Solving Yourself
Page 2
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The senses are the gateways to the waking world. When they are shut down, what continues are thoughts and imaginations, the subtle world revealed in dreams.
Thoughts and imaginations were also present during wakefulness but now they take center stage. When these too are shut, what remains is the Perceiving, without any content to perceive.
In this state, the bodily functions are set to a default threshold, just enough so that the body remains enlivened and does not begin to decay.
Perceiving is neutral whereas the brain in the body is self-centric. The personal idea, this I, is the perfume of the self-centricity.
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The physical body, while present in the waking state is absent in the dream state.
But the witnessing, pure awareness, is present in both and is therefore the constant factor.
Similarly, in the state of deep sleep, there is the witnessing of that state where phenomena are absent.
Therefore, Witnessing is everpresent, unwavering, like a candle in a windless room.
13
Enlightenment is the return to that point of view that was operative prior to the arising of self-consciousness. It is unitive in its very nature.
As self-consciousness arises spontaneously, its subsidence, that is, enlightenment, also arises spontaneously.
In that regard, there is no "way" to obtain it as there are as many ways as there are teachers of ways.
14
The word "rice" cannot fill your stomach.
Words can be strung together endlessly. But, they too, ultimately do not provide sustenance.
They fail to convey the truth as a menu fails to convey flavor.
It need not be that complicated; "I" points to an experience which is direct, immediate and requires no interpretation or translation.
"I am" is the portal, on one side leading to "I am this" and on the other, back to "I".
Make a firm decision to traverse the portal and then see if any more is required.
15
Every “I-am-this” or “I-am-that” uses I-am as its foundation.
I-am is the ultimate fact; "What am l?" is the ultimate question.
The life process itself starts with a lifeless, unfertilized egg and ends, at what is called death, with another lifeless form.
In between these two points, the Conscious Life Energy has introduced itself.
It has taken a body that was created by the fertilization of the egg, as its host and its instrument.
16
There are no goals that are not mind created.
What you strive for is what you imagine you must strive for. With the cessation of striving, what needs to arrive, arrives.
Searching is movement and therefore can never find stillness, the source of all movement.
Only this silent stillness can speak about the not-knowable.
17
The Conscious Life Energy functions through various forms according to their respective natures and capabilities. There is no unique entity, no you and no me.
Just as thoughts come to you, the world comes to you. They arrive at your address. Clarifying what this address is constitutes what Wu Hsin talks about; nothing more.
The world is experienced, the body is experienced, the mind is experienced and the lifestream is experienced.
On a more subtle level, the absence of these is experienced. But what is it that is experiencing?
You are the Experiencing which can't be known in the traditional sense. Experiencing is ineffable;
Wu Hsin can't convey his experience of an apple or a sunset to anyone, yet it is the very essence of living.
18
Whereas existence is singular, it can take on an infinite number of shapes.
The nature of unity is this existence, consciousness and fullness, whereas the nature of the world emanating from this unity is name and form.
The latter is not so much an illusion as it is a distortion.
The reality we perceive in our everyday waking consciousness is a distortion much as a stick in water appears broken because of the refracting light.
It is That out of which the sense of the personal ‘I’ arises and into which it disappears.
19
Mind is the screen onto which images are projected. Yet, without light, the images cannot be seen.
Language is the instrument of the mind as the mind, in time, and the body, in space, are the instruments of the Conscious Life Energy.
No-mind cannot be known. The end of questions is the end of mind because mind is the source of all questions. Yet, since mind cannot register its own absence, how is this to be known?
Whatever the experience is true or false, the fact of experiencing is undeniable. What is experienced is the content of consciousness.
It is involvement with every "this" appearing to That. The root experience is I-am from which all else emanates.
20
You want to use your intellect to understand, but this is like drinking tea with a fork. You want to escape your prison, but you haven't discerned that the thinking you're in prison is the prison.
You have failed to realize that all your running after is, in fact, running away.
Any reinforcement of the idea of a searching entity is movement away from what you claim you want.
As a person, your existence is momentary. In another moment, you might easily become what amounts to another person.
Remove the attention from what is personal and what reveals itself is The Source, without which neither light nor darkness could be cognized.
21
As a prism emits colors without doing anything, you emit the world and its activities without doing anything. This is verifiable; when you are not, where is the world?
In the absence of body-consciousness, what can you say about the world? Can't you see that body-consciousness and world-consciousness rise and set together?
That which perceives each, prior to both, is what you are.
22
To say that you are conscious of yourself implies that there are two. First, there is the consciousness, then there is yourself, that which you are conscious of.
There is consciousness, the subjective, and its object, yourself. Which are you?
Objectification is a process of exteriorization. It is the placement of impermanent phenomena outside oneself.
He who knows the source as source and appearance as appearance takes his stand outside of outside.
He responds "not me, not mine" to all appearances.
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Perfection is discerned in the instant that one releases all notions of what it's supposed to look like.
There is never a problem in the outside world. All problems are in the mind.
The mind is like the moon, it only shines by reflected light.
When the attention remains fixed on It, the light source, the mind and its machinations becomes immaterial.
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Matter and mind are not separate, they are aspects of the Conscious Life Energy. Mind is in time whereas matter of time and space.
Both appear and disappear as expressions of It.
Stated differently, mind constitutes the phenomena of consciousness.
Form is objectified mind. "Me" is reified form.
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Only that which has been created needs to be maintained in order to avoid destruction. Self-consciousness is such a maintenance-driven creation.
Therefore, all efforts to be rid of it merely reinforce the sense of identification with it, thus maintaining it.
Can you discern that nothing will make you more of what you already are? Is there any need to make water wetter?
Is there really a person, who from an inside experiences something outside itself, or is there only experiencing wherein the person is the experience?
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Abiding in oneness means having no needs. How can you need what is already part of you?
In
separation, that which fulfills the needs always resides outside.
To the mechanism of personality, this-here-now is always insufficient.
This-here-now is the opposite of universality and eternity.
Whereas a healthy mind oscillates between the two poles, the unhealthy mind is fixated on that-there-then.
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What could be selfish about wanting to cease enriching what is false?
"Me" must be seen to be imagination. If "me" is imagination, then all the "of me's", that is, all the "mine's", are likewise imagination.
When the situation is examined thoroughly, it is discerned that there is no basis for selecting one appearance out of the totality and labeling it as ‘me’. As such, there is no "me" who receives enlightenment. When there is no one home to accept the delivery, what can be delivered?
The answer cannot be located by thinking. How many more months, years or decades will it take until you see the futility of this approach?
Stop trying to quench this thirst by drinking the sound of water. Turn away from thinking.
That's it; there is no need for practices per se. Just pondering these words and trying to grasp their full meaning is sufficient for returning. Returning means going back to the source and support of everything and resting there.
In that, the misconception that there ever was a thinker, a doer, a perceiver and an enjoyer simply disappears.
Sooner or later you are bound to discover that if you really want to end the searching, you must return the way that you came.
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You can never find the truth because this "you" as an entity is a lie. A lie can never reveal what is true.
It is like living with an ash in your eye.
You can never see clearly.
For you to see things as they really are requires the removal of this "ash", which is the cessation of one's preoccupation with a seeming self.
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We experience consciousness of phenomena, that is, physical objects or mental thoughts.
Can there be a line of demarcation between Consciousness and phenomena, in that experience?
Consciousness can well exist, all alone, without phenomena. But, phenomena can never exist without Consciousness.
Therefore, it is the support of all; all is Consciousness.
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The Knowing that Wu Hsin is speaking about is not the same as knowing the world.
It is not a physical or sensual or mental activity that's done by body, sense or mind.
This is the Knowing of any and all phenomena that appear in the field of consciousness. It illuminates the field absent any illuminator.
It does not begin nor does it end; it is.
As silent Knowing, it is completely detached from thinking mind, perceiving senses, doing body, happy or unhappy person.
Whatever you perceive is there in the field of Knowing. It is not you.
So stop assuming that you are some thing inside the field.
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To work on reducing the hold of the mind is not the solution.
Imagine if you have a brother-in-law who comes to your house every day drunk and throws up on your floor.
The solution to the problem is not for him to come less frequently.
Some have suggested the approach of watching the mind.
How can paying attention to the mind cure the problem of paying attention to the mind?
Your mind holds sway over you because you have granted it an audience.
Wu Hsin suggests that you deny it an audience and see the result.
February (Là Yuè)
1
Do not assume a causal relationship between the object and happiness, believing that obtaining the object is the cause of the happiness experienced.
Wu Hsin would suggest that's not the case.
When the object desired is obtained, the desire dissolves.
It is the absence of the desire that reveals the happiness that is inherent in each of us.
Desire obscures happiness; its absence illuminates it.
2
Doctrines, laws and rituals are only of value as signposts, which point the way to what is beyond them.
Isn't it time to set them all aside and end the warfare of competitive dogmas that seemingly separates?
Isn’t it finally time that you agree to share a singular Absolute?
You want to see the Absolute in all, but not in yourself?
If all is the Absolute, are you not included in that all?
3
Here is the secret: Thought obscures happiness.
If you doubt this to be the case, stop thinking and tell Wu Hsin if you are not happy.
4
What we seem to be is a creature living by memory and acting habitually.
The way out of this is to be alert, and attentive, investigate the validity of every belief and abandon those that prove false.
See the need to recede. Recede from concepts into perception; then recede from perception into Being.
Don't allow words, even Wu Hsin’s, to dilute the power of silence.
Spend time with silence, seek it out and shun that which subverts it.
5
Self-consciousness is like walking into a room wherein the floor, the walls and the ceiling are covered in reflecting surfaces.
In an instant, you are surrounded by "others", fear arises and survival programs, previously dormant, activate.
You can't be what comes and goes.
The self-consciousness may claim to be both the subject, as consciousness, and the object, as the body. But it is not so.
Acknowledge the possibility of this unreality.
6
You believe that seeking needs to have a goal.
How can we speak of a goal when you already are what you seek?
When one is preoccupied with seeking, one cannot see the false as false. As such, all seeking must end in failure to discern the actual.
Instead of seeking what you have been telling yourself is not present, look directly at what is here and now, unchanging, unmoving.
In doing this, any concerns regarding seeking will fall away.
7
We can concede that we experience the world from a centralized location. What remains unexamined is the center of that centralized location.
Ultimately, this was all Wu Hsin speaks about.
All perceptions, the entire manifestation, solicits this center, calls to it. The center, in turn, allows in some and rejects the rest.
With the attention placed on the center rather than on the periphery, the confusion between what one is and what one appears to be comes to an end.
The shadows appearing on the wall may change, but the wall itself does not.
8
When you become upset with yourself, who is upset with whom?
What you now take yourself to be is the result of inattention.
Clarity is the fruit of attention.
The truth doesn't set you free. The truth reveals that you've always been free.
9
When we exit from a daydream, we can sometimes acknowledge "I was daydreaming. I wasn't here". The true value of the daydream is to invite you to pursue what this "I" is.
"I am" means Being, alternatively moving through the three biologically programmed cycles of deep sleep, dream, and wakefulness. When the state you're in changes, the world you're in changes.
In dispassionately observing the organism, you stand outside it. This is the movement away from identification.