Jukebox mind.

While the "thinking-self" nature of the conscious mind evokes images of a "ghost in the machine,"  there is no similar self-awareness operating in the subconscious mind. The latter mechanism is more akin to a jukebox loaded with behavioral programs, each ready to play as soon as the environmental signals appear and press the selection buttons. If we don't like a particular song in the jukebox, how much yelling or arguing with the machine will cause it to re-program it's play list?  In my college days, I saw many an inebriated student, to no avail, curse and kick jukeboxes that were not responsive to their requests.  Similarly, we must realize that no amount of yelling or cajoling by the conscious mind can ever change the behavioral tapes programmed into the subconscious mind. Once we realize the ineffectiveness of this tactic, we can quit engaging in a pitched battle with the subconscious mind and take a more clinical approach to re-programming it.  Engaging the subconscious mind in battle is as pointless as kicking the jukebox in the hope that it will re-program its playlist.

Thou art That here and now.

The whole thing is very simple. Thou art that, here and now.  Remove the covering of the ego. Let go of the ego. And when the ego is completely gone, the only thing left is the infinite Self.

Where the ego rises not, there is the Self.  

Mindfulness of Mind.

Of course, to take hold of our minds and calm our thoughts, we must also practice mindfulness of our feelings and perceptions. To take hold of your mind, you must practice mindfulness of the mind. You must know how to recognize and observe the presence of every feeling and thought which arises in you...
If you want to know your own mind, there is only one way: to observe and recognize everything about it. This must be done at all times, during your day to day life...

When we start letting go of the ego, it appears sometimes as though the ego is getting stronger and stronger, and bigger and bigger. That's not true. It will never get any bigger than it is right now. What happens is, as we let go of it, more of it presents itself to us. We are looking at it more, and it appears sometimes the ego is getting bigger. Actually we’re just facing up to more and more of it, that was there all the time. Looking away from ego does not dissolve it. It just remains there until the time comes that we are forced to let go of it.

The Mind Mirror

I think today, I would like to say this. As you see the world, so are you.  Now I'm taking off on "as a man believeth in his heart so is he."  Which is correct.

But I say this is a much more advanced way of looking at it: As you see the world, so are you.

Now everyday when we get up and open up our eyes and we start looking at the world, we meet people. And as we see those people, so are we. It is impossible to see a fault in anyone else that we don't have in ourselves. If the fault is not is us, it is impossible to see it out there in anyone else.

It's almost the same as, in order to understand Greek, you must know Greek.

Anything we understand out there, we know within. So every time we see something out there that we don't like, a person who is doing something that we don't like, and it bothers us, it is only because that very same thing is in us.

Now this is a powerful method of growth because most of us unfortunately see things that are wrong in this world. When Masters look at the world they see nothing but perfection.  We should try to get the same viewpoint.

If we will hold on to just this one thing there will be a tremendous growth: Every time you see something wrong in someone, look for it in yourself. And when you see it, let go of it. Keep letting go. And every time you let go of it, you're letting go of a bit of ego.

So in everyday life, as we meet people, situations, everytime we see something we don't like, we should turn within. See it within our selves, let go of it.

Now this will not clear us in one day or one week, because there's an awful lot to be cleared.  We have developed from many lifetimes, ego attachments and desires.  And they don’t go in one or two days...

So, daily, right through the entire day, if we would just look at the world, and realize that we are seeing it through our own eyes, through our own consciousness, through our own understanding, that what we see out there is nothing but ourselves, this can effect a rapid positive growth that will show results immediately. 

The first week you'll feel  better. And as you keep doing this you'll get lighter and lighter and lighter. Happiness will get more and more and more. Sorrow will get less and less and less.

But the main warning I give you is, don't expect it overnight. And if the ego appears to loom up larger its only because you're facing it, whereas before you were looking away from it.

How do you do it? Well you see someone out there who is trying to be the life of the party, the number one, and you don’t like it (I'm taking a very obvious thing). If we don't like the other one thing trying to be number one, its only because we want to be the number one. 

All right, so what do we do? You have to go within and look for it, and stay within until you see it. If you will go within, release, quiet your mind, the answer will always come. You will see, "Why yes, I too want to be the number one, and I was resentful because the other one was trying to be the  number one." And then, when you see that you want to be the number one, say to yourself, "This I must let go of," with the wish to let go. And just by the wish to let go, you are letting go of a bit of ego.

There are no better lessons than those we get from our family. You'll find family the best means of growing. And the main reason for that is that we choose our parents. And we choose parents who have similar characteristics to our own. And so, there is always a too and fro between parents and child because of this. Parents are telling the children what to do, and the children are fighting right back, up and back, up and back, all the time.

Most of the time, the parent and child are together, it's a constant to and fro on the thing we're talking about. Because we have it in ourselves, we see it in our parent or we see it in our child. And they see it in us. This causes quite a lot of friction…

Another way of saying it is, there's nothing out there but our consciousness. Whatever we see wrong out there, the mote is in our eye.

And if you'll accept this, you can use it, to un-do your ego.  There's nothing our there but our consciousness.  If you ever want to know what your consciousness is, just take a check on what is around you and what you see, and what you go through every day in life. That's your consciousness.

Acceptance and Surrender

Surrender becomes so much easier when you realize the fleeting nature of all experiences and that the world cannot give you anything of lasting value. 

You can continue to meet people, to be involved in experiences and activities, but without the wants and fears of the egoic self.  That is to say, you no longer demand that a situation, person, place or event should satisfy you or make you happy. Its passing and imperfect nature is allowed to be.

And the miracle is that when you are no longer placing an impossible demand on it, every situation, person, place or event becomes not only satisfying, but also more harmonious, more peaceful.

When you completely accept this moment, when you no longer argue with what is, the compulsion to think lessens, and is replaced by an alert stillness.  You are fully conscious, yet the mind is not labeling this moment in any way. This state of inner non-resistance opens you to the unconditioned consciousness that is infinitely greater than the human mind.

This vast intelligence can then express itself through you and assist you, both from within and from without. That is why, by letting go of inner resistance, you often find circumstances change for the better. 

Bells of Mindfulness

In my tradition, we use the temple bells to remind us to come back to the present moment. Every time we hear the bell, we stop talking, stop our thinking, and return to ourselves, breathing in and out and smiling.  Whatever we are doing, we pause for a moment and just enjoy our breathing. Sometimes we also recite this verse: 

Listen, listen. This wonderful sound brings me back to my true Self.

When we breathe in, we say, "Listen, listen," and when we breathe out, we say, "This wonderful sound brings me back to my true Self."

Since I have come to the West, I have not heard many Buddhist temple bells. But fortunately, there are church bells all over Europe. There do not seem to be as many in the United States; I think that is a pity. Whenever I go to a lecture in Switzerland, I always make use of the church bells to practice mindfulness. When the bell rings, I stop talking, and all of us listen to the full sound of the bell. We enjoy it so much. ( I think it is better than the lecture!)  When we hear the bell, we can pause and enjoy our breathing and get in touch with the wonders of life all around us---the flowers, the children, the beautiful sounds. Every time we get back in touch with ourselves, the conditions become favorable for us to encounter life in the present moment.

One day in Berkeley, I proposed to professors and students at the University of California that every time a bell on campus sounds, the professors and students should pause in order to breathe consciously.  Every one of us should take time to enjoy being alive! We should not just be rushing around all day. We have to learn to really enjoy our church bells and our school bells. Bells are beautiful and they can wake us up.

If you have a bell at home, you can practice breathing and smiling with its lovely sound.  But you do not have to carry a bell into your office or factory. You can use any sound to remind you to pause, breathe in and out, and enjoy the present moment. The bell that goes off when you forget to fasten your seat belt in your car is a bell of mindfulness. Even non-sounds, such as the rays of sunlight coming through the window, are bells of mindfulness that can remind us to return to ourselves, breathe, smile and live fully in the present moment.

What's not wrong?

We often ask, "What's wrong?"  Doing so, we invite painful seeds of sorrow to come up and manifest. We feel suffering, anger, depression, and produce more such seeds.  We would be much happier if we tried to stay in touch with the healthy, joyful seeds inside of us and around us. We should learn to ask, "What's not wrong?" and be in touch with that.  There are so many elements in the world and within our bodies, feelings, perceptions, and consciousness that are wholesome, refreshing and healing. If we block ourselves, if we stay in the prison of our sorrow, we will not be in touch with these healing elements.

Life is filled with many wonders, like the blue sky, the sunshine, the eyes of a baby. Our breathing, for example, can be very enjoyable. I enjoy breathing every day. But many people appreciate the joy of breathing only when they have asthma or a stuffed up nose. We don't need to wait until we have asthma or a stuffed up nose to enjoy our breathing.

Awareness of the precious elements of happiness is itself the practice of right mindfulness. Elements like these are within us and all around us. In each second of our lives we can enjoy them. If we do so, seeds of peace, joy, and happiness will be planted in us and they will become strong. The secret to happiness is happiness itself.  Wherever we are, any time, we have he capacity to enjoy the sunshine, the presence of each other, the wonder of our breathing. We don't have to travel anywhere else to do so. We can be in touch with these things right now.

Oprah Interview with Thich Nhat Hanh

Oprah: Beautiful. Now I'm going to ask just a few questions about monkdom. Do you exercise to stay in shape? 

Nhat Hanh: Yes. We have the ten mindful movements. We do walking meditation every day. We practice mindful eating. 

Oprah: Are you vegetarian? 

Nhat Hanh: Yes. Vegetarian. Complete. We do not use animal products anymore. 

Oprah: So you wouldn't eat an egg. 

Nhat Hanh: No egg, no milk, no cheese. Because we know that mindful eating can help save our planet. 

Oprah: Do you watch television? 

Nhat Hanh: No. But I'm in touch with the world. If anything really important happens, someone will tell me. 

Oprah: That's the way I feel! 

Nhat Hanh: You don't have to listen to the news three times a day or read one newspaper after another. 

Oprah: That's right. Now, the life of a monk is a celibate life, correct? 

Nhat Hanh: Yes. 

Oprah: You never had trouble with the idea of giving up marriage or children? 

Nhat Hanh: One day when I was in my 30s, I was practicing meditation in a park in France. I saw a young mother with a beautiful baby. And in a flash I thought that if I was not a monk, I would have a wife and a child like that. The idea lasted only for one second. I overcame it very quickly. 

Oprah: That was not the life for you. And speaking of life, what about death? What happens when we die, do you believe? 

Nhat Hanh: The question can be answered when you can answer this: What happens in the present moment? In the present moment, you are producing thought, speech, and action. And they continue in the world. Every thought you produce, anything you say, any action you do, it bears your signature. Action is called karma. And that's your continuation. When this body disintegrates, you continue on with your actions. It's like the cloud in the sky. When the cloud is no longer in the sky, it hasn't died. The cloud is continued in other forms like rain or snow or ice. Our nature is the nature of no birth and no death. It is impossible for a cloud to pass from being into nonbeing. And that is true with a beloved person. They have not died. They have continued in many new forms and you can look deeply and recognize them in you and around you.

Oprah: Is that what you meant when you wrote one of my favorite poems, "Call Me By My True Name"? 

Nhat Hanh: Yes. When you call me European, I say yes. When you call me Arab, I say yes. When you call me black, I say yes. When you call me white, I say yes. Because I am in you and you are in me. We have to inter-be with everything in the cosmos. 

Oprah: [Reading from the poem] "I am a mayfly metamorphosing on the surface of the river. And I am the bird that swoops down to swallow the mayfly.... I am the child in Uganda, all skin and bones, my legs as thin as bamboo sticks. And I am the arms merchant, selling deadly weapons to Uganda. I am the 12-year-old girl, refugee on a small boat, who throws herself into the ocean after being raped by a sea pirate. And I am the pirate, my heart not yet capable of seeing and loving.... Please call me by my true names, so I can hear all my cries and laughter at once, so I can see that my joy and pain are one. Please call me by my true names, so I can wake up and the door of my heart could be left open, the door of compassion." What does that poem mean?

Nhat Hanh: It means compassion is our most important practice. Understanding brings compassion. Understanding the suffering that living beings undergo helps liberate the energy of compassion. And with that energy you know what to do.

Oprah: Okay. At the end of this magazine, I have a column called "What I Know for Sure." What do you know for sure?

Nhat Hanh: I know that we do not know enough. We have to continue to learn. We have to be open. And we have to be ready to release our knowledge in order to come to a higher understanding of reality. When you climb a ladder and arrive on the sixth step and you think that is the highest, then you cannot come to the seventh. So the technique is to abandon the sixth in order for the seventh step to be possible. And this is our practice, to release our views. The practice of nonattachment to views is at the heart of the Buddhist practice of meditation. People suffer because they are caught in their views. As soon as we release those views, we are free and we don't suffer anymore.

Oprah: Isn't the true quest to be free? 

Nhat Hanh: Yes. To be free, first of all, is to be free from wrong views that are the foundation of all kinds of suffering and fear and violence. 

Oprah: It has been my honor to talk to you today. 

Nhat Hanh: Thank you. A moment of happiness that might help people. 

Oprah: I think it will.

Whatsoever things are true, honest, just, pure, lovely and of good report;

 if there be any virtue, if there be any praise, think on these things.

Look at your mind. That in itself is a good practice. It puts you apart from it. You are looking at it. Watch your thoughts. It's a wonderful practice. If you examine thoroughly the mind, you will discover that it isn't, it's an illusion. Let it go it's way, just watch the mind. The ultimate witness is the Self. It's a tremendous thing to watch the mind. Not only does it quiet it, it makes the mind not you. If you trace the source of the mind, you find it is nothingness. This whole world is a dream illusion, which means that it isn't.

There are two ways of growing: one is what I call the negative way, eliminating the negative, going into the mind, seeing the cause of the problem that originated in a thought some time in the past. When we see this thought, when we bring it up into consciousness, we naturally let go of it. We see how silly it is to hold onto it and therefore correct that thought and behavior. However, the other way is the better. It is the positive way. Quiet the mind and see who and what you really are, the infinite Self. In the over all, there's really only two ways: eliminating the negative and the better, putting in the positive, “I am that I am,” “I am.” The latter is by far the faster.

The Truth when it arrives is always different from what we thought it would be.  If we imagine we already know the Truth that imagination is based on old and habitual ideas. The truth is always something new to the mind. As we dare to drop our conditioned opinions, we make room for the Truth.

Hold in mind what you want.

"We are under the healthy power of any right idea we admit

 to replace a wrong idea."

Practice knowing without thinking.

If we could get to the point, within our minds, where we have few, or perhaps no thoughts at all, then that natural love and goodness that comes up from our hearts, the connection we have with all things, would spring forth and we would enter a perpetual state of joy.

Upward Direction

"A sad remark was once made. The sad remark was that when this
world was created, an instruction manual didn't come with it.
We're going to do something about that. We're going to discover,
first of all, that the instruction manual that is needed for
inner transformation must be vertical, not horizontal. You must
look upward, not sideways. That in itself is a great advancement
for you because living on this earth in the earthly body, earthly
ambitions and lots of earthly sorrows, we tend to think of the
earthly level as the exclusive only level. We get used to looking
sideways instead of looking up. And when you invite someone to
take the upward glance to see the higher and only solution, when
you invite someone to do that, they hesitate. They balk because
they're not used to doing it and it seems so strange. We're all
so used to looking around on our own earthly level for answers,
for relief, solutions. And if we look for them on our level,
we're going to find only our level and not what out heart and
our spirit really needs. You would do well to keep in mind that
you're going to have to make a personal and individual effort
to look up. I'm speaking inwardly, of course."

Another dream that never happened...

As one old Zen master said, it's like a job well done. At the end of the day, you just go home.  At a certain point...it's as if everything is put down. Freedom is put down.  It is necessary to be free of our need for freedom, from enlightenment from our need for enlightenment...at a certain point all fabrications dissolve and disappear...We come to realize  that even our greatest realizations, our greatest moments of "aha," are actually dreams within the infinity of the unborn...we realize even one's great awakening was just another dream that never happened....It's described in the Buddhist scriptures as gone, gone beyond, completely gone.

Thou art That

Psalm 91

You who dwell in the shelter of the most high, who abide in the shadow of the Almighty, say to the Lord, my refuge and my fortress, my God in whom I trust. For with his pinions he will cover you and under his wings you shall take refuge. His faithfulness is a buckler and a shield. You shall not fear the terror of the night nor the arrow that flies by day; not the pestilence that roams at darkness, nor the devastating plague at noon. Though a thousand fall at your side, ten thousand at your right side, near you it shall not come for you have made the Most High your stronghold. No evil shall befall you nor shall affliction come near your abode. For to his angels he has given command about you that they guard you in all your ways. Upon their hands they shall bear you up lest you dash your foot against a stone. You shall tread upon the asp and the viper, you shall trample down the lion and the dragon.
Because he clings to me, I will deliver him. I will set him on high because he acknowledges my name. He shall call upon me and I will answer him. With length of days I will gratify him and show him my salvation.

Hold in mind what you want and that is what you will be getting all the time.

Take time everyday to enter your mental world and live with your ideals,  for awhile. Realize your present conditions were unconsciously made by the same process that you are now consciously using...learn to expect that which is good and expect only what you want. Have a mental house cleaning everyday, throw away any mental indication of lack or discord, and watch events shape themselves for your benefit.

Things great or small.

The only reason you do not do great things is because you timidly cling to small things. Will you let loose of small things and bear the uncertainty of having nothing for awhile? Do this and eventually you will do great things.

Do you know what finally determines whether or not we find ourselves in the stream of wisdom and power? It is the way we take a truth we don't want to hear...all of us have degrees of resistance to the very truth that could save us...but if you're tired of paying the price, you can stop.

Even in the greatest yogin, sorrow and joy, hope and fear, still arise just as before. The difference between and ordinary person and a yogin is how they view their emotions and react to them. An ordinary person will accept or reject them, and so arouse an attachment or aversion...a yogin however. perceives everything that arises in its natural, pristine state. without allowing grasping to enter his or her perception.

...only constant self liberation of thoughts can really end the reign of delusion and really protect you from being plunged again into suffering and neurosis.

...We take our infinite Beingness, our infinite joy, and we cover it over with thoughts. We take the natural state which is unlimited, and we cover it up with thoughts of limitation. The thoughts smother this infinite Self that we are. It smothers the capacity to enjoy just being. And so all we need to do is to quiet the thoughts, or rid ourselves of all thoughts, and what's left over is the infinite, glorious Being that we are, which is our natural state. Isn't that odd? That is our natural state. That's the way we were, that's the way we're going to be. We are actually that now but we don't see it. This infinite glorious Being that we are, being absolutely perfect, can never change. It's always there. We just don't look at it. We look away from it. We look far away from it. What we should do is turn, our mind inward, and begin looking at It, and the more we look at It the more we see It.
Everything seems to point to the same direction, does it not? That happens as we get more understanding of what life and the universe are. Everything fits together more and more, and gets simpler and simpler, until there's just one absolute Simple called God. God is simple; everything else is complex. The greater the complexity, the further we are from God. God is One and only One; One without a second.

The more we love, the less we have to think. If I'm not loving you, I have to be on guard. I have to protect myself. If I'm not loving the world, I'm always protecting myself from the world which causes more and more thoughts. It puts me extremely on the defensive, and subconsciously it builds up year in and year out, and then I'm a mass of thoughts protecting myself from the world. Now if I love the world, the world can't hurt me. My thoughts get quiet; the mind gets peaceful, and the infinite Self is right there. And that’s the experience of this tremendous joy.

I and world, seer and seen, rise simultaneously, con- currently, co-dependently, and necessarily exist co- existently. The creation is instantaneous with the creator. Realize this. There is no world without the one who sees it. Realize the seer, within whom the apparency, the world, was imaged. The reality then is only the Seer.

If you don't like the world, change your consciousness. That is all there is out there (your consciousness) and it's the only thing that you can change, the only thing that you should try to change. Make the world perfect by perfecting your consciousness and all will be perfect.

See no obstacles and there will be no obstacles.

Gratefulness is a very joyous state. Want to be always happy? Maintain a state of gratitude.

Love is the Answer.

NOTE:  Pogo said, "The enemy is us." 

Since the enemy is me, I must be the enemy.  The smart thing to do, then, is to love that "enemy." 

Words like "enemy" are descriptive of something or someone that could hurt us. Labeling the ego the enemy is an aid to see how much the ego harms us.  However it is helpful for us to see that those type of words cause separation: Us versus them, me versus him or her, me versus my ego.

Separation is the source of pain and limitation. Separation from Oneness, the illusion of separation, is the cause of all the trouble, misery, suffering.

Separation is the game of the ego. Creating enemies is the game of the ego. Fighting, as in fighting enemies, is ego wanting to be separate from the All.  The real answer is to love the ego. Once we see it clearly, we see that love is always the answer.

Compassion is love. The way to egolessness and ultimate happiness is love, love of everyone and everything. 

"We have met the enemy and he is us". Pogo

*Pogo Author, Walt Kelly, first used the quote on a poster for Earth Day in 1970. For more info, visit www.igopogo.com/we_have_met.htm

The end of misery and suffering.

Every single negative thing we have ever thought or done, has ultimately arisen from our grasping at a false self, and our cherishing of that false self, making it the dearest and most important element in our lives.

All of those negative thoughts,emotions, desires and actions that are the cause of our negative karma are engendered by self grasping and self cherishing.  They are the dark, powerful magnet that attracts to us, life after life, every obstacle, every misfortune, every anguish, every disaster and so they are the root cause of all suffering of samsara (wandering from lifetime to lifetime).

When we have really grasped the law of karma in all its stark power and complex reverberations over many many lifetimes, and seen just how our self grasping and self cherishing, life after life, have woven us repeatedly into a net of ignorance that seems only to be ensnaring us more and more tightly;  when we have really understood the dangerous and doomed nature of the self grasping mind's enterprise; when we have really pursued it's operations into their most subtle hiding places;  when we have really understood just how our whole ordinary mind and actions are defined, narrowed and darkened by it, how almost impossible it makes it to uncover the heart of unconditional love and real compassion, then there comes a moment when we understand, with extreme and poignant clarity, what Shantideva said:

If all the harms

Fears and sufferings of the world

Arise from self grasping,

What need have I for such a great evil spirit?

and a resolution is born in us to destroy that evil spirit, our greatest enemy. With that evil spirit dead, the cause of all our suffering will be removed, and our true nature, in all its spaciousness and dynamic generosity, will shine out.

You can have no greater ally in this war against your greatest enemy, your own self-grasping and self-cherishing, than the practice of compassion. It is compassion, dedicating ourselves to others, taking on their suffering instead of cherishing ourselves, that hand in hand with the wisdom of egolessness destroys most effectively and most completely that ancient attachment to a false self that has been the cause of our endless wandering in samsara. That is why in our tradition we see compassion as the source of essence of enlightenment, and the heart of enlightened activity.  As Shantiveda said:

What need is there to say more? 

The childish work for their benefit,

The buddhas work for the benefit of others, 

I shall not attain the state of buddhahood

And even in samsara I shall have no real joy.

Samsara

by

Thanissaro Bhikkhu

© 2002–2010

Samsara literally means "wandering-on." Many people think of it as the Buddhist name for the place where we currently live — the place we leave when we go to nibbana. But in the early Buddhist texts, it's the answer, not to the question, "Where are we?" but to the question, "What are we doing?" Instead of a place, it's a process: the tendency to keep creating worlds and then moving into them. As one world falls apart, you create another one and go there. At the same time, you bump into other people who are creating their own worlds, too.

The play and creativity in the process can sometimes be enjoyable. In fact, it would be perfectly innocuous if it didn't entail so much suffering. The worlds we create keep caving in and killing us. Moving into a new world requires effort: not only the pains and risks of taking birth, but also the hard knocks — mental and physical — that come from going through childhood into adulthood, over and over again. The Buddha once asked his monks, "Which do you think is greater: the water in the oceans or the tears you've shed while wandering on?" His answer: the tears. Think of that the next time you gaze at the ocean or play in its waves.

In addition to creating suffering for ourselves, the worlds we create feed off the worlds of others, just as theirs feed off ours. In some cases the feeding may be mutually enjoyable and beneficial, but even then the arrangement has to come to an end. More typically, it causes harm to at least one side of the relationship, often to both. When you think of all the suffering that goes into keeping just one person clothed, fed, sheltered, and healthy — the suffering both for those who have to pay for these requisites, as well as those who have to labor or die in their production — you see how exploitative even the most rudimentary process of world-building can be.

This is why the Buddha tried to find the way to stop samsara-ing. Once he had found it, he encouraged others to follow it, too. Because samsara-ing is something that each of us does, each of us has to stop it him or her self alone. If samsara were a place, it might seem selfish for one person to look for an escape, leaving others behind. But when you realize that it's a process, there's nothing selfish about stopping it at all. It's like giving up an addiction or an abusive habit. When you learn the skills needed to stop creating your own worlds of suffering, you can share those skills with others so that they can stop creating theirs. At the same time, you'll never have to feed off the worlds of others, so to that extent you're lightening their load as well.

It's true that the Buddha likened the practice for stopping samsara to the act of going from one place to another: from this side of a river to the further shore. But the passages where he makes this comparison often end with a paradox: the further shore has no "here," no "there," no "in between." From that perspective, it's obvious that samsara's parameters of space and time were not the pre-existing context in which we wandered. They were the result of our wandering.

For someone addicted to world-building, the lack of familiar parameters sounds unsettling. But if you're tired of creating incessant, unnecessary suffering, you might want to give it a try. After all, you could always resume building if the lack of "here" or "there" turned out to be dull. But of those who have learned how to break the habit, no one has ever felt tempted to samsara again.

See also:

• "Samsara Divided by Zero," by Thanissaro Bhikkhu
• "The Round of Rebirth" in the Path to Freedom pages

Provenance: 

©2002 Thanissaro Bhikkhu.

 

Transcribed from a file provided by the author.

 

This Access to Insight edition is ©2002–2010.

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How to cite this document (one suggested style): "Samsara", by Thanissaro Bhikkhu. Access to Insight, June 5, 2010, http://www.accesstoinsight.org/lib/authors/thanissaro/samsara.html.

Alternate format:  A printed copy is included in the book The Karma of Questions.

Snake and Rope.

Let's take the snake and the rope idea, have you heard that? We see a rope on the road at dusk; we think it's a snake. The moment we think it's a snake, we're very involved in fear and want protection from this snake. There's quite an involvement so long as we think it's a snake. Now the reality is the rope; the illusion is the snake, and that is compared to the world. The world is the snake; the reality (the rope) is just behind it and
is the basis for it. So long as we keep looking at the illusion of the world we do not see the reality of it. It requires getting quiet enough with oneself to see the Reality, the basic Reality being "I Am That I Am.” 

Mentally reverse pictures of imperfection.

Lester: You see, the mind is only creative and it creates the pictures we hold in mind. Having a picture of sickness we tend to create sickness unless, as we see it, we mentally reverse what we are seeing.


Q: Would you define what you mean by "reverse"? I had a patient today, for example. I’d like to reverse the whole incident, or I'd like to see none of the imperfection, see only the perfection of God. But when I looked at the patient today, it was very difficult for me to see any perfection.


Lester: You're in a most difficult situation. It's easy for me because I have been doing it for 16 years. When people say, "Oh, this is bad, and this hurts, and the doctor said that..." I hardly hear it. I become aware that they are telling me there is imperfection. I see that they are trying to convince me of an illusion. I look at them and I know the perfect Being that they really are and I immediately reverse the apparent imperfection by seeing their perfection. The Truth of our Beingness is absolute perfection. The more you study the truth of Perfection, the more you will realize and know it, the more you will see what they say is an apparency and the more able you will be to take care of it. But it's going to take a knowingness on your part of the Truth behind this world. That Truth is its beingness, its existence (which is the source of its apparency).

There is nothing in the universe that can harm us but 

our acceptance of thoughts we can be harmed.

Having an intention for everything you do smoothes out your day.

Hold in Mind what you want and that is what you will be getting all the time.

Yes

The Warriors approach is to say "Yes" to life: Yea to it all.

The call to leave and find a new adventure.

The call is to leave a certain social situation, move into your own loneliness and find the jewel, the center that's impossible to find when you're socially engaged. You're thrown off center, and you feel off center, it's time to go.  This is the departure when the hero feels something has been lost and goes to find it.  You are to cross a threshold into new life.  It's a dangerous adventure because  you are moving out of the sphere of knowledge of you and your community.  Pg 77

When one thinks of not going or remains in society because it's safe, the results are radically different from what happens when one follows the call.  If you refuse to go, then you are someone else's servant.  When this refusal of the call happens, there is a kind of drying up, a sense of life lost. Everything in you knows that a required adventure has been refused. Pg 78

Turn in the direction of the Self.

The rule is: as often as you feel troubled, pained, perplexed, tried or tempted, put to yourself the question: "Whom does this trouble?" 'Whom does this pain?' "Whom does this perplex?"  "Whom does this try?" "Whom does this tempt?" ---as the case may be.  
After putting the appropriate question to yourself, pause, still your thoughts so far as you can, and repeat the "listening in" process with which your mental work has familiarized you.  This practice opens up your consciousness to the Self and surrounds it with the the latter's protection. To switch off instantly into this quest of the spiritual Self, when suddenly faced by an evil event, is to obliterate the power of this event to disturb the mind. Then, whateever necessary action will be taken will be wise and correct...


By turning inward to the Self we automatically refuse to accept the suggestions of discordant experience. When trouble arises we must refuse to accept the suggestions of despair or doubt which pour in upon the mond; instead we should calm the breathing and turn instantly and inquire: "To whom has this thought come?"  If we could reject and reject persistently, each unpleasant, unhappy and spiritually untrue thought as it arises, we should indeed be happy mortals..."Lift up your eyes to the heavens," admonsihed Isaiah. This turning inward of the faculty of attention necessarily weakens the strength of disharmonious and unplasant emotions which may be attacking us.

Ultimate Nature of Reality.

The Ultimate nature of reality is indiscriminate; reality is what is.  The truest sign of an awakened heart is it is an indiscriminate lover of what is. This means it loves everything, because it sees everything as itself. Once the unconditional love starts to open up within us, it is the way reality expresses itself. Reality being in love with itself expresses itself through an awakened heart.

Power of expelling thoughts.

It is one of the prominent doctrines of some of the oriental schools of practical psychology that the power of expelling thoughts, or if need be, killing them on the spot must be attained.  Naturally the art requires practice, but like other arts, when once acquired there is no mystery or difficulty about it. It is worth practice. It has been fairly said that life only begins when this art is acquired. If you can kill a thought dead, for the time being...it not only frees a person from mental torment (which is nine tenths at least of the torment of life),  but it gives a concentrated power... absolutely unknown before.

Thought determines matter...

In this dream illusion, there's a thing called thought which determines the course of all matter.

Push your feelings...

As you move into a situation, push your feelings into whatever lies ahead---soon you will find information from Universal Law that has a way of jumping at you unexpectedly.

Here, Now.

You think eternity is there. You think your life is here and HE may come into your life or HE may not. No, No. That source of eternal energy is here, in you, now.

Argue for your limitations...

Argue for your limitations and sure enough they're yours.

Conviction of Presence of God

The moment I have the conviction that there is nothing here but the Presence of God, healing will take place.

The only thought you need...

The only thought you need is your constant remembrance of your relationship to God.

Desire/Want

...an assumption of lack causing a wish to fufill it.

You are that which you are seeking...

The true knowledge of the self is not knowledge. It is not something you find by searching, by looking everywhere. It is not to be found in space or time. Knowledge is but a memory, a pattern of thought, a mental habit. All these are motivated by pleasure and pain. It is because you are goaded by pleasure and pain that you are in search of knowledge. Being oneself is completely beyond all motivation. You cannot be yourself for some reason. You are yourself, and no reason is needed.

Meaning and Purpose

With the remnants of the egoic structure still in place, it's sometimes easy to get caught in a state of meaningless and purposeless. From an awakened point of view, to say there's no meaning and no purpose is tremendously positive.  And it is positive because one has something better than meaning or purpose. One has awakened as the very essence of existence itself. What could have more meaning than that? What could have more purpose than that?