...regarding conceptual thought, in two ways. The first is summed up well by Huang Po (Obaku). Here are some examples:
"Ordinary people all indulge in conceptual thought based on environmental phenomena, hence they feel desire and hatred. To eliminate environmental phenomena, just put an end to your conceptual thinking. When this ceases, environmental phenomena are void; and when these are void, thought ceases. But if you try to eliminate environment without first putting a stop to conceptual thought, you will not succedd, but merely increase its power to disturb you."
"If you would spend all of your time---walking, standing, sitting, or lying down---learning to halt the concept-forming activities of your own mind, you could be sure of ultimately attaining the goal."
We might call this a "via negativa" approach, and most people have no idea how to implement such an approach. The reason I emphasize ATA (rather than ridding oneself of conceptual thought) is because ATA requires psychological presence. It focuses attention upon "what is," and ignores mind completely. With this approach the emphasis is upon Being rather than any effort to ignore thought. The ignoring of thought occurs as a consequence of attentiveness; it is not the primary goal (which is what it might seem from reading Huang Po and others).
As I mentioned earlier, my sister enjoys what she calls "bobber therapy." She and her husband on on fishing trips to an isolated area where they fish from sunup til sundown. She sits in her canoe and silently watches (attends) her fishing line float. She doesn't think about this activity in non-dual terms, but what she is doing is ATA. She is watching "what is" rather than thinking about it. She finds this extremely relaxing, integrative, healing, peaceful, etc., and she comes away from her periods of focused attention highly contented and in a different frame of mind than usual.
Bird watchers and hunters do the same thing, but, like my sister, they don't usually realize how those activities differ from their usual way of interacting with the world. The Zen student sitting on her cushion following the breath is doing the same thing.
What all of these people are doing is the same thing that little children do UNconsciously; they are interacting with Reality directly and non-conceptually and they therefore become one-with it, psychologically.
If someone understands the importance of this kind of direct interaction with the world, and focuses attention upon "what is" for a sustained period of time, thought-created illusions will automatically unwind. Nothing else needs to be done. What ATA is doing is what you call "seeing what in the blazes is going on." In the process of remaining psychologically and non-conceptually present, everything known falls away, and one ends up in the Void, as the Void, in an incomprehensible state of pure being. As Huang Po puts it:
"Our original nature is, in highest truth, devoid of any atom of objectivity. It is void, omnipresent, silent, pure; it is glorious and mysterious peaceful joy--and that is all. Enter deeply into it by awaking to it yourself. That which is before you is it, in all its fullness, utterly complete. Even if you progress, step by step, when you attain realization, you will only be realizing what has been with you all along, and you will have added nothing to it. You will come to look upon all your past efforts as no better than unreal actions performed in a dream."
IOW, ATA has nothing to do with "positive thinking"-like mind approaches (which do nothing to dispel thought-created illusions). If anything, such mind approaches usually add another layer of thought on top of already-existing layers ("Hey, I've been doing positive thinking, and it has greatly-improved my life!" ha ha).
If my sister returned home after one of her fishing vacations, and continued attending all of the various activities of her life (washing dishes, dining with friends, walking in the park, etc) in the same way that she attends the bobber on her fishing line, time, space, and selfhood would ultimately disappear, and she would find that she already lives in the kingdom of God (which her religious beliefs currently postulate as something that is only experienced after death of the body).
"Ordinary people all indulge in conceptual thought based on environmental phenomena, hence they feel desire and hatred. To eliminate environmental phenomena, just put an end to your conceptual thinking. When this ceases, environmental phenomena are void; and when these are void, thought ceases. But if you try to eliminate environment without first putting a stop to conceptual thought, you will not succedd, but merely increase its power to disturb you."
"If you would spend all of your time---walking, standing, sitting, or lying down---learning to halt the concept-forming activities of your own mind, you could be sure of ultimately attaining the goal."
We might call this a "via negativa" approach, and most people have no idea how to implement such an approach. The reason I emphasize ATA (rather than ridding oneself of conceptual thought) is because ATA requires psychological presence. It focuses attention upon "what is," and ignores mind completely. With this approach the emphasis is upon Being rather than any effort to ignore thought. The ignoring of thought occurs as a consequence of attentiveness; it is not the primary goal (which is what it might seem from reading Huang Po and others).
As I mentioned earlier, my sister enjoys what she calls "bobber therapy." She and her husband on on fishing trips to an isolated area where they fish from sunup til sundown. She sits in her canoe and silently watches (attends) her fishing line float. She doesn't think about this activity in non-dual terms, but what she is doing is ATA. She is watching "what is" rather than thinking about it. She finds this extremely relaxing, integrative, healing, peaceful, etc., and she comes away from her periods of focused attention highly contented and in a different frame of mind than usual.
Bird watchers and hunters do the same thing, but, like my sister, they don't usually realize how those activities differ from their usual way of interacting with the world. The Zen student sitting on her cushion following the breath is doing the same thing.
What all of these people are doing is the same thing that little children do UNconsciously; they are interacting with Reality directly and non-conceptually and they therefore become one-with it, psychologically.
If someone understands the importance of this kind of direct interaction with the world, and focuses attention upon "what is" for a sustained period of time, thought-created illusions will automatically unwind. Nothing else needs to be done. What ATA is doing is what you call "seeing what in the blazes is going on." In the process of remaining psychologically and non-conceptually present, everything known falls away, and one ends up in the Void, as the Void, in an incomprehensible state of pure being. As Huang Po puts it:
"Our original nature is, in highest truth, devoid of any atom of objectivity. It is void, omnipresent, silent, pure; it is glorious and mysterious peaceful joy--and that is all. Enter deeply into it by awaking to it yourself. That which is before you is it, in all its fullness, utterly complete. Even if you progress, step by step, when you attain realization, you will only be realizing what has been with you all along, and you will have added nothing to it. You will come to look upon all your past efforts as no better than unreal actions performed in a dream."
IOW, ATA has nothing to do with "positive thinking"-like mind approaches (which do nothing to dispel thought-created illusions). If anything, such mind approaches usually add another layer of thought on top of already-existing layers ("Hey, I've been doing positive thinking, and it has greatly-improved my life!" ha ha).
If my sister returned home after one of her fishing vacations, and continued attending all of the various activities of her life (washing dishes, dining with friends, walking in the park, etc) in the same way that she attends the bobber on her fishing line, time, space, and selfhood would ultimately disappear, and she would find that she already lives in the kingdom of God (which her religious beliefs currently postulate as something that is only experienced after death of the body).
