I am caught between these two extreme views.
Either "I am" because I think, OR "I am" because I want.
With "my muse" I existed so profoundly. The world was Real because I had this profound passion that rooted me to this world.
Without the passion I am lost, adrift upon the ocean.
This is the doubt that still exists in me: unresolved. The body related to the world in many ways. Thought is only one sense, one way of expressing oneself. The body is diverse and we can express ourselves through physical means also. In the realm of sexuality and sensuality there is whole arena of expression. Why should thought be primary?
There is no central thing in this world. The mind is not characterised by thought, it is not characterised by emotion, desire, sensuality. All these are upon a level playing field. The mind has no character: why promote one over the other?
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3 comments:
"Through many a birth
I wandered in samsara,
Seeking, but not finding
The builder (craving) of this house (body- the five aggregates).
Painful it is to be born again and again.
"O house-builder! You are seen.
You shall build no house again.
All your rafters (defilements) are broken.
Your ridgepole (ignorance) is shattered.
My mind has attained the unconditioned.
Achieved is the end of craving."
Dh 153-154 "Udana Vatthu" ("Words of Exultation") spoken by the Buddha after his Great Enlightenment
yes, thought is not the mind. however unnecessary thought processes most of the time layer the mind and we may mistakenly think that those thought processes are the mind.
On the contrary, the mind is pure and is used as a vehicle to know and to see things as they really are. If we were to start perceiving, thought processes crop up and those unwholesome thought processes would most likely lead to negative mental states which means a mind that is not calm.
hence meditation to calm the mind, so that the mind can distinguish itself from the unnessary thought processes and just watch them arising and falling, basically to see them as they really are. then perhaps we can be at peace once our mind is calmed and tamed :)
perhaps seeing things as they are with the mind is only possible in the human realm so that renders the mind quite superior? and the mind when is calm and could see things as they are could liberate us from suffering, from attachment to the body, wants, desires.
The mind can be used to develop wisdom which can replace wrong view with right view. We should perhaps learn to calm our mind and not be blinded by the unnecessary thought processes and to be guided by the Dhamma.
"As one born blind, who gropes along
without assistance from a guide,
chooses a road that may be right
at one time, at another wrong
so while the foolish man pursues
the round of births without a guide,
now to do merit he may choose
and now demerit in such plight.
But when the Law (dhamma) he comes to know
and penetrates the Truths (the 4 Noble Truth) beside
Then ignorance is put to flight
at last, and he in peace may go."
(Bhadantacariya Buddhaghosa "Visuddhimagga (the Path of Purification)" XV11.118-119 quoted in Teaching and Training, Pa Auk Forest Monastery p 28)
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