Awareness vis-a-vis Conscousness

From the way the word "consciousness" is thrown around it is obvious that the users are unfamiliar with Awareness in its purest form.

It is possible in meditation to achieve a state that is wholly Aware and yet not properly "conscious" as the word is generally used. In point of fact to bring consciousness into this state instantly catalyzes Awareness into "Mind": Awareness transmuted into consciousness.

Any habitué of the state of pure Awareness will recognize Awareness as the touchstone of all life from parameciums to elephants. And those unfamiliar with this aspect of themselves are well served to never cease in their efforts at self discovery.


Many are called.
Few are chosen.




Meditate

The Method

There are many established techniques regarding meditation. One size does not fit all and some are more suited to a particular mind set than another. Any system using the breath is a good place for a beginner to start, but once one's practice is established I recommend "The Contemplation of Awareness".

The "Contemplation of Awareness" is the very essence of simplicity. One simply turns one's consciousness to the contemplation of Awareness. Awareness is simply aware, and since thought is a crystallization of consciousness it is immediately noted as a disruption in-and-of the field of pure Awareness and is permitted to dissolve back into the matrix of the undefined. The fruition of this technique is a remarkable lucidity: wholly aware, wholly sensitive, wholly at one.


The establishment of pure Awareness within one's self is not an end.


It is a beginning.







November 30


Geese today

Thousands of them
Half seen gray ghosts
Coursing that gray mist above



In flight so low the roar of their wings was a song

An Exercise in Problem Solving

Every creaturely form is no more than a support system for Transcendental Awareness. This Awareness is intricately entangled in the instinctual mental and physical behaviors that have made its existence inevitable.

The Awareness exists in something of a trance, wholly identified with its archaic form; but in creatures with sufficient cranial acumen there exists an outside chance for an event that is as if the clay in a figurine were to awaken.

All of the problems facing humanity, large and small, are the direct result of the writhing of confused animals. And all of the problems facing humanity, large and small, are fairly simply solved by the unhurried application of an Awareness that is not in thrall to its archaic superstructure.

The clumsy efforts of humanity to sort out the mess it has made will never be adequate to the magnitude of the mischief the creature is capable of. Enlightened Awareness is capable of causing these problems to evaporate like rain on a sunlit sidewalk.


But that's not going to happen


Is it.

Deciding How to Be

Almost without exception no-one decides how to be. We are born into a "culture" and we are expected to play our part. There is nothing sacred about "culture". The sacred is both beyond and beneath culture. The sacred is the inexpressible truth of existence in its most infinitesimal reality.

No idea is adequate to fact of existence, and anyone pasting an idea on existence is either misguided or a charlatan or both.

Zen makes no excuses for existence.
Zen encourages the cultivation of intelligence without resorting to stereotypes.
Zen transcends even Buddhism its self.


If we could "decide" how to be, would we make of ourselves a Mahatma Gandhi or a Jessie James or something in between.

We will never know because are unable to transcend culture and are trapped within our limited minds.




Zen transcends culture.





Meditate

Another Favorite from the Analects

Enlightenment tends to be seen as something distant and obscure: something hidden within the matrix of the ordinary that is unapproachable and occult. Well, here is one of my personal favorites from the analects.

the monk .  .  .

"Master, I beg of you to instruct me in Zen"

the master .  .  .

"Have you eaten?"

the monk .  .  .

"yes"

the master .  .  .

"Then wash your bowl"

It is said that this exchange induced Enlightenment.

The Twirling of the Flower

The story goes that one day the Buddha sat silently twirling a flower between thumb and forefinger. One of his followers smiled at this, and the Buddha handed him the flower saying something like "With this flower I transmit to you the high truth".

Zen claims a direct transmission outside the sutras. This transmission is that of Enlightenment. Buddhism is to Enlightenment as a lantern is to a candle. The lantern protects the candle from vagaries of environment that the light be not extinguished. In Zen we find the candle ignited by the spark that was the historical Buddha becoming a self sustaining flame. Technologies of being evolving through centuries resulted in what is known as Zen, and now Zen has evolved to free its self from its religious cocoon and light the fire of Enlightenment in modern minds. The advancements of secular knowledge have created a rich nest of kindling that the right touch of meditation will bring to incandescence.

The What that is the Who is pure Awareness.


Meditate.

A Garden of Earthly Delights

A delightful experience awaits the diligent meditator. As awareness slowly (or quickly) gains primacy over consciousness the curtain of ignorance that protects the ego from its earthy roots is parted and the latent content of the unconscious mind is revealed in all its glory.

Almost all that we say "I" to is the result of an impersonal urge calling its self by our name.

The body is the magic carpet, and the mind is the wish fulfilling gem only if awareness makes it so.


A serious sense of humor is advised.




Destination . . .

cuffed in a smelly cab

and a lunatic behind the wheel

Magical Thinking

Magical thinking has been around since thought first established its foothold in the human mind. Monastic traditions fall on both sides of the issue: some recommending magical thinking and some vigorously enjoining against it. We find in early Christian monastic disciplines a warning to avoid the temptation of "beauty". Perhaps a better word in modern parlance would be "glamour". This "beauty", this "glamour" includes visions, voices, representations of the unknowable: all of those intoxicating elements that might imply a subtile aggrandizement of our spiritual existence.

However, things are the way they have always been. There is nothing new or magical in magical thinking. Magical thinking creates a fertile field for the exploitation of mind by chaos, anarchy, and frivolous self absorption. There is no particular reason to go there.

Existence is just as it is and always has been. The intoxication of mind with "glamour" is a distraction that traps the individual in an historic pattern that is antithetical to the evolution of awareness.

Meditate.

The Moment of Now

In the lexicon of physics "moment" is the measure of movement considering the kinetic inevitabilities of circumstance. There is no existence devoid of moment. Every wave form, every photon, every thing that exists, IS its requisite moment. Its existence is its moment, and its moment is not a snapshot in some imaginary sequential stop-action slices of "Time": its existence is the non-temporal seethe of momentum that is everywhere the fabric of existence.

The latent content of the unconscious mind is momentum. Every living creature's existence is charged with the inertia that forged the path to its individuated life. The momentum of millennia is accepted without consideration as personal prerogative.

It is all very nice to consider meditation as a form of "mindfulness", but that is rather like using a blowtorch to light a candle.

A Lion's Mind

Should a lion's mind achieve the lucidity ascribed to the ancient masters of Zen

it would still be a lion.

Truth

Truth does not come from without.

All ideas are imaginary.

Meditate.

The obvious will become apparent.

Attitudes, Opinions: Observations

Just as water must be clear and calm if one is to see the gravel of the stream bed, the mind must be clear and calm before one can see one's motives. Attitudes and opinions like turgid water make clarity impossible.

It has been said "There is no in sight: there is only out sight." Our powers of observation are our only source of information, and we intuit such meaning as pattern recognition permits. If our mind is colored and roiled by attitudes and opinions the "out sight" that determines the effectiveness of observation will be correspondingly truncated, and our powers of intuition will labor under half-truths and supposition. Bitter and sweet are properties independent of our opinions.

Meditation clarifies and stills the mind. Even the finest dust of predisposition can be recognized and swept from the doors of perception. Observation is then aware, and intuition achieves clairvoyance.

The waves are the water.

Mindfulness, Zen, and Artifacts of Consciousness

The practice of mindfulness is a spin-off of ancient religious practices that are intended to give one access to the many benefits of a silent mind. The techniques engaged to bring about this silent mind could be considered artifacts of consciousness.

Zen finds its starting point in a silent mind, and its denouement is Enlightenment. Zen also has its requisite artifacts of consciousness.

The terms Emptiness and Suchness are introduced conceptually in order to prepare the unenlightened mind for the view that emerges with the dropping of the veil. In point of fact Emptiness and Suchness are simple observed facts of existence. Since only the enlightened are privy to this category of perception there is great value in forming these perceptions into concepts: artifacts of consciousness. An intellectual familiarity with a place one has never been will be an aid to settling in should one arrive.

The movement toward mindfulness is an encouraging development in contemporary society, and it makes possible the further evolution into the realm of Zen. Enlightenment is the birthright of Life, and the artifacts of consciousness conducive to Enlightenment are there in Zen.

Agressive Ignorance

Most everyone wants the same simple thing: a peaceful decent life for themselves and their loved ones. Societal complexities have repeatedly made this impossible.

Society is a reflection of the human mind. We are aggressive, acquisitive, and we are not very wise. We are clever, yes; but wise? No.

The cloud of fear under which humanity exists is the product of aggressive ignorance. We are aware of much of which we are not conscious. There exists a pre-conscious dissonance which will not permit a spontaneous sense of well-being, and which tangles the opacity of consciousness in a web of unease. This unease may express its self in politics, in religion, and in some variety of cultural rebellion; but its source is the same: awareness has subordinated its self to consciousness and sacrificed its acuity to a kind of clouded narcissism.  We are a creature with a mind just barely emerging from the darkness of animal existence.

But we are very clever.

Meditate.

What is Buddhism

What is Buddhism.


Buddhism is many things to many people.

Ideas entangle reality on every imaginable level.

When that guy sat down: never to rise again unless he "got it".....
the thing that he "got" was not something new.

The thing that he got is available to any sentient being anywhere in the universe.

Buddha Nature

Buddha Nature is not a human phenomenon.

Buddha Nature is the essence of existence.

When Buddha Nature awakens in a sentient being that being is compelled to paste a word on it.

Rightly so.

The magic of word is a mystical transfer of truth.

Every Living Creature

The life in every living creature has been alive since the first replicating molecule. The mosquitoes, the flies, the tigers and the elephants: all exist in the same evolutionary time frame. No creature is more evolved or older than another. The earthworm in a garden is as evolved and as modern as we imagine humanity to be.

And when we swat a fly we end an unbroken flow of life that goes back to the dawn of time.

The Acknowledgment of Life: Zen

One of the things remarkable about existence is that life exists. There is no explanation of life. There is some reason that atoms stacked properly should result in what we recognize as life: and we don't know what it is.

This is what Zen is all about.

From the Analects of Zen

From the analects of ancient Zen we have an account of a master passing an adept in the hall.


 (loosely paraphrasing)

The master...
"From your countenance I see that you have found the treasure"

The adept...
"But my happiness is that of one who found a precious gem beneath a pile of shit"


It took hundreds of millions of years to produce a stack of atoms capable of waking up. Because of the parallel explorations of secular science, we no longer have to describe the creature thus made inevitable as shit.

With regard to our humanity
be gentle.




Enigmatic Humor


Two monks passed in the hall


One said to the other
"what's new?"



Both laughed uproariously

Negativity's Falcon

The mind is a matrix saturated with potential. The self-same matrix can arrange its character into an inconceivable array of emotional nuance in the same manner as a cloud. Now it's a dragon. Now it's a lamb. But the nature of the cloud remains the un-configured vapour from which figure is contrived. That vapour is Awareness.

Anyone beginning to become truly aware will find great value in taking notice of negative emotional states. As the practice of meditation enters into our normal waking existence we develop the ability to be aware in the moment of cloud formation inside the mind. It is always some perceived symbolic arrangement of reality that triggers such states, and this instinctual response is one that is coeval with the existence of the dinosaurs. These un-willed prods to behavior have great value in a pure Darwinian world, but they are right up there with vestigial tails when it comes to wagging the primordial dog. When the perceived shape of reality provides a catalyst the shape in the mist assumes its requisite form. If Awareness is the seat of identity this does not, and can not, go un-noticed. One can just say know.

Becoming aware of, and declining the formation of, archetype driven emotional states is the signature characteristic of a real evolution of being. It is as different from successful repression as life is from death. This is how Awareness becomes the falconer of mind.

The reason negative states are of particular value is that they are unpleasant and therefore easier to focus upon.


The difficulty of pleasant states is a subject for another post.

Not To Go On About Sociopaths

Not to go on about sociopaths but .....who are these people?  Is all this murder and mayhem really necessary? Is it inconceivable that humanity at large could just get over it? Do we really think that people hate us because we mind our own business?

Any one who is exhaustively informed on the subject of ideas will be impressed with how completely unnecessary it is for an idea to to account for it's self for it to be taken seriously.

Good luck

The ideas that stem from the Universe awakening to it's self are not ideas at all....they are observations.

Yet they must reinvent themselves as ideas
if Idea is to make a better world.

Nothing Superficial About Surface

So much has been variously professed about the ultimate nature of Reality that another descriptive episode seems simply more tears in the rain. That said...here we go.

Existence is seamless. The coming into being of moments of Awareness result in an individual consciousness. Individual consciousness engenders perception. Perception engenders surface.

Consciousness is the surface of Awareness, and however richly decorated the observations of consciousness may be they remain superficial. Awareness is simply aware.

The high purpose of meditation is the awakening of Awareness.

As to the view that emerges to an awakened Awareness,
I suggest you reveal this to your Self.

Sensing Innocence

Life is known only through sensing. Seeing and hearing are ways of touching. Autonomous faculties of creature-hood are clearly aspects of sensing. But what about thought?

It is only by the practice of meditation that we achieve the silence of mind which makes inevitable an awareness that thought is sensing. In somewhat the same manner as an adept juggles chainsaws, the mind produces thought to consciousness. The pre-conscious awarenesses that become thought are those which are pushed to the front of the line by instinct and habit. They become sensed, and enter the realm of consciousness. If thought were not sensed into being there would be no thought. Thought is a self generated sensation.

If we abide in that Awareness which is the precursor of consciousness our sensing becomes pre-lingual, and our thought flows like a sylvan stream. It is inevitable that watersheds be harnessed for millponds and turbines, and it is inevitable that in the sensing which is thought, consciousness come to dominate awareness. It is a matter of utility.

It is meditation that quickens the native state of Awareness to consciousness, refreshing our senses and awakening innocence in our thought. And it is quite remarkable the expanse of our awareness when sensing is master of consciousness.

Our Humanity and Our Birth: live it up

When I look back on these posts I see that many might seem hostile to human nature. If it seems so it is time to correct the record.

Would a flower defame the soil that made it's existence inevitable?

Is any savor lost in understanding the mechanics of neural transmission?

Enlightenment does not result from successful resistance to nature. Enlightenment is nature awakening to its Self.

Enlightenment is the fruition of the birth of the universe.

And some celebration is in order.
so...
Live it up.
(in an enlightened sort of way of course)

The Inestimable Value of Emptiness

Every animal has needs. The emotionally charged behaviors that accompany these needs predate self awareness and intellect, and usually pass as willed self-directed actions. For an intellect dominated by the shadows of animal needs the mind becomes a torture chamber and a trophy room.

A mind filled with cherished forms can not perceive the shape of the actual, for in such a mind the actual must be deformed if it is not to displace the ornaments of our inner life. This is what Lin-chi (died 866) was getting at with his "If you meet the Buddha slay him".

In meditation we cultivate the spacious realm of Emptiness. An awakened emptiness is the requisite state for any apprehension of the real.

There is no other.

Meditation and Narrative (what if)

All but without exception communities embracing meditation will expound a narrative. Suppose the narratives evaporated in the heat of idological ferment and all that was left was meditation.

What if meditation was the key and the decorations a distraction.

What if.

Real Politic

Real is that which is immediate.

All over the world millions of creatures are enduring lives of empoverisment. The toll exacted upon life by modernity is not merely wreaked upon the disenfranchised of humanity, but is ten-fold visited upon those creatures that are of no apparent value to the masters of world mercantile.

In an odd kind of way this is not an individual flaw. We now have ways of looking into the brain that explain mechanicaly much of what has long been thought of as being mere psychology.

Sociopaths can be now be identified by early childhood screening and recognized as special needs children. Recognizing the vulnerabilities of these individuals would perhaps "perhaps" mitigate their inherent parasitism, and having been diagnosed as genetic sociopath perhaps it might be agreed that these indiviuals should never hold positions of authority of any kind.