

Advances in Muggle Theory and Ichthyological Nonperception

[expfcultragreen]

When people who think they know me really well interpret me as being predominantly a top: 🙃 nonperception continues!

People who think im a top or that im someone who initiates without dialogue: "you think im ugly you fucking cunt i hate you"

....im defo not fucing u now holy shit

[samma-sambodhi]

ANUPUBBA-NIRODHA', The 9 Successive Extinctions". ... Are the 8 extinctions reached through the 8 absorptions (Jhana) and the extinction of feeling and perception. "In him who has entered the 1st absorption, the Sensuous Perceptions are extinguished. Having entered the 2nd absorption, Thought-conception and Discursive Thinking are extinguished. Having entered the 3rd absorption, Rapture is extinguished. Having entered the 4th absorption, In and Out breathing are extinguished. Having entered the Sphere of Boundless Space, the Corporeality-perceptions are extinguished. Having entered the Sphere of Boundless Consciousness, the perception of the Sphere of Boundless Space is extinguished. Having entered the Sphere of Nothingness, the perception of the Sphere of Boundless Consciousness is extinguished. Having entered the Sphere of Neither-perception-Nor-Nonperception, the perception of the Sphere of Nothingness is extinguished. Having entered the Extinction of Perception and Feeling, perception and feeling are extinguished". . . #Buddha #Buddhism #Dhamma #wisdom #Mindfulness #Spiritual #Enlightenment #meditation #vipassana #insight #tranquil #knowthyself #goodvibrations #positvevibes #empty #inneruniverse #prana #chi #lifeforce #yoga #yogalife #soul #Consciousness #awakening #illumination #om #namaste #mondaymotivation #blogger #infinity

[liberatingallselves]

Shikantaza

The last post introduced the image of a baby bird learning how to fly by watching its parents. The image symbolizes a watching that naturally turns to flight without the intermediary of thought. As such, it is a symbol of shikantaza, or ‘just sitting’ meditation.

When practicing shikantaza you don’t focus on anything in particular or try to make thoughts go away. You simply watch whatever arises in the present moment come and go, allowing everything to be just the way it is. Sights, sounds, smells are left to rise and fall away on their own accord. Thoughts are watched with no attempt to follow or suppress them. You take the pose of a baby bird who diligently watches its parents knowing that in doing so your true nature will spontaneously manifest.

The key to practicing shikantaza lays in allowing everything to be just the way it is. Watching is not a looking for something. It is an alert looking at things as they are without any mental commentary of good or not-good. Your aim is to abide with whatever unfolds without interference or resistance.

In the koan, “Everyday Life is the Path,” this watching is described as neither belonging to the perception world, nor the nonperception world. As neither cognition, nor noncognition. It is the practice of placing yourself “in the same freedom as sky.” It is non-thinking.

On the simplest level non-thinking is awareness of awareness.

Right now, where you are, you’re aware of most things around you, but it is only when you direct your attention to one of these that you become aware of being aware of it. For instance, when you turn your attention to your breath it doesn’t suddenly appear out of nowhere. You know you’ve been aware of your breathing before you turned to it. Keeping your attention on a thing is awareness of awareness-with-an-object. Taking a mental step back from the object by shifting your attention to the awareness itself is awareness of awareness-without-an-object. It is the baby bird watching its parents.

Though it may seem contradictory, awareness-without-an-object still contains objects of thought and the senses. In fact, it is because you are aware of objects that awareness-without-an-object is conceived as possible. And it is through watching that you begin to recognize the space in which these objects arise. This space is awareness- or consciousness-without-an-object.

Through continuous watching, thought falls away in what Zen Master Dogen called “dropping off body and mind.” What’s left is awareness-without-an-object or what the Buddhist calls emptiness. This dropping off happens naturally so there is no need to try and manufacture it. In fact, trying to make it happen only inhibits it’s natural arising, as in doing so your focus has returned to the objects of awareness and not the awareness, itself.

It naturally follows that when you practice letting everything just be as it is, that you include yourself in the equation. As much as possible you refrain from labeling yourself as good or not-good. You cease trying to fix yourself. Instead of trying to improve or change, you just watch yourself as you are. Everyday life is the best place to practice this because everyday life will always bring you back to where you’re stuck.

Life will always show you where you’ve boxed yourself in. Where you’re resisting. Where you turn away and close your heart. All things done out of a deep-seated fear of the vast and uncontrollable nature of life that leaves you feeling small and helpless, like a baby bird. But a baby bird does not think of success or failure. It does not see itself flying or falling out of the sky. It just watches its parents and in doing so its own innate ability to fly manifests itself. If you just watch your thoughts come and go in the present moment, practicing awareness of awareness, then your true nature will spontaneously appear, too.

I am reminded of a hike my brother and I took up Windy Joe in Manning Park. We had just come to a 180 degree turn when I spotted some baby quails sitting motionlessly beneath a bush. I called out to my brother but even though we were just a few feet away he could not see them. Again, and again I pointed directly at them until, suddenly, whatever was blocking him fell away and he saw the quails.

Enlightenment is like that. We sit with attention on the breath, a koan or in shikantaza. Watching. Letting things be just as they are. Then one day, a day in which we’ve done nothing different from all the days before, we see what has been before us all along. And we soar.