Decorative Thinking Meets the Innate

All thought is the use of imagination. Even inspiration must use the field of imagination for its exercise, and much of what passes as inspiration is mere decorative thinking.

An extremely valuable venue of thought is to question the innate. Almost all of civilization's accouterments are decorations on the foundation of what is innate in the human animal. And this to the degree that the innate is buried under an avalanche of inspired products of the imagination. An excellent example of this is the automobile. Probably brought to perfection in the mid twentieth century, what is innate in the automobile has become larded with culturally inspired imaginings. What is innate in the automobile is taken for granted and is all but invisible under its weight of accouterments. Just so with civilization in general, as the accouterments come to dominate the innate the innate becomes increasingly encumbered and inaccessible, while at the same time omnipresent.

So I suggest that a valuable use of the imagination is to question the relationship of the innate to the decorative in humanity, in culture, and in ones Self.

Well, today marks 20 years of jotting down these notes from my Self. I had crossed over many years before and attempted in various ways to describe the view to those who seemed that a little nudge might be of some help. Of course my own very real limitations are in evidence, and there are aspects of the view which comes with the awakening of Pristine Awareness that can be damaging if held before a mind yet under the hypnosis of consciousness. 

Humanity at large is very much in an animal stage of disposition. Every advance in understanding the natural world is weaponized. Our entertainments are that of sex and violence. It is quite clever to sort out the workings of the nuclear bonds which hold the atom together, but using that knowledge to build tools of previously unimaginable destruction could hardly be considered wise, and even the medical sciences are weaponized by industrial finance. Clever but not wise, the brightest of these animals are among the most dangerous.

Oddly enough all of this is blameless. None of this is anything that an aware creature would pick out of a catalog. And when some creature shows you its natural leanings, permit yourself the discomfort of becoming informed.

Be all of this as it may, humanity is also the larva stage of a new kind of creature on the face of the Earth.

Precocious Predecessors

It is difficult to speak of these things without sounding pejorative though that is most certainly not the case. All life participates in the pressing of life to Self awareness. Animal existence has been very effective in the refinement of vehicles, and in humanity we have a sufficiently evolved vehicle to finally engage in the paradigm shift from the simple animal to awakened Pristine Awareness. I have described this as "the child of the Earth becomes the child of the Universe"

This paradigm shift was undergone by our precocious predecessors, and they sought to build a path to the transformation which they had experienced. Our Zen forefathers were not the only ones to undergo this transformation, and not the only ones to attempt to build an opening which could stand the erosive winds of time as the animal mind transforms technologies of being into belief systems.

It's not their fault. Of course it is so. The animal mind seeks to make sense of what is beyond its comprehension, and builds a box of rationalizations in which to keep it. It is not an exaggeration to refer to Enlightenment as a paradigm shift, and those who undergo this transformation have genuinely become a different kind of creature. 

Looking around it seems to me that Zen has been more resistant to adulteration than most other systems because of the uncompromising insistence of our precocious predecessors on nothing less than the awakening and entering into the formal identity of Pristine Awareness.

When I consider their work and their yet living achievements I am filled with boundless gratitude.

What Sets Zen Apart

Most systems past and present, are built around modeling behavior apon the iconic representation of an idealized figure: a Chuang Tzu, or the Christ, or whomever. These behavior modification regimens produce a psychological topiary which can be a very satisfactory simulacrum of the iconic goal and produce a fine figure of a human being. 

What sets Zen apart is that Zen is not about behavior modification. Zen uses behavior to build the key which will unlock the door and awaken Pristine Awareness from its intoxication with consciousness.

Zen is about a metamorphosis: a metanoia. 2,500 years ago the pre-Zen Taoist Chuang Tzu spoke of this as "those who have left their humanity behind"

As a butterfly leaves behind the chrysalis.