How to Lose your "ME"

with the help of the Hsin Hsin Ming

Part One

¹ “The Great Way is not difficult for those who have no preferences.

When love and hate are both absent everything becomes clear and undisguised.

Make the smallest distinction, however, and heaven and earth are set infinitely apart.

If you wish to see the truth then hold no opinions for or against anything.

To set up what you like against what you dislike is the disease of the mind.”

When you have opinions about anything, you lose the awareness of ‘I’…

Only a ‘ME’ has opinions. The latter only exist (in Duality) because it’s them that create it.

Only a ‘ME’ has emotions and feelings, both of which originate from thoughts.

Be careful here, if you disagree… ask yourself which ones don’t?

All opinions originate from the acquisition of ‘Knowledge’. It is the latter that is responsible for creating them:

• Knowledge is force fed intro-aurally and intro-visually into you from the time you are born. You are expected to consume it continuously.
  
• It is actually just like any drug or alcohol addiction, only a lot more dangerous.
  
• It claims, tautologically, to be ‘good for you’ and therefore the more of it the better.
  
• It creates it’s own worth by declaring it’s Am-ness and being-ness.
  

This is just really good… ‘SPIN’ (I mean evil… not good)

Knowledge is good for building bridges and houses but not for understanding…‘I’

Knowledge is the language ‘WE’ all have in common, irrespective of creed, nation or religion.

‘WE’ don’t realise that ‘WE’ are just the dancers, not the dance, the musicians not the music, the brush strokes and not the painting etc etc.

This is the disease of the mind and we have learned to believe that this is what we want and that it is good for us.

¹The ancient Xin Xin Ming (Hsin Hsin Ming) verse attributed to the Third Chinese Chan (Zen) Patriarch
Seng-ts'an.

"Nothing is seen… yet it is seen"

I think this is a Buddhist text but can't seem to find it's origins,

other than Sailor Bob on the Advaita Show.

Never mind… or No mind :)

Have a nice day :-)

Thought for the Day :-)

"The moment your mouth engages gear…

All Non Duality disappears"

Words by the Nutter from Nottingham.

Inspiration from Tony Henrys

Everything And Nothing

Let’s start with Everything.

everything (pronoun)

1 all things, or all the things of a group or class.
2 the most important thing or aspect: money isn’t everything.
3 the current situation; life in general.

The Compact Oxford English Dictionary of Current English

‘Everything’ is ‘All’… excluding nothing. Therefore “Everything in the Universe” has to be a definition of;

‘All Things Great and Small’.

noun ( the universe)
1 all existing matter and space considered as a whole; the cosmos.

The latter ‘by definition’ excludes nothing whatsoever… I’m struggling to get this point over because although we have used words for centuries, we seem to want them to fit our our preconceptions (caused by education aka… the acquisition of knowledge) rather than just their absolutely and clear obvious meaning. (See the King and the marksman story below:)

You can try to describe the Universe as whatever you want, but if it’s everything, then that is exactly what it is.

Breaking it down into bits and giving them different names is just semantics. (A Play with Words:)

The Reality of the Universe does exist. You can’t possibly deny awareness of that. The fact that you are reading this and having some sort of interaction with it means that awareness does exist.

Your interaction is very probably totally natural, from your point of view… like, dislike, don’t care etc.

All or any of the above are thoughts… and they come from mind (programmed education). We all think we know what a brain is but where the mind exists is not… and has not ever been known.

~

And so, on to Nothing…

nothing (pronoun)

1 not anything.
2 something of no importance or concern.
3 nought.

The Compact Oxford English Dictionary of Current English

Nothing is here defined in another bunch of words. No… Thing has to be something that doesn’t exist, because if it did it would be something.

I know I bang on about this semantics stuff (which is the only way I can play with this Knowledge) BUT… this shows why we get so confused.

‘Not anything’… is a concept: because the reality of Nothing is inexpressible.
‘something of no importance or concern’… just turned from nothing to something :)
and
‘nought’ is right up there with my friend ‘zero’(see Infinity and Zero)

~

Why these definitions Don’t Work

All this stuff hinges on just one thing… the Ego accepting that Knowledge (as defined by Society) is a good thing. Not just a good thing, but everything worthwhile. I have tried to explain before that knowledge is just another language and the latter only exists as expressions of Duality.

To understand beingness, is-ness and all the other expressions of this, one has to see the fallacy of holding onto concepts, knowledge from education and all forms of duality.

Knowledge is good for building bridges etc but is totally irrelevant to Reality.

Accepting this as a starting point in awareness is the first step. While you use and hold onto concepts as the definitive ‘rhyme and reason’ for everything, there will always be suffering.

Suffering exists, only because We define it. We have been taught to trust our thoughts and feelings. Why?

We believe that We are important and that We matter and what We think matters…

We have filled ourselves up with propaganda that We ourselves have created. We denounced Hitler and Mao Tse Tung for exactly the same reasons and called them bad, evil etc, but because of the tribal nature We have been taught to believe in, We see right and wrong and good and bad everywhere.

Everything is the only thing… and Nothing Matters!

There’s the story of the Baby bear playing outside it’s cave when it becomes aware of a huge tiger approaching it…

It decides to follow it’s instincts and stand on it’s hind legs and growls at the tiger.

The tiger changes it’s attack into retreat and the baby bear smiles a huge smug smile, goes back onto all fours and continues playing.

During this time, what the baby bear didn’t notice was that right behind him, his 12ft mother had raised herself up onto her hind legs to face the tiger as well.

The question from this story is… what are you and what is the Universe?

Are you the baby or the mother?

The corollary of this is… who ‘I’ is, is Everything (God if you like)

I am not and cannot possibly be separate from Everything, and neither can you. Believing that is why we suffer.

NB. I know this can’t explain it for you… and I’m sorry but a good place to start is still… not to believe your thoughts.(And certainly not mine:)

It’s your ego that wants you to. Why trust something that comes from all the propaganda you were brought up on?

Just Be at peace with what you Is… (er…R:-)

~

“You listen,” said the Master, ”not to discover… but to find something that confirms your own thoughts.

You argue, not to find the truth… but to vindicate your thinking.”

And he told of a king who, passing through a small town, saw indications of amazing marksmanship everywhere. Trees and barns and fences had circles painted on them with a bullet hole in the exact center. He asked to see this unusual marksman. It turned out to be a ten-year-old child.

“This is incredible,” said the king in wonder. “How in the world do you do it?”

“Easy as pie,” was the answer. “I shoot first and draw the circles later.”

“So you get your conclusions first and build your premises around them later,” said the Master. “Isn't that the way you manage to hold on to your religion and to your ideology?”

Anthony De Mello, SJ

Knowledge is just another Language

The Problem with Knowledge is…

_____________________________________________________

Defined by The Compact Oxford English Dictionary as…

knowledge

• noun

1 information and skills acquired through experience or education.

2 the sum of what is known.

3 awareness or familiarity gained by experience of a fact or situation.

_____________________________________________________

It’s the World’s greatest language of the mind and is held in the highest esteem.

That’s it’s problem.

Very soon after birth, the story begins… “mummy”… “daddy” and so on and so on and on.

Welcome to the global world of duality :)

And as ‘They’ say… “The rest, of this story, is history”

After ‘mummy and daddy’… language (and I mean all of them) is then used to force feed intro-aurally and intro-visually into human beings that great stuff… ‘Knowledge’.

A lot of us find it’s acquisition pleasant, challenging, rewarding and even ‘totally addictive’.

The latter claims, tautologically, to be good for us and therefore the more of it we acquire the better :)

A game of Chess has a limited number of pieces and a definite set of rules. So too with all the languages of the globe.

You can develop all sorts of moves and plays in Chess but their number is ultimately finite.

So too with language. It’s a game that is limited, but we pretend that it’s not.

Players of the ‘language game’ are everywhere and always have been.

It is employed to help them learn right from wrong etc etc… and ultimately how to be better than the other contestants :)

Knowledge too, is limited because of the words used which is why it is only… another language.

‘Knowledge’ has been the language in the civilised world for centuries. But as we know there have been sages during all this time that have actually doubted it’s worth and have resorted to poems, tales and stories that look to rattle the home of ‘Knowledge’ i.e. the Mind. The latter, as we all know, is just a fantasy because even though we give it a name… no-one has ever found one.

Xin Xin Ming (Hsin Hsin Ming) part one

The ancient Xin Xin Ming (Hsin Hsin Ming) verse attributed to the Third Chinese Chan (Zen) Patriarch Seng-ts'an.

The Great Way is not difficult

for those who have no preferences.

When love and hate are both absent

everything becomes clear and undisguised.

Make the smallest distinction, however,

and heaven and earth are set infinitely apart.

If you wish to see the truth

then hold no opinions for or against anything.

To set up what you like against what you dislike

is the disease of the mind.

When the deep meaning of things is not understood,

the mind’s essential peace is disturbed to no avail.

The Way is perfect like vast space

where nothing is lacking and nothing is in excess.

Indeed, it is due to our choosing to accept or reject

that we do not see the true nature of things.

Live neither in the entanglements of outer things,

nor in inner feelings of emptiness.

Be serene in the oneness of things and such

erroneous views will disappear by themselves.

___________________________________________

When you have an opinion about anything… you’ve lost your ‘I’

Only ‘ME’ has opinions.

___________________________________________

Space…

Space…

²…You are not seeing the space -
you are the space -
the space like -
presence - awareness.

John Greven

Space is not what you see, but what you see… in.

It’s world encompasses it’s whole being.

~

Water is not what a fish knows, but what it is… in.

It’s world encompasses it’s whole being.

We are, exactly like the fish asking where the ocean is, oblivious to the fact that we 

and all of our being is encompassed in this water… er, I mean, Space:)

~

Light is not what you see, but what it reflects… on.

What it reflects on creates, it’s… whole being (object/subject).


Photographs of the earth and Sun,taken from Space, do not show the path of the light.
Shafts of light are only visible because of objects in it’s path (dust, steam etc).

Light is essential to our apparent existence. Never mind all that ‘makes the plants grow…’ because without it nothing would or could ‘appear’.

~

We are a load, and I mean an ‘infinite’ load, of elements, electrons, quarks etc etc.

This is surely absolutely undeniable, whether scientifically, metaphysically or in any ’ology or ’ally you care to nominate.

At the Planetary end of the universe, we all claim to see this in any clear night sky…
‘objects’ in space.

Remember, that in order to see these, we are looking at an emanation of the light from them. Either produced by them themselves (Our Sun), or reflections of them from a light source near them (Our Earth).

~

At the Atomic level, there has to space between the particles, even if we can’t see 
it clearly…

Splitting but one atom as we know, creates a ‘huge’ amount of energy. This, however does nothing to the space… it only affects ‘objects’ in that space.

On the basis that, with ever more sophisticated scientific equipment, we are able to observe smaller and smaller… AND, bigger and bigger, is there any reason to assume that this evolutionary process should ever stop?

It’s not that long ago that we believed the Earth was flat… and it was heresy to hold any other belief.

I believe the same ‘heresy story’ is applicable today and there is no tenable reason to believe that the answer is nearby.

History is on my side… :)

~

In “this Space” we have the atom… made up of God knows What?
In “this Space” we have the Universe… made up God knows What?

The awareness of any of these cannot exist without Light…

Our awareness, like the fish, consists of us BEING…

I yam what I yam and I yam what I yam that I yam ¹

which is ‘THAT’ that ‘IS’ indisputable…

the space like - presence - awareness ²

¹ I yam what I yam and I yam what I yam that I yam Popeye:)

² John Greven http://www.onenessjustthat.com/ponderings/normal_space.htm

Infinity and Zero

Infinity and Zero

These two are opposite and separate things…
…or are they?

These two are defined by The Compact Oxford English Dictionary as…
________________________________________________________
infinity noun (pl. infinities)
1 the state or quality of being infinite.
2 a very great number or amount.
3 Mathematics a number greater than any assignable quantity 
or countable number (symbol ∞).
4 a point in space or time that is or seems infinitely distant.
________________________________________________________

zero /zeero/ cardinal number (pl. zeros)
1 the figure 0; nought.
2 a temperature of 0°C (32°F), marking the freezing point of water
________________________________________________________

Absolutely and stunningly marvellous :) What on earth are They talking about?

~

Infinity is bigger than, every or any… thing ‘imaginable’.

This is the thing that words cannot describe (tautologous) since it actually claims to be exactly that.

ergo: if one described anything imaginably bigger… it could not be this!

~

Zero is smaller than every or any… thing ‘imaginable’.

This is the thing that words cannot describe (tautologous) since it actually claims to be exactly that.

ergo: if one described anything imaginably smaller… it could not be this!

~

Therefore… what we have here is…

‘The Answer to Life, the Universe… and all That!’
The Hitchhikers guide to the Galaxy… And it’s not 42 :)
~

I’ll expand a little bit more…

Infinity is:

bigger, larger, longer, further etc., etc.

Zero is:

smaller, shorter, closer etc., etc.

These ‘words’ come from ‘Duality-Speak’… AKA “All Knowledge”!


________________________________________________________
knowledge noun
1 information and skills acquired through experience or education.
2 the sum of what is known.
3 awareness or familiarity gained by experience of a fact or situation: he denied all knowledge of the incident.

The Compact Oxford English Dictionary

________________________________________________________

Infinity is… Zero is… Eternity is…

Wait for it!!

UN… IMAGINABLE :-))!!!

Thus clearly defined as the Every-Thing and No-thing…

THIS!

________________________________________________________
eternity noun (pl. eternities)
1 infinite or unending time.
2 Theology endless life after death.
3 (an eternity) informal an undesirably long period of time.

The Compact Oxford English Dictionary

________________________________________________________

And in case you didn’t notice, I did all these words in ‘Duality-Speak’, using
“The Bible of English Words”.

Not Bad Huh?…

Beware ‘The Label’

Beware ‘The Label’

Dig deep, ‘Me’ friend…
To the bottom of the pile
Your ‘I’ is buried by labels…
Just throw them …All away !!



~

Mountains are No Longer Mountains

1

‘Before I studied Zen,
mountains were mountains, and water was water.
~
After studying Zen for some time,
mountains were no longer mountains, and water was
no longer water.
~
But now, after studying Zen longer,
mountains are just mountains, and water is just water.’
~

This wisdom is not merely a koan but the straightforward description
of ‘The Great Journey’, in three parts.
The Tale of ME and ‘I’…
_______________________

Part One of the Journey

‘Before I studied Zen, mountains were mountains, and water was water’.

For myself and all sentient beings the first line tells it just ‘as it is’ and takes
no understanding. This is the world where most of us spend all of our time.

It is, in fact, in the words of the great sage John Cleese:

‘a statement of the bleeding obvious’

This is where separateness is described by one thing’s relationship to another,
by it’s similarity or non similarity.

All things appear separate to each other and are defined so. The creating
of more labels (names) leads to more and more concepts, or is it the other
way round?

This collection, is known universally as ‘knowledge’.

More knowledge is good, or is it? Cleverer people then can use their knowledge for their personal (or group) benefit, usually at the expense of other (s).

I (we) can have more, only… if you have less.
Striving for more of one thing is… striving for less of another.

Striving, mainly, manifests itself as, what we have come to call, stress. The latter being something we see as bad for us.

It is of course what we all know to be true!

As is…

My religion is better than yours… and you’re wrong
I know what’s right… and you don’t
My way is better, bigger, stronger… and you’ve got a lot to learn!

By the way… if you don’t I will kill you!

‘Effortless living’, like in the animal and plant kingdom, seems unnatural to us?

Why?

Lions eat lambs. And, lambs get eaten by lions. It’s what they both just do!
Sunrise is when the day becomes light, and dusk when the day turns to dark.
Spring is when the growth rises, and autumn when it falls…

_______________________

Part Two of the Journey

‘After studying Zen for some time, mountains were no longer mountains,
and water was no longer water’.

‘After studying Zen’… there comes the discovery that all is not, as it first seems.

The ‘normal reality’ from ‘part one’ gets confused by all the seekers’ ‘mumbo jumbo’ in their minds. This journey may involve glimpses but will surely involve lots of books, audio programs, satsangs, meditating etc. Teachings and teachers will come and go, in popularity, as will the books and all that stuff.

Mind really really really loves this game. This is known as the acquisition of knowledge, which is good, isn’t it?

The answer, cannot be in books… or even one book because if it were so, then why all this continuing printed matter?

The many books exist because of the different ways that many minds have been programmed throughout the years, and therefore the ‘pointing’ of one teacher will resonate more with one student than the other. This of course is absolutely natural and the way it is:)

This part of the journey is where the seekers know ‘something’ but are not sure.

Feeling ‘part one’ to be false seems like you are making progress, yet peace is not necessarily at hand and probably, a long way away.

Mind says ‘Surely if you know that ‘part one’ is not true, then it’s opposite, the second one surely must be’.

Mind, then says… but this doesn’t make any sense at all!?*

We hear concepts like the ‘there’s no one here’ or the ‘who’s asking the question?’ And, many many more variations of this theme.

Concepts are all created by the manipulation of knowledge, and you are, by now, becoming aware of how much respect I have for knowledge.

There are almost endless ways of approaching ‘This’, in the mind.

However, ‘This’, is only one thing or no thing: these two being the same, not 2, and not opposites. Otherwise known as the teaching of Non-Duality.

This makes absolutely no sense to the mind and therefore explains it’s resistance.

Starting as a baby, there is ‘I’ but with the acquiring of knowledge there very soon becomes a ME.

‘Me’ knowledge soon makes ‘Me’ feel very important and educated.

Therefore, good and bad, light and dark etc etc is the way that people acquire that ‘knowledge stuff’. The latter of course, is put on a pedestal, and the more
it is gathered, the more respect, money and success can follow…

This part of the journey is where many minds like more minds to compete with.

They then have a great time playing semantics. This is a game only a ‘mind’ can take seriously.

There is so much ‘neti neti’ or ‘this and that’ that even the ‘Advaita Police’ cannot stamp it out.

I know this is all being ‘Cog-nized’ in the Great Emptiness, but it doesn’t take away from the facts.

This is getting tough now!

An infinite number/quantity is one that cannot be made bigger/more.
The number/quantity Zero is that, that cannot be made smaller/less.

These two, combined, are surely the ‘every-thing… and no-thing!’

Even a mind should be able to cope with this story?

These two are also the ‘one thing’, since nothing can exist outside them.

Tougher and tougher!

Everything is contained in space (no thing) …
So what thing is it that contains the space?

And so on and so on. Chicken and egg story, only infinitely bigger (or smaller)

More… tougher and tougher

Descartes said ‘Cogito ergo sum’ (I think therefore I am)
Eastern philosophy says ‘I am therefore, I think’
John Greven says ‘No one thinks I am’ :-)

All the same thing…!

The ‘every-thing’ lives and dies in ‘no-thing’ and therefore, that is all there is.

One Thing… This!

‘This’ can manifest itself in a variety of ways:

Sometimes with a mental aberration, equating with the ‘Eureka’ moment, which can last for a short time or much longer. Even forever, although the latter is not all that common.

Sometimes with a subtle creeping-in of This, equating much more with an ‘Oh, so that is all there is to this then’ moment.

At this point then, surely the search must be over… tee hee :)

No… it isn’t!!

It is now time for part three.

There’s no time like ‘NOW TIME’ !


_______________________

Part three of the journey.

‘But now, after studying Zen longer,
mountains are just mountains, and water is just water.’

Confusion and curiosity still reigns amongst these seekers, why?

Because amongst all those seeking, there is still an awareness of ‘someone’ standing in these shoes, wearing these clothes and feeling in pain.

So… who is it?

Well it’s ME, and I’m hungry, angry and my back hurts.!!

So… that’s ME sorted out then!

‘I’… has just become involved in ME for a while.
That’s ‘just fine’. ME is uncomfortable so let it be as it is.

Taking ME seriously is the only mistake in this journey,

ME is knowledge… ‘I’ is wisdom.

‘I’ knows and accepts that thoughts and feelings (mind created) do exist, since they come and go all the time.

‘I’ can let these things pass by without having to believe in them.

‘I’ also knows that walking up mountains makes ME puff and pant and water makes ME wet :)

Knowing: is ME living in this World (illusion)

Wisdoming: is ‘I’ living This… and, This… living ‘I’ and ME

And that’s all there is…

1
The aphorism occurs in many variants in Ch’an and Zen literature, but is first
attributed to Master Qingyuan in the Compendium of the Five Lamps (Wudeng Huiyuan)
1252):

Thirty years ago, before I practiced Ch’an, I saw that mountains are mountains
and rivers are rivers. However, after having achieved intimate knowledge and
having gotten a way in, I saw that mountains are not mountains and rivers
are not rivers. But now that I have found rest, as before I see mountains are
mountains and rivers are rivers.