Just So» hypnosis http://www.mikaelaldridge.com Meditations on Enlightenment Wed, 16 May 2012 00:10:32 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.2 Hypnosis http://www.mikaelaldridge.com/zen/hypnosis/ http://www.mikaelaldridge.com/zen/hypnosis/#comments Mon, 26 Jan 2009 11:00:00 +0000 mikael Hypnosis comes from the greek word for sleep. James Braid who coined the term thought it was misleading and tried to change the name to monoideism. I think that both terms are suggestive. If you watch carefully you can see people moving in and out of hypnotic trance regularly as they internalise and follow a single train of thought, a memory, or perhaps a well worn fantasy.

When Hui Neng, commented that the mind of the ideal person rests nowhere, I think he was pointing clearly to being awake.

Imperturbable and serene the ideal man practises no virtue.
Self-possessed and dispassionate, he commits no sin.
Calm and silent, he gives up seeing and hearing.
Even and upright his mind abides nowhere.

As you know, Buddha means the one who as awakened. The problem is not matter but identification with it. That’s materialism, a resting of the mind within a conceptual framework. However the issue is any resting of the mind in any concept. To awaken from the sleep of identification with thought, even the concept of self, that’s being awake.

]]> http://www.mikaelaldridge.com/zen/hypnosis/feed/ 0