Simplicity
2023, February, Issue 30
Human perception is extremely limited. I suppose this is exactly why we develop and maintain ego. It is this grasping at what is not real, that is what we do as sentient beings. We’re limited by the extremely limited extent of our own perceptual abilities. We don’t know what’s going on. We’ve never known what is going on; and, so, we invent something, we fabricate our own existence, based upon our extremely limited point of view. We become habituated to that. Not knowing, building our ego, causing suffering in the world, this is our addiction.
The poison that we are addicted to is a tough pill to swallow. It takes tremendous effort to feed this addiction; and, it can only be possible through not acknowledging our present condition, by being extremely dishonest with ourselves. The poison is a concoction of ignorance, attraction and aversion. From our limited point of view, we ignorantly engage the world, judging whether things are good or bad, then building ego from that mess. We say stupid things to ourselves, such as, “You’re either with me or against me” or “Evil is them, good is us.” These divisions are divisions of mind, extremely harmful to everyone everywhere, including you.
It's easy to be habituated in this way, generating hate for anyone who doesn’t completely support your unexamined take on reality. We search for people who will agree with us, not just in general; we look for people who will agree with every last detail of our vision, of our ego-building. If they agree with us, then they are friends, if they disagree, then they are enemies. What nonsense is this!?!
This idea of self and other is not supported by the ineffable reality we discover upon awakening. It is this sense of separateness itself that is at the heart of ego. It is an ignorant viewpoint where we simply don’t realize that we are all fully connected, not possible without absolutely everyone else. We are an emanation of all the possibilities we discover beyond our limited viewpoint, which is generated by ego.
If we awaken, we are no longer judging, perceiving in a limited way, constrained by our own misery, our own unknowing. Ego dissipates into void, just like a dream, just like any fiction. From beginningless beginnings, we have created ourselves in our own mind, then we think that is somehow real.
If we sit in contemplation, looking at mind, at what we do with mind, how we grasp at what is not there, how mind cannot be located, we start to understand our present condition. Since we are addicted to what is not real, we need to back the train up all the way to the station. We need to do what we did when we were first born. We need to take another look at just what is going on here, without judgement, without grasping at things, just openly and honestly from square one, as if you have just now been reborn.
The great yogi Milarepa said the following:
The enlightened one knows that all things are mental,
Therefore one should observe one’s mind by
Day and night.
If you watch it, you can still see nothing.
Fix then your mind in this non-seeing state.
(The Hundred Thousand Songs of Milarepa, by Chang, pg. 134)
This is really an important teaching that gets to the root of our condition. It cuts to the heart of confusion, putting that to rest. It was the first thing that I was taught after first learning about Buddhism from a lama. And, it turns out that this might be the only teaching you may need. Knowledge of the ineffable is not found by great intellectual endeavors, it is found by observing the simplicity of our present condition, relaxing enough so that we are not constraining ourselves to our own addiction, which is habitual mind.
Please know, if you have read my books, I have held this teaching by Milarepa at the center of what I write. It’s very simple, even though it may sometimes seem very complicated. If it seems complicated, know that our own mind makes it that way, it makes it so that we cannot move forward on our Spiritual Path. Simplify and relax, that is important!
Whatever you do, always strive for awakening, which is at the heart of Bodhicitta. If we observe mind, at some point we will find ourselves feeling less heavy, filled with light. Be sure to remain at ease in that observation. Don’t elaborate or conceptualize. Don’t ascribe meaning to that or brag to your friends. Simply remain in that illuminated condition. Practice such that you are able to remain mindful of what you have learned in this way, without getting excited or generating thoughts. Apply this to your life. It’s very natural.
I have no doubt that we will all awaken. It’s already begun. You are nearly there.
Blessings of Light,
Bob
thanks for the milarepa reminder robert;)
Milarepa was a mystic who lived in Tibet. One day a young man came to him and said, “I want to attain some powers. Please give me a mantra.” Milarepa said, “We don’t have any mantras. We are mystics. Mantras are for magicians, for jugglers — go to them. We don’t have any mantras — why should we need powers?” But the more Milarepa refused, the more the young man thought that there must be something there — why else should he refuse? So he kept returning to Milarepa again and again.
Great crowds always gather around the saints who drive people away with sticks or throw stones at them. The crowds think that the saint must have something special otherwise he would not be driving people away. But we don’t realize that attracting people through an advertisement in a newspaper or through throwing stones at them, is the same trick. The propaganda is the same. And the second way is more manipulative and cunning. When people are driven away by someone throwing stones, they don’t understand that they are actually being attracted. This is a subtle way of doing it. And the people do come although they have no idea that they have been seduced.
The young man thought that perhaps Milarepa was trying to hide something so he started coming everyday. In the end Milarepa got fed up so he wrote him a mantra on a paper and said, “Take this. Tonight is the night of no moon. Read this five times during the night. If you read it five times, you will get the power you want. Then you will be able to do whatever you want to do. Now go and leave me alone.” The young man grabbed the paper and turned round and ran. He did not even thank Milarepa. But he had not descended the steps of the temple when Milarepa called after him, “My friend! I forgot to tell you one thing. There is a certain condition attached to this mantra. When you read it, you should not have any thoughts in your mind about a monkey.” The young man said, “Don’t be worried, I have never had such a thought in my whole life. There has never been any reason to think of a monkey. I have to read this only five times. There is no problem.”
But he made a mistake. He had not even descended to the bottom of the steps when the monkeys started coming. He became very scared. He closed his eyes and there were monkeys inside; he looked outside and even where there were no monkeys, he saw some! It was already night, and every movement in the trees seemed to be a monkey. It seemed that monkeys were everywhere. By the time he got home he was very worried because up until then he had never thought about monkeys. He had never had anything to do with them. He took a bath, but while he was bathing the monkeys were with him. His whole mind was obsessed with only one thing — monkeys. Then he sat down to read the mantra. He picked up the paper, closed his eyes — and there was a crowd of monkeys inside teasing him. He became very much afraid, but still he persevered the whole night. He changed his positions; he tried to sit in this way, in that way, in padmasana, in siddhasana, in other different yoga postures. He prayed, he bowed, he begged; he cried out to anybody to help him get rid of these monkeys. But the monkeys were adamant. They were not ready to leave him that night.
By the morning the young man was almost mad with fear and he realized that the mantra power could not be attained so easily. He saw that Milarepa had been very clever, he had put a difficult condition on him. Milarepa was crazy! If there was going to be a hindrance because of the monkeys then at least he should not have mentioned them. Then perhaps the mantra power could have been attained. In the morning he went back to Milarepa crying and said, “Take your mantra back. You have made a big mistake! If monkeys were a hindrance in using this mantra, then you should not have mentioned them. I never usually think of monkeys but the whole of last night the monkeys chased me. Now I will have to wait for my next life to attain this mantra power because in this life this mantra and the monkeys have become united. Now it is not possible to get rid of them.”
The monkeys had become united with the mantra. How did they become united? His mind insisted that the monkeys should not be there and so the monkeys came. Whenever his mind tried to get rid of the monkeys, the monkeys appeared. Whenever his mind tried to escape from the monkeys the monkeys came.
To forbid is to attract; to refuse is to invite; to prevent is to tempt. Our mind has become very sick because we don’t understand this simple point."
comment from this movie
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iQuH9yXS5xY
Back that train up all the way to the station! I love that! Really made me laugh. It's so true.