In Seeking: How the brain hard-wires us to love Google, Twitter, and texting. And why that’s dangerous. Yoffe talks about how the brain is hard-wired to seek. A little while ago, maybe in a some somewhat esoteric post, I addressed non-Seeking. But what’s interesting in this article is that the author suggests that we need to give the brain a rest from seeking. Again I think science has found a reflection of spiritual reality in the material form.
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I guess if I were to have to make a call I’d say that I am taming the bull. I’m reminded of Arnold Schwarzenegger’s approach to body building; everytime the same routine, session in, session out. It’s not about making it interesting, it’s about getting the job done. And I’m reminded of something Gil Fronsdal once said; to paraphrase: that people think my talk was boring is a good thing. After all, what we’re pointing to is interesting not the pointing itself. But it seems we are making finer and finer distinctions until there are no distinctions at all.
So, this taming, seems to be about getting some distance on the mind; the kind of distance where thoughts are seen to be external, which is I guess glimpsing the bull. Perhaps distance should be called spaciousness. Thoughts arise within a much wider space than the thoughts themselves. And because of that distance there is a measure of control, which seems to be no control at all, because when there is control it is really thoughts controlling thoughts. Call this wider space presence. (more…)
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Pleasure and pain according to Sigmund Freud, Anthony Robbins and a whole bunch of others is the great driving principle of human behaviour. We move towards pleasure and avoid pain. It seems like
I’ve been listening to Auckland Zen Centre’s Amala sensei’s commentary on Shattering the Great Doubt: The Chan Practice of Huatou by Sheng Yen.
It was a reminder to me of how important discomfort is. I’m between homes at the moment and am house sitting a friend’s home. The break in my habits has brought a small degree of discomfort. A reminder of the rewards of not moving away from discomfort or moving towards comfort. Neither attachment nor aversion.
It also served as a yet another reminder of the importance of mindfulness. Mindful that comfort and discomfort sit lightly within the emptiness we call awareness. There is nothing intrinsically wrong with discomfort and nothing intrinsically right with comfort, except as useful information to our awareness.
Something else that’s been happening for me over the past few days is getting to a deeper realisation that the dharma is just a raft. Yes, it gets us to the other shore, but then we throw it away. Without discussion on attaining all dharmas or evening attaining no dharma. What’s the point in that?
And then there’s the great understanding, which for me is mostly intellectual, I must admit, but nevertheless it’s a beautiful understanding. I’ve been asking myself lately “What’s meditating?” It’s a very interesting question in the light of no object and no subject. Having disproved the I, just what is meditating? All I can honestly answer right now is “Don’t know.”
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The Method of No-Method: The Chan Practice of Silent Illumination