Attribution

Important note: All the posts on this blog were written by Bob Harwood (AKA 'zendancer') on the forum spiritualteachers.proboards.com. I have merely reposted a collection of them in blog format for the convenience of seekers. Some very small mods were made on occasion to make posts readable outside of the forum setting they were made in.

A sage's life

Realizing oneness and the imaginary nature of all distinctions does not eliminate intellectual capabilities nor the ability to function in the world. It does, however, dramatically change the body/mind's interaction with it and understanding of it. If I went to a doctor with a hurt arm, I would tell the doctor that I have a hurt arm. That is how THIS would manifest, and THIS is what I am. 

A sage interacts with the world in the same way as a small child--directly, but retains adult intellectual functionality without being dominated by it. Most adults live in their heads and are attached to various beliefs and ideas whereas little children and sages live in and through their bodies. A young child has not yet imaginatively differentiated itself from its surroundings, so it remains psychologically one-with THIS. It has not yet imagined what it sees, named what it sees, or imagined itself as an observing entity. A sage realizes that s/he IS THIS, and sees through the illusion of personhood. The realization that THIS, alone, IS, leads to enormous humor and also pathos--humor at the comedy of the human spectacle and the ridiculousness of one's previous ideas, and pathos at both the horror of the human spectacle and the vast solitariness of the Infinite undulating in its perfection. 

Any human who can look at the world in silence for seven days (or less) will be filled with tears. Why this happens cannot be explained in words. We can only say that when THIS sees THIS, unfiltered by thoughts, that is the somatic effect of the recognition. 

The sage lives life free of images, ideas, and symbols, but has the capability of employing them whenever necessary or useful.

As Adyashanti has said, "The job of a teacher is not to answer questions but to question answers." IOW the sage is pointing toward embodiment AS THIS by trying to disincentivize the attachment to all imaginary frames of reference.