... (except in the few cases where abstraction is useful and necessary). If the mind stops spinning with intellectual nonsense, things become simple and obvious.
The spiritual path is challenging because it can rev up the mind until it is spinning faster than usual. If attention is shifted away from thoughts to what can be seen or heard, or to inquiry, the mind loses its grip, so to speak. Silence engenders realizations that sequentially collapse thought structures until the truth becomes laughingly obvious.
If someone were to ask me, "What is the meaning of YOUR life?" I would answer, "Typing this note."
If someone were to ask me, "What is the meaning of HUMAN life?" I would answer, "Typing this note."
If someone were to ask me, "What is the meaning of UNIVERSAL life?" I would answer, "Typing this note."
If someone were to ask me, "What is the meaning OF THE MEANING of life?" I would answer, "Typing this note."
Notice the different forms of abstraction in each of these questions. Zen calls these kinds of subtle abstractions "thought-hooks," and most koans contain them. The challenge is to remain calmly present, refuse the intellectual bait, and respond directly to the truth of "what is."
Consider the koan, "If you meet a deeply enlightened woman on the path, how can you greet her with neither words nor silence?"
There are two thought hooks in this koan. The first is "deeply enlightened woman." Each of these three words is designed to hook the mind and send it running off on a wild goose chase. Oh wow, a woman, and a deeply enlightened one at that. How rare! How could such a rare and unusual person be greeted correctly?
The second mind hook is the double bind "with neither words nor silence." Gosh, what other choices are there? Ha ha.
If we look through the words and don't let the abstractions paralyze us, we silently wave, or bow, or pantomine a hug, or blow a kiss, or pantomine shaking hands, or say "Hello."
A great number of posts on this forum hook the mind and start it spinning, but what is most important? Staying stuck in the mind and spinning, or getting clear? How is clarity attained? By shifting attention away from thoughts to THIS. In this moment what can be seen, heard, felt, tasted, smelled, or sensed? What can be attended beyond any comment, distinction, evaluation, judgment, cognition, fantasy, reflection, assumption, imagining, .....ad infinitum?
The Buddha once taught a parable on this subject. He said its like a man who gets shot with an arrow. The man begins asking where the arrow came from, who shot it, how it was made, etc. The Buddha asked his disciples, "What is more important, knowing a hundred things about the arrow or pulling it out?"
Each person who comes to this forum would do well to keep this parable in mind. Knowing brings one no closer to the truth (no pun intended). Ideas, definitions, and intellectual understanding are useless here. Any thought of self, or thought of self-centered desire, or thought of self-progress, or thought of self attainment, or thought of self lack, or thought of resistance, or thought of acceptance, or thought of allowance, reinforces the idea that there is an entity "in here" separate from what is "out there." No such entity exists.
To find the truth open-eyed not-knowing is the way.
The spiritual path is challenging because it can rev up the mind until it is spinning faster than usual. If attention is shifted away from thoughts to what can be seen or heard, or to inquiry, the mind loses its grip, so to speak. Silence engenders realizations that sequentially collapse thought structures until the truth becomes laughingly obvious.
If someone were to ask me, "What is the meaning of YOUR life?" I would answer, "Typing this note."
If someone were to ask me, "What is the meaning of HUMAN life?" I would answer, "Typing this note."
If someone were to ask me, "What is the meaning of UNIVERSAL life?" I would answer, "Typing this note."
If someone were to ask me, "What is the meaning OF THE MEANING of life?" I would answer, "Typing this note."
Notice the different forms of abstraction in each of these questions. Zen calls these kinds of subtle abstractions "thought-hooks," and most koans contain them. The challenge is to remain calmly present, refuse the intellectual bait, and respond directly to the truth of "what is."
Consider the koan, "If you meet a deeply enlightened woman on the path, how can you greet her with neither words nor silence?"
There are two thought hooks in this koan. The first is "deeply enlightened woman." Each of these three words is designed to hook the mind and send it running off on a wild goose chase. Oh wow, a woman, and a deeply enlightened one at that. How rare! How could such a rare and unusual person be greeted correctly?
The second mind hook is the double bind "with neither words nor silence." Gosh, what other choices are there? Ha ha.
If we look through the words and don't let the abstractions paralyze us, we silently wave, or bow, or pantomine a hug, or blow a kiss, or pantomine shaking hands, or say "Hello."
A great number of posts on this forum hook the mind and start it spinning, but what is most important? Staying stuck in the mind and spinning, or getting clear? How is clarity attained? By shifting attention away from thoughts to THIS. In this moment what can be seen, heard, felt, tasted, smelled, or sensed? What can be attended beyond any comment, distinction, evaluation, judgment, cognition, fantasy, reflection, assumption, imagining, .....ad infinitum?
The Buddha once taught a parable on this subject. He said its like a man who gets shot with an arrow. The man begins asking where the arrow came from, who shot it, how it was made, etc. The Buddha asked his disciples, "What is more important, knowing a hundred things about the arrow or pulling it out?"
Each person who comes to this forum would do well to keep this parable in mind. Knowing brings one no closer to the truth (no pun intended). Ideas, definitions, and intellectual understanding are useless here. Any thought of self, or thought of self-centered desire, or thought of self-progress, or thought of self attainment, or thought of self lack, or thought of resistance, or thought of acceptance, or thought of allowance, reinforces the idea that there is an entity "in here" separate from what is "out there." No such entity exists.
To find the truth open-eyed not-knowing is the way.
