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It is not that we do not exist, but that we don't exist in the way that we think we do.
There is existence but not any "you" separated from it.
And you exist only in the way that you know you exist.
Most people don't actually know that they exist.
They only think they exist. It is a thinking thing; a concept. And this is what causes the sense of separation.
With thinking, there are many; with knowing, there is one.
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SelfHealedMadman wrote:~
It is not that we do not exist, but that we don't exist in the way that we think we do.
There is existence but not any "you" separated from it.
And you exist only in the way that you know you exist.
Most people don't actually know that they exist.
They only think they exist. It is a thinking thing; a concept. And this is what causes the sense of separation.
With thinking, there are many; with knowing, there is one.
Most people don't actually know that they exist......you exist only in the way you know you excist
so the logic here leads to ... Most people don't exist because they don't know they excist??
eeh what?
Still get where you finger in pointing.
We are all One
'To know' is much different form 'to think' or 'to believe'
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Hi MS!
I'm not following your logic as mentioned above.
Could you clarify?
Kris
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Oh I understand that SHM... I misunderstood you text I see now. heh.
you talk of the concept of excistence and the experience of excistence
getting lost in duality and being One
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Great MS!
The comments above originated from this: I’ve been pondering a good deal on our conditioning; our habitual way of doing things; our conditioned mind.
This got me thinking about will power. Not Will, but will power. My Teacher suggests that if we can discover the source of our will power then we can accomplish great tasks in life.
We act in our daily lives, in some cases, like automatons. The way we put on our pants in the morning, or the way we put on our shirt, always with the same foot or hand first. Or take the sequence that we follow in the bathroom in the morning; our toilet. Or maybe the way we get into the car, get out of the garage, or leave our home. The way we perform tasks that we consider to be unimportant tasks; these tasks we perform unconsciously.
But then there is another category of our action. That category is those actions which we take that we consider to be important. Most of us will freely admit that we may act automatically, or habitually, when performing unimportant tasks. But we consider ourselves to be quite conscious, and in fact in full possession of our great will power on those occasions when we are performing the important, the significant things. We make these great decisions, to take these meaningful actions.
Yet, is there really any difference between the two?
Usually, when we make a decision and when we act on that decision, we are acting out of our history, from a set of preconceived notions that we have assembled from our years and years of experience. We are applying those historical notions to our current situation, even perceiving it through those notions, and formulating action based up on the understanding gleaned from that.
So in that sense, we cannot say that we are acting with will power. We think we are. Of course. This is what we call acting with will power. We hold our positions on things, and though it may be difficult, and others may not agree with us, we exercise our will power and we act. Like "Pro-choice". We call it choice. But I say that in fact it is habituated.
It is a very challenging task to learn to be actually conscious during big decisions and on major occasions. In fact it is very much impossible to begin with the big events. So we have to begin with the small things.
I can practice by using every one of the small tasks that I do during the day, like washing the dishes, to consciously reverse this automatic process. If I do it all the time with one side, then do it tomorrow morning on the other side. If I brush my teeth first, before I comb my hair, tomorrow morning I’ll comb my hair first, and then brush my teeth.
All that does is force me to be aware of my conscious of what I used to do automatically. And at times I find that even this is very difficult to do. If I go to sleep tonight thinking that I will do this thing tomorrow morning, then I will wake up and I will remember and I will go to do my toilet and I will do this all consciously. But then tomorrow morning I will forget again. And maybe it will be seven or eight days before I will pick up the tooth brush and I will think, "Ah, I was supposed to try to be conscious of this". All right, so then I have to return to it. And then I return to it many many times, and through a series of months and years, if I can learn to be conscious of these small things, then finally I can take responsibility for being conscious of larger events.
But it does not work the other way around. That is why Aikido (for me) is so wonderful, because if I train sincerely when I’m in the dojo, I am actually practicing things in this way. We practice things over and over.
I always begin with the body, and then when I have accustomed myself to that, then I can move on.
For instance, the teacher repeats himself or herself over and over again. And the way that I listen to Tsuma Sensei or any teacher, the way that I listen is the same category of practice as that learning to be conscious of how I brush my teeth, or generally what I do with my body, but on a little bit more refined level.
I am used to listening in a certain way. I know this, because we are all like this. I have an established view of the teacher and of what he is saying. And this is different for every single one of us. And what I say is filtered through that specific view, or perspective, of mine. And as this occurs, I filter out what I think is unnecessary or unwanted or unimportant or objectionable. Anything that does not fit in to what I think I already know is simply not received. It is dumped; rejected.
But maybe try instead to be completely conscious of what is being said when I am listening. This means to be like one big ear. It has to all go in, with no screens between us. And in the same way I have to be aware of what is occurring.
I must be one big awareness.
So there is no screen with which I color my perceptions; govern my actions. Because that screen is made of my habituation. It is made of my conditioned mind. And when I take away or dissolve the screen between the self and other, when I cease judging the act of perception, then the listener and the speaker disappear.
At the same time that I drop my screening process, then I am also dropping the self and other categories, because all of this is one thing; one phenomenon. And I can never act or do freely or purely through a habituated mind. In that case there is no action at all; only reaction.
If I practice the little things, gradually I will learn to be more aware in the big moments, and emotional reaction will not rule my life. Action will still take place, but it will be at the right place and in the right time, and there will be complete attention. That is what Tohei Sensei means when he says "When your will power is focused and in harmony with the Universe ...."
So then I see a transformation slowly begin to take place. Maybe it takes a long time, but transformation begins to take place. And so what if it takes a long time? Because I have forever. There is no time restriction imposed; only the illusion of one. And I find that I become not only aware and conscious of what actually takes place in my life, but that I also can easily see my screen, or this conditioning, that I have been acting through in the past.
And I feel, when I truly ‘saw’ this for the first time, I felt tremendous remorse and regret for having used people in the way that I have in the past. Because if I am ‘seeing’ you through this screen, then I am not really ‘seeing’ you at all, but I am seeing a projection of you.
Or I can say it another way; I am only taking that part of you that I can accept, and the rest I reject. This is a violent action, a violent act, a horrible discrediting of my fellow human beings. And it is a violation of the purpose and meaning of my being here in this life, which is, after all, only to learn to be conscious and recognize the great Source that works through everyone, and in fact is everyone.
So, to make a long post shorter, in this same way, when we do our breathing exercises in Aikido, when true kokyuho is taking place, only breathing happens.
The three levels of breathing; Whole Body Breathing, Universal Breathing, and No Breathing or Musoku Breathing.
No Breathing happens when it is recognized that only breathing is happening. No Breathing doesn't mean that there is no breathing taking place. "No", here, means "no one" is breathing. Only breathing is happening. That's like when I am listening, only listening is happening. I am one big ear. So in this sense I am one big breathing apparatus.
I-Am one big breathing. But it is not the body. It is not only Whole Body Breathing, its not even only Whole Universe Breathing. It is not identified with time and place. It is beyond time and place. So when I am breathing, then I only practice being aware of just the breathing.
Of course I need to learn to be aware first of what is happening to me in the simplest way. So I start with Whole Body Breathing. And then once I learn to be conscious of only the breath, automatically self or body consciousness falls away, and Universal Breathing arises. And then once I become truly conscious of Universal Breathing then I see that there is no self and other.
There is no person breathing. It is not a physical universe. It is the ground of being. And breathing just happens. It is not that I do not exist, but that I don't exist in the way that I think I do.
There is existence but not any "I" separated from it. And I exist only in the way that I know I exist. Most people don't actually know that they exist. They only think they exist. It is a thinking thing; a concept. And this is what causes the sense of separation. With thinking, there are many; with knowing, there is one.
These same principles apply when I do meditation. The same series of three exists; Whole Body Meditation, Universal Meditation, No Meditation. The same series I can practice.
Do you see?
Kris
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yes Kris I know the 3 types of breathing from zazen(meditation) experience.
what I don't understand is the finding of will power through awareness in routine actions - could you say some more?
Would you say that there is Whole Body will power, Universal will power and No will power?
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Hello again, MS!
In regards to finding will power through awareness in routine actions, perhaps read my post again. I know it's long and rambling, yet it seems to cover this.
As to whole body will power, universal will power and no will power, interesting question.
When questions like this arise in our life, the thing we always need to find out is: What difference would it make in my practice if I knew the answer to this?
What is our practice? Our practice is to be completely present in this moment and to experience whatever arises fully. And that's it. There is nothing more, because everything else is imagined or constructed. We have sensation, we have emotion, and we have thought. All three of these arise, often simultaneously, and we invariably take them to be fact, while actually, they are only the movement of energy.
If we look, we can notice that there is an awareness that is aware of all these movements, but is not a part of them, and is not affected directly by them. This awareness we tend to call "I", but when we fall into this awareness, we find no "thing" there that could be identified as an "I" or a "person" or a "body". It is the direct experience of this causeless awareness experiencing itself that is the purpose of our practice.
I don't know if this answers your question, but seemed appropriate to me
Kris
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