The etymology of the word 'paradox' is interesting - "contrary to" (see para), plus doxa "opinion," from dokein "to appear, seem, think.." i.e., a statement that is not false, per se, but is contrary to what appears to be the case...
Does a mirage cease to be a mirage when I know it's not real water? The point being, that once I know it's a mirage, it ceases to fool me, which kind of nullifies its status as a mirage, and, at the very least, saves wasted effort across hot desert sand or across the gym to the voting booth. Paradoxically, a mirage sounds like a metaphor for something deep and true. Mirrors make us pause to reflect.
Do we see the way we do because we believe we are separate, or do we believe we are separate because we see the way we do?
It is difficult to transcend the ego when we realize that our five senses, configured as they are, constantly reinforce the inference that I, the perceiver, am situated just here, looking out at the world through stereoscopic vision eyeballs that transmit visual data to some magical imprint mechanism in my brain.
This perceptual setup constantly reinforces the sense that 'I' am located somewhere in here behind these eyes. The eyes deliver the outside world in a way that distances everything from me through the phenomenon of perspective. The further away from me an object, the smaller it appears to be, until it disappears. Conversely, the closer it gets, the larger it gets and the more completely it fills my field of vision until, if it is right up against my face, it disappears in a different way by blocking out perception altogether. Seeing and hearing powerfully reinforce the notion that I am separate from everything outside my body, therefor, I must somehow be contained in or confined within this meat body equipped with five sensory input channels.
MAD changes all that; an acronym for Meditation, Awakening and Death, any one of which can radically alter one's point of view concerning one's essential identity or true, original nature. Death here does not refer only to the death of the physical body. One can 'die' to old ways of thinking and being that do not serve awakening to the truth of non-separation from the fullness of Being. As you might also have guessed by now, seeing does not refer only to seeing with one's physical eyes. Meditation is a very effective tool for learning a way of seeing that is a way of understanding or realization.
This perceptual setup constantly reinforces the sense that 'I' am located somewhere in here behind these eyes. The eyes deliver the outside world in a way that distances everything from me through the phenomenon of perspective. The further away from me an object, the smaller it appears to be, until it disappears. Conversely, the closer it gets, the larger it gets and the more completely it fills my field of vision until, if it is right up against my face, it disappears in a different way by blocking out perception altogether. Seeing and hearing powerfully reinforce the notion that I am separate from everything outside my body, therefor, I must somehow be contained in or confined within this meat body equipped with five sensory input channels.
MAD changes all that; an acronym for Meditation, Awakening and Death, any one of which can radically alter one's point of view concerning one's essential identity or true, original nature. Death here does not refer only to the death of the physical body. One can 'die' to old ways of thinking and being that do not serve awakening to the truth of non-separation from the fullness of Being. As you might also have guessed by now, seeing does not refer only to seeing with one's physical eyes. Meditation is a very effective tool for learning a way of seeing that is a way of understanding or realization.
electrons flying in from everywhere
The projector is as empty as the projection, perceiver as empty as perceived. What to infer? Reality (including both subject & object) is like one of those 3D picture books, only when you adjust your focus correctly, instead of the 3D image emerging, everything disappears... not into a null void, but into a clarity that outshines all form. The energetic continuum between conscious subject and perceived object constitutes the phenomenal aspect of a prior awareness that belongs to no one but which manifests as everyone and all things.
dancing with respect and reverence...
MC: Something Ted Thompson once wrote that I like: "You can't really even imagine a second awareness."
Colin: Not without it immediately becoming an object (of awareness) :)
MC: You mean that an imaginary observer imagines itself to be a "separate awareness"?
Colin: Great Question, Michael. Inasmuch as 'separate awareness' seems to be an oxymoron, I would concur that imagination plays a role in its constellation. Jackson Peterson uses the term "conceptual designation" to describe the ongoing process by means of which this tsunami of objects and object relations arises to entertain, seduce and scare the hell out of all us hyperactive conceptual designators.
MC: "Conceptual designators Unite!" It's the rallying cry of all organizations and cults. Franklin Jones called it "The cult of Narcissus" when any particular lone conceptual entity is self-believed.
Lost in Translation
M.C.: There is no second awareness. Consciousness and awareness are synonyms. The character in a dream is none other than the dreamer. There are no plurality of dreamers, or of consciousnesses. Thought trains seemingly tied to body-minds are not the playing out of any sort of "relative consciousness".
Any comments appreciated.
Colin Yardley: Having read more than a few statements like this over the years, they are beginning to register with me as a form of semantic bubble dancing that goes something like.... "Things are not what they seem. Nothing exists for itself or by itself. Everything, including thoughts, objects, consciousness and today's Zulily Catalgoue is nothing other than THAT. THAT (Awareness!) is one without a second." This is reductionism in spiritual drag. Everything is reduced to Awareness only. Yet no one has a clue what Awareness is, other than to point to it endlessly by means of equations, metaphors, symbols and syllogisms playing out in relative consciousness, always downstream of awareness which effortlessly notices the language axe hacking away at the trunk of bliss. Years ago, a woman in a workshop run by a wild Sufi teacher, blurted out ecstatically, "We're all one! I've got it. We're absolutely all one!" The Sufi replied, "Of course we're all one. Now, how are we different?"
Any comments appreciated.
Colin Yardley: Having read more than a few statements like this over the years, they are beginning to register with me as a form of semantic bubble dancing that goes something like.... "Things are not what they seem. Nothing exists for itself or by itself. Everything, including thoughts, objects, consciousness and today's Zulily Catalgoue is nothing other than THAT. THAT (Awareness!) is one without a second." This is reductionism in spiritual drag. Everything is reduced to Awareness only. Yet no one has a clue what Awareness is, other than to point to it endlessly by means of equations, metaphors, symbols and syllogisms playing out in relative consciousness, always downstream of awareness which effortlessly notices the language axe hacking away at the trunk of bliss. Years ago, a woman in a workshop run by a wild Sufi teacher, blurted out ecstatically, "We're all one! I've got it. We're absolutely all one!" The Sufi replied, "Of course we're all one. Now, how are we different?"
