With respect,
Looking at your computer screen, what do you see? We might say, "a blog note." Or we might say, "my screen." But whatever you say, it will only be a thought. A concept socially developed and agreed upon, but what is it before we have named it? A "blog note" is just what we call what we are seeing. I am asking us to look through the concept.
In our everyday life we rarely pay attention to the "true nature," the "original nature," of what we are looking. Earlier this evening I sat out under the stars with a sky map open on my iPhone. I saw stars and checked their names. I would be a far cry from the truth of the matter if I thought the names were the stars. The stars are not their names. Nor are they "stars." Stars is what they are called, that is all. But as I sat there and looked at them as they were, something else emerged.
In such silence truth emerges: we are infinitesimal creatures on a very tiny planet in a tiny galaxy amid a universe of others. We might come to the conclusion that what we think does not matter, nor does what we do in the greater scheme of things. Is that so?
Everyday life is close, not distant. We are living creatures amid other living creatures: the grand scale of the universe is not our realm, the everyday actions of each of us is our domain.
I asked in Part One, how to keep our original mind in everyday life. The answer is simpleL pay attention. Mindfully paying attention to ourselves within interaction is key to living a "Zen" life. If you think this is easy, try it for an hour.
Looking at your computer screen, what do you see? We might say, "a blog note." Or we might say, "my screen." But whatever you say, it will only be a thought. A concept socially developed and agreed upon, but what is it before we have named it? A "blog note" is just what we call what we are seeing. I am asking us to look through the concept.
In our everyday life we rarely pay attention to the "true nature," the "original nature," of what we are looking. Earlier this evening I sat out under the stars with a sky map open on my iPhone. I saw stars and checked their names. I would be a far cry from the truth of the matter if I thought the names were the stars. The stars are not their names. Nor are they "stars." Stars is what they are called, that is all. But as I sat there and looked at them as they were, something else emerged.
In such silence truth emerges: we are infinitesimal creatures on a very tiny planet in a tiny galaxy amid a universe of others. We might come to the conclusion that what we think does not matter, nor does what we do in the greater scheme of things. Is that so?
Everyday life is close, not distant. We are living creatures amid other living creatures: the grand scale of the universe is not our realm, the everyday actions of each of us is our domain.
I asked in Part One, how to keep our original mind in everyday life. The answer is simpleL pay attention. Mindfully paying attention to ourselves within interaction is key to living a "Zen" life. If you think this is easy, try it for an hour.
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