Through the door and Not Through the door

In Chinese Buddhism they have this saying where "the door" refers to the senses. It is not to be understood in a Western way of there existing a "being" or "self" who can move through the sense door or remain within the body or mind. But it is similar.

It means whether we are attracted out into the world by desire. So for example we like fast cars. Suppose we wake up in the morning peaceful and "centred." We go out to the shops to get some food and on the way see a beautiful car parked by the road. Now if we examine our mind it has a choice. It can either go through the senses or not.

To go through the senses is to mobilise our self around the car. Perhaps we will make a resolution to commit to getting one for our self. Or perhaps we will be frustrated in this and instead turn backwards and negative and generate envy or hatred. We may even decide we don't like the car after all to avoid this process. Or perhaps we will be more gentle and just admire it for a while before collecting ourselves again and continuing to the shops.

A lesser known approach is to not go through the senses. That means ultimately not to be stirred by the car at all. Now it doesn't mean we don't like cars, but we don't own that. Liking cars is just another things we do like going to the shops. It means we are always centred. It seems like there is no win not going through the senses. We don't gain anything, have nothing to do and have nothing to show for our time. This is partly correct. We do of course see cars we like and we do go to the shops as before, but we don't own that. Its just something that we do. We could even make a commitment to getting a car like that for our self. Such a goal is possible. But it would not be "our goal" we don't own it. When we finally pay for the car and have it delivered we can stand there looking at it just like the one we originally saw and only one thing has changed now we can get into the car and drive it. Its a very real change, but not that big. The point is that throughout all this we have not gone through the door and have remained centred. The car is not-us and always lies outside, making it more arbitrary and removed.

It takes practice.