Tuesday, October 16, 2007

You are not the mind.





We have been taught that the mind is ourself, thinking.
We cannot be the mind because we are what is perceiving the mind. Look for yourself right now! You are looking at thoughts from a higher (prior) level. We cannot perceive ourself just as our eye cannot see itself because it is what is looking. The mind cannot be ourself. The Chinese Ch'an master Hsi Yun (Huang Po) said, "A perception cannot perceive."
So, are you the perceptions (thoughts and feelings) or what is perceiving them?

We feel we are the mind because of the way the mind itself works. The mind understands things by comparing perceptions and creating objective concepts of them so it can compare one concept with another. This is knowledge. Naturally, it soon creates a concept of itself as 'me' and there the trouble begins. Thus, the mind associates the sense of 'me' with its operation and with the body and we believe and feel we are an individual, thinking, acting entity. This is the origin of all
our suffering. Once we feel we are an individual we begin to see and evaluate everything as it relates to us as an individual. We become a thing in a universe of things. A very small, vulnerable, but supremely important (at least to ourself) individual, in a vast, infinite, seemingly purposeless, uncaring cosmos. We lose our original, true sense of identity with the Absolute.


Galen Sharp

Galen was a former disciple of Wei Wu Wei and former evangelical who sought a deeper meaning behind Jesus’ teachings.
An Exploration of NON-VOLITIONAL LIVING Galen Sharp (C) 1993, Galen Sharp

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