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May 22, 2023

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I have a physical body.
But I am not my body.

I have an emotional body.
But I am not my emotions.

I have a mental body.
But I am not my mind.

I have an astral body
But I am not my astral form.

I have a casual body.
But I am not a layer of spirit.

I'm a soul inhabiting these:
Beyond impression
But always observing.

Light that cannot be seen
And the effulgent emptiness
Contained within these vessels.

I see. I witness.
But even the impressions
The ripples
Even the scars upon these forms
I am not
Nor have I ever been

Time is a human construct to measure and communicate change, which is the only constant in the known universe.

If change is the only constant in the known universe, then the concept of now, moment or present become simply transitory communication markers in the flow of now-ness.

I am wondering today, as it is Tuesday, if the attachment to what is happening now, in this present moment as being fixed and unchanging, that such is the possible root of the unhelpful aspects of the experience of mind.

Kabut-Zing stresses the Buddha’s teaching that “Nothing is to be clung to as I, me or mine” and that there is “No, you to do it”. The whole concept of ‘no-self’ is difficult to grasp, mainly I think because the experience of being ‘me’ (a particular abiding essence) is a natural in-grained trait that evolved to help distinguish ‘me’ from ‘not me’, a distinct advantage to differentiate between finding food and being food.

Buddhists tell us that ’no-self’ and ‘emptiness’ can be realised intellectually but also Intuitively. Logically, we name something to classify it, either to identify it to ourselves or for ease of communication. The Buddhist then, referring to a tree as being a tree, also understand that ‘tree’ is just a description and that there is no enduring essence called ‘tree’ – tree being a process, a composite of branches, leaves, soil, air, insects, chemicals and so on – a tree, like us, is a fluid, ever changing process.

They say, that what we call ‘me’ (as a static entity) is the cognitive ability to access the information and experiences accumulated through our lifetimes. Of course, all this is necessary for navigating our world. The problem (it seems to me) is that this identification process keeps us in a world where everything has become a label, effectively obscuring the object observed by mentally pigeon-holing it and more or less, dismissing it.

If then, we habitually live our lives through mental imagery we miss experiencing the world as it is. As far as I understand, the Buddhist idea is – perhaps through meditation, koans and cultivating awareness – to help ‘snap us out’ of habitual thinking and experiencing, to enable seeing life as it arises rather than what we believe it and ourselves to be.

History can never repeat itself, but if we don’t learn from its mistakes, we'll be fools.

Whenever a thought, word spoken or act results in physical, emotional or psychological harm to ourselves, others and the world around us, it’s because the actuality of inter-relatedness has been forgotten because the confused and conditioned self-referential mind has mistaken subjective reality as actuality.

We cannot change history as it has already happened.

It’s unhelpful to do the guilty thing or beat ourselves up over what we’ve already done and can’t change.

History provides us with the opportunity to learn from our mistakes so we do not make similar mistakes in this flow of life living.

Fools never learn from their mistakes. The wise do.

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