The checking ceases when the checker vanishes--when it is realized what actually has been doing the checking.
Attention eventually shifts away from thoughts, from efforts to direct the mind, and from checking until all purposeful self-directed activity is seen through. The split mind (which was never split) thereby discovers its inherent unity, and the body/mind then operates without the obscuration and motivation of selfhood.
Supposedly the line in the Diamond Sutra that woke up Hui Neng was "Without hindrance let the mind function freely."
We meditate, ATA, seek to stay present, focus on mindfulness, etc, in an effort to get something (happiness, freedom from fear, freedom from suffering, enlightenment, etc), and in doing so our focus gradually shifts from thoughts to THIS. Sooner or later THIS sees that THIS is the only actor involved in the play, and the imaginary "person with a purpose" falls away. THIS then has a good laugh, and does the next thing that has to be done. The mind is then free to do whatever it will, which, ironically, is what it was doing all along. Whether it thinks or doesn't think no longer matters because the illusory nature of the imaginary thinker has been exposed. ;D
Attention eventually shifts away from thoughts, from efforts to direct the mind, and from checking until all purposeful self-directed activity is seen through. The split mind (which was never split) thereby discovers its inherent unity, and the body/mind then operates without the obscuration and motivation of selfhood.
Supposedly the line in the Diamond Sutra that woke up Hui Neng was "Without hindrance let the mind function freely."
We meditate, ATA, seek to stay present, focus on mindfulness, etc, in an effort to get something (happiness, freedom from fear, freedom from suffering, enlightenment, etc), and in doing so our focus gradually shifts from thoughts to THIS. Sooner or later THIS sees that THIS is the only actor involved in the play, and the imaginary "person with a purpose" falls away. THIS then has a good laugh, and does the next thing that has to be done. The mind is then free to do whatever it will, which, ironically, is what it was doing all along. Whether it thinks or doesn't think no longer matters because the illusory nature of the imaginary thinker has been exposed. ;D
