Painting Reality

"In art we use value onto shapes to create the illusion of form.

This is all for the process of replicating what the eye sees.

But we mistakenly believe what the eye sees to be some sense of objective reality.

Are we not painting with the eyes colors into shapes and shapes into forms with light.

Art is reproduction of suchness as suchness. This is a metaphor for concepts as they are suchness as well.

But that also doesn't mean that there is some kind of hierarchy between the symbol and what the symbol represents. Both are equal in that they are empty of inherent existence.

Be it a painting we paint in the painting.

Or the painting we deem as reality.

Its all fabricated. And all fabrications crumble.

Just a rant!"

-

Artwork and rant by Albert Hong

The Internal Compass

Adyashanti asks a question which points True North.  It's the first you should ask yourself when undertaking a 'spiritual journey', and it's one which should continue to be asked each time you find yourself confused about whether or not you are on the so-called Right Path.

What's this really about, for You?

Without an answer to this query, you will likely find yourself pushed and pulled by the various teachings or "guides", including the one writing this post.  In other words, without that initial internal compass, you can easily drag yourself through other people's beliefs.

Rest in your own authority.  Risk making your own mistakes.

If you're going to start out with a belief, make it your own.  Can it set you off on the wrong foot?  Maybe.  But eventually it'll become clear that it's only the sense of 'you' who has to live with that.  For every teaching you come across, you'll likely find several people saying it's The Very Wrong One.  They'll hand over, or even push you into investigating a new map, and "someone else's terrain" is the very place you don't want to wander around for too long.... not unless it nicely lines up with your own.

I wouldn't recommend starting your journey without making sure you know how to reference that internal compass setting.  And if you find yourself adrift right now, it's not too late.

photo credit:  Compass01 by ~Dipiie

The Container

Lisa:  What's the goofiest thing you ever believed to be true that turned out, of course, to be bunk...?


Well...

That there are people, including this one, walking around with entire histories held in a little invisible container.

That I never really knew where this miraculous container was kept, how big or small it was, how long it would last, where it came from, or what would happen to it.

That I thought this invisible container might go to an invisible fluffy place called heaven where it could somehow sit at the right hand of a man with a white beard. Because he apparently has a thing for empty containers with no sides, bottom, or top. Or that depending upon what was carried in that container with no properties of containing, it might go to a different invisible and really very hot place called hell.

That I'd get crazy about protecting that invisible container and claim ownership of it, defend it, take photos to honor and preserve the non-existent thing, and generally do anything imaginable to protect it.

That the container ever existed at all, because other people told me so, even though they hadn't seen it either.

That's pretty goofy.



Photo credit:  *antontang at deviantart

There is Running.

A Thought-full Run...

"I'll do some walking.  Maybe I'll run today."

*beep* *beep*
"I hate this treadmill."

"I should practice good breathing technique."
"ok, BREATHE."

"I need to move faster.  I'll 'up' the incline."

"Ok that's better."

"I'm walking faster."

"I wonder what I'll have for dinner?"

"Concentrate!"

"OK. I'll match my breath to the music."

"I like this music."

"I feel good."

"I'm having a good workout."

Actually....

Thought pops, just comes, an image of walking on the treadmill.

Putting running shoes on the body

Walking to fitness center
Stepping on the treadmill.  Pushing buttons.

*beep* *beep*

Thought pops, 'faster'

*beep* beep*

breath.  breath. breath.

No within, No without.  Just breath, Everywhere breath.

Everything breathing.

Sensations happening.  The body adjusting.
Water appears.
*drip*
*wipe*

Sound appears in headphones...music.  No one's listening.
Hearing is hearing.

Sensations in the feet, legs, hips.  

Seeing sees jerky motions. 

breath.

breath.

No one breathes.

Everything breathing.
Everything running.

photo credit:  on the edge by ~jakejames - Deviantart
Second photo:  don't feel like running by ~rockingmarcia - Deviantart

When the Bubble Bursts

The point of no-self realization is not to denounce the self.  It's to see it for what it is.... thought, appearing based on conditions, empty of any inherent qualities.

How is it empty?

Compare the self to a soap bubble.  Does it exist without soap, without air, without breath? Without the hole it forms through?  Without moisture in the air?

When the conditions are no longer right for the bubble to appear or be sustained, what happens? 


The sense of self is just as fragile and transparent, its existence dependent upon the thought constructs of memory and belief. Conditions for its appearance? Reflection upon an action of or within the body.


How to burst the bubble....

As a seeker, if there's an effort to stop the self thoughts from appearing, don't bother. The desire is 'you' trying to overcome your 'self'. That's impossible. It's a circular reference, an endless loop.

Let that go.

Just notice. Notice when the thoughts of self appear. Notice when they are absent. Then ask how anything inherent or vital can disappear without a trace for minutes, hours, or days on end, without anyone even noticing it was gone.



photo credit:  ~kkokosz on deviantart

The Truth about being Ruthless

Was RuthlessTruth really Ruthless?  Yes.  But there was no way to make a guru out of any one of us, and that's what I liked most.  It left the seeker completely free of even the person who 'liberated' them.  So it's ironic, now, when I read facebook posts judging the method.

You see, in the end to be completely free, even the teacher must be slayed.  And in that regard I'd say it was a job very well done.


http://www.truthstrike.com/ - The Phoenix from Ruthless Ashes

Shiny, New

So, in my last post I listed a host of realizations which hit after crazy-deep contemplation of the buddhist ideas of emptiness and dependent origination.  It seems that while doing this, another aspect of the initial no self realization that took place a year ago jumped out to the fore.  Or maybe you could call it ' a deepening' of the initial shift, though that's not quite accurate.

I'd compare it to finding a diamond, and then a year later, figuring out that its sparkle was not in the stone itself, but in the fact that it has many facets which reflect the light very differently.

Yeah.  That's it.

photo credit:  Starlight, by ~kyokosphotos