One sip of coffee is more real than a thousand thoughts of God

I've drunk a lot of coffee in my life. Also, thought a lot about God.

What I've concluded after all these years (65, to be exact) is that a single sip of coffee brings me hugely closer to reality than a thousand God-thoughts.

I could have said "a million," because the gap is so wide between (1) something that actually exists in the world beyond the human brain, and (2) something that exists only as an abstract human conception.

In no way do I call myself a Buddhist. But there are many aspects of Buddhism that I find appealing, along with many that I reject. The notion of spaciousness is one that I like, though I have my own take on it.

Usually people tend to relax the body by concentrating on different parts. Real relaxation comes when you relax from within, for then everything else will ease itself out quite naturally.

When you begin to practice, you center yourself, in touch with your "soft spot", and just remain there. You need not focus on anything in particular to begin with. Just be spacious, and allow thoughts and emotions to settle. If you do so, then later, when you use a method such as watching the breath, your attention will more easily be on your breathing.

There is no particular point on the breath on which you need to focus, it is simply the process of breathing. Twenty-five percent of your attention is on the breath, and seventy-five percent is relaxed. Try to actually identify with the breathing, rather than just watching it. You may choose an object, like a flower, for example, to focus upon. Sometimes you are taught to visualize a light on the forehead, or in the heart. Sometimes a sound or a mantra can be used.

But at the beginning it is best to simply be spacious, like the sky. Think of yourself as the sky, holding the whole universe.

Like Madonna, albeit with a lyrics sex change, I find myself a material guy living in a material world.

Pretending otherwise by embracing thoughts of God, soul, spirit, heaven, angels, and other supernatural imaginings not apparent to the senses either directly or indirectly leads to the non-spacious realm that exists only within the human brain.

Which, of course, is also material. However, looking out provides a vision of vistas unknown to those who focus on contents of their own psyche that have no connection with the outside world. 

A cup of coffee exists as objective fact.

Other people can testify to the reality of the coffee that I raise to my lips. Laboratory equipment can measure the coffee's qualities. Predictions can be made of the coffee's effect on my mind and body. God and other supernatural concepts, though, are merely abstract thought-objects, not real world-objects.

Buddhism, Zen variety, advises enlightenment seekers to chop wood and carry water. Note: not think thoughts and imagine imaginations. 

Chopping is done to wood. Carrying is done to water. But thinking thoughts and imagining imaginations are recursive, confining, within-cranium activities. Important and worthwhile, certainly. Unspacious and unsatisfying, though.

Compared to living spaciously in the real world beyond the human brain. I confirm this every time I go for an evening dog walk. Which is just about every day.

It's easy to get caught up in my own thoughts and imaginings while walking along with older dog Serena and younger dog Zuzu. Naturally at those moments I'm aware of where I am, but only marginally. To borrow a Buddhist term, I'm acutely mindful of what my own mind is churning out, yet only minimally aware of what surrounds me.

Which, when I return to focusing my material senses on the material world, is more satisfyingly solidly real than the thoughts, feelings, and such that exist only as private neurological productions.

Here's Serena ahead of me on a recent near-sunset dog walk along the Metolius RIver in central Oregon.

The golden soon-to-fall deciduous leaves contrasted beautifully with the reddish bark of the Ponderosas. Thinking about wispy supernatural nothings seems bizarrely absurd when such evocative natural somethings surround me.

A few days previous I'd paused the dog walk to take out my iPhone and capture an after-sunset shot of the moon perched over fir trees and Spring Lake near our western Oregon home.

i realize that religious believers would say, "Both of these photos reflect the glory of God's creation." To which I reply: nice thought. I'll stick with my directly experienced reality.

Life is too short and too precious to waste by living within the confines of one's own religiously confined mind, focused on unseen dogmas while failing to embrace the clearly present reality that beckons every waking moment.

Here's some good tips about how to live more spaciously. Check out "How to Be Fully Awake Instead of Living on Autopilot." I heartily agree with...

1. Sit in stillness. Stop moving, stop doing, stop planning and living in the future. You can sit on a cushion or sit in a chair.

2. Go outside and feel the wind on your face, smell the fresh air, and connect with nature. If it’s possible, lie in the grass, stare at the sky, and listen to the birds. Feel your heart open.

3. Connect with another person, smile, and make eye contact. If you observe yourself becoming judgmental or critical, try to see that person as another human being struggling to be happy, just like you.

4. If you have pets, connect with them through touch. Feel their affection. We can communicate with them and learn from them about how to stay in the moment.

5. Tune in to your body, let it move, and feed it well. Practice awareness of your senses. Feel what you are touching, listen to the sounds around you, and smell what’s cooking.

6. Breathe deeply. Count your breaths to 21 when you are driving in your car. Calm down and stay present. Repeat. 

 

Comments

[Turan]

I like it Brian - more examples of what I understand as direct experience or as you blog here :-

"Buddhism, Zen variety, advises enlightenment seekers to chop wood and carry water. Note: not think thoughts and imagine imaginations"

Exactly, just experience chopping wood - or am I missing your point here?

[Brian Hines]

Turan, that is indeed my point. With this assumption: when I chop wood, I have a personal experience of chopping wood. There is no such thing as a universal objective experience of chopping wood -- something that everybody shares.

We all will have a different experience of chopping wood, based on our genetics, memories, history of previous wood chopping, physical size/strength, and so on.

But whatever my experience of chopping wood is like, I will experience it more accurately and truly if I am mindful in the here and now of what I'm doing, rather than letting my thoughts meander to the past or future.

[cc]

...whatever my experience of chopping wood is like, I will experience it more accurately and truly if I am mindful in the here and now of what I'm doing, rather than letting my thoughts meander to the past or future.

Yes, but sometimes what you're doing is so boring and repetitive that you can't help but distract yourself with meandering thoughts.

Believing that mindfulness is always better than distraction creates conflict, so it's better to do what's most appropriate to the circumstances than to enforce constant single-mindedness.

[Turan]

Thanks Brian. I usually don't find meandering thoughts a problem, in fact some of them are fun and interesting. I also appreciate the times when there is just the physical action and watching what thoughts that do arise disperse just as easily.

Having lived and worked in the countryside all my life, my work, as well as gathering information is centred a lot on just being attentive and watching. To put the mental work and organising to one side from time-to-time and just observe the environment is - well I have to say - liberating.

I have recently been reading about ‘neural plasticity’. Apparently, like muscles in the body if regions of the brain are not used the neural pathways weaken. Could it be as the Farb study indicates that we have used the areas of the brain to do with thought and memory at the expense of other areas to do with attention. Perhaps mindfulness helps re-activate such areas that are able to be attentive of experience through the senses instead of always through the mind.

Here’s an interesting piece I've just read. Richard Davidson, a neuroscientist at the University of Wisconsin has looked at the effects of meditation on the brain. His results show different levels of activity in the brain areas to do with attention. He says these functional changes may cause changes in the physical structure of the brain.

As well as books on brain studies I also enjoy the views of people like Susan Blackmore, Stephen Batchelor and Steve Hagen who have wrote some interesting books relating to meditation. I like Steve Hagen’s play on words to the title of one of his books – Buddhism is Not What You Think. And S.B's book 'Confessions of an Atheist Buddhist' is refreshing.

[Brian Hines]

Turan, we like the same books. I've read and re-read Hagen's "Buddhism is Not What You Think." Excellent book. His take on Buddhism is appealing. Otherwise I find Buddhism a bit too serious and full of itself.

[jeannette mattson]

Who do I thank now that I found this site? I actually have a genuine feeling of happiness this morning. Thank you so much.

[777]

God doesn't think, can't be thought
God can be loved

777

[Brian Hines]

jeannette, thank me, thank me! Humble ME! I wrote this post.

That said... I don't believe in free will. I don't believe in an individual separate self or eternal soul.

So that ME I mentioned really extends outward to the entire universe and back in time to the big bang.

My feeling is, thank everything for everything. That way we don't miss any possibility of missing the proper entity to be thankful to, or for.