Tuesday, July 17, 2007
Several thoughts have come to mind today, but not all at once. Which accounts for all these posts today. So be it.
Start at the bottom: You're doing something and you're not consciously aware of it. That's the real you. Next, if you become aware that you're doing it, your mind enters the picture and that's a level away from reality in awareness. If you then think about what you're doing, that's yet another level away. Those levels are discussed in writings on meditation.
Now consider this: You're watching someone on TV that is thinking about—and describing to you—what they're doing, but you're watching and don't really realize that you've latched onto some show. Then you realize it—tick, another level away. Now you're thinking about wasting your life away in front of the TV! Tick, you're now five levels away—at least—from true reality.
Thinking is something we do, not what we are. To get down to what we really are, we have to get our thinking minds out of the way. Zen strives to take us back down to that bottom level, to our natural selves, by doing just that.
Start at the bottom: You're doing something and you're not consciously aware of it. That's the real you. Next, if you become aware that you're doing it, your mind enters the picture and that's a level away from reality in awareness. If you then think about what you're doing, that's yet another level away. Those levels are discussed in writings on meditation.
Now consider this: You're watching someone on TV that is thinking about—and describing to you—what they're doing, but you're watching and don't really realize that you've latched onto some show. Then you realize it—tick, another level away. Now you're thinking about wasting your life away in front of the TV! Tick, you're now five levels away—at least—from true reality.
Thinking is something we do, not what we are. To get down to what we really are, we have to get our thinking minds out of the way. Zen strives to take us back down to that bottom level, to our natural selves, by doing just that.
# posted by goldpython @ 4:12 PM 
