Formal meditation is a temporary expedient

[deci belle]

I wrote this quite a while back on one of the Dharma Overground forums in response to one of the thoughtful contributors to the thread and someone recently quoted my post and left a nice comment last month.

Formal meditation is a temporary expedient.

Initially, its purpose is to create a habit of overarching, then subtle observation of mind at all times.  There is a reason for this, but it is provisional, and I don't do that.  Formal meditation is not "good", per se. Unless it is serving the purpose of consciously cultivated temporary expediency, its relevance to the self which thinks good or bad, right or wrong and before or after in terms of self and other is a significant error in which effective authentic self-refinement is obstructed.  

Since the initial "high" produced by the kind of "artificial meditation" practiced by some beginners habituated to identification by their "achievements" in contemplative arts wears off anyway and is essentially ineffective, for the most part, in dealing face to face with ordinary situations to any great extent, it is best to do whatever is necessary to hit the ground running, so to speak, in terms of turning the light around in order to effect seeing reality, as is, cold turkey— and wean oneself of self-reifying identity issues with practice done in private, as soon as reasonably possible. I'm not saying one shouldn't pursue "just sitting" in private meditation venues— the point is that formal meditation is a TEMPORARY expedient. The point of effective self-refinement is to see reality, as is, without any filters perpetuated by the psychological apparatus of the being that is going to die by activating the inherent potential of nonpsychological awareness.
 

Seeing the essence of complete reality is seeing reality with the Dharma eye of nonpsychological awareness— it's your own mind right now.

What is reality? Unity of absolute and relative is the working definition of reality.  Nondual nature is your nature.  Consequently, Nirvana and Karmic evolution are not only equal, they are identical.  This is the basis of the saying "sameness within difference", though there are several aspects in terms of dealing with the conceptual device relative to the various provisional teachings within buddhism.

Arriving at nonduality in terms of everyday ordinary affairs is essential to buddhist practice.  Actually, it is the working definition of enlightening being.  Enlightening being is the function of awareness.  Awareness is your nature.  Awareness, your own mind right now, is not created.  Seeing reality is activating the mind without dwelling on anything.  The only reason this is possible is because your own mind right now is unborn.  Mind is one, undifferentiated, selfless, void of identity.  It's you.  People aren't just already enlightened— they're enlightened mind incarnate. I need to remind people that it's not the person …but it's not somewhere or something else either.

Real 24/7 meditation practice is seeing through phenomena without denying their characteristics.  Taoist alchemy calls this refining the medicines.  Buddhism calls this using the sickness to cure the disease.  It's not about meditation, after all.  You can take all the provisional entry-level teachings and use them as applications of the real in the midst of the false in broad daylight unbeknownst to anyone. This is having the gumption to move beyond the zero-point of the intent of all provisional teachings and thereby gain entry into the inconceivable.

It's about using the world to refine the self; using conditions to arrive at essential nature.  This cannot be accomplished by quiet sitting alone.

That's because, reality is already Mind— your mind, right now.  Perhaps you are not ready to hear this.

Reality is relative to your mind in terms of the degree of one's clarified enlightening potential.  As long as your mind is habituated to the view of its separate nature, you will not see essence in everyday affairs.  After a long process of self-refinement carried out correctly and effectively in everyday ordiary situations, the self-reifying mental habits that perpetuate the illusion of the separate self-identity as ultimately existent will die off, bit by bit, and that much of your primordial potential will be activted as the selfless function of awareness.  Actually using this is selfless adaption; activating the subtle operation of spiritual transformations in the midst of worldly situations.

Nonduality realized all the time is seeing the physical, psychological, psychic, emotional, causal matrix of karmic evolution (Creation) as void of self— because that's what it is (no different than you, that is, void of self).  Going along with this, just as it is, knowing it as utter illusion— how could you possibly bring yourself to act on behalf of situations arising from this insane chaos, good, bad or indifferent?

Acceptance of conditions is "going along— not denying characteristics".  Not acting on conditions is "seeing through phenomena".  The sense of nonattachment to outcomes aids in adapting to the inevitable where unavoidable— the ups and downs look just like reality: therefore "perfection is easy for those with no preferences."

Soon enough, you may come to the working strategy that this entire malestrom of karmic momentum is just your perception of it.  Otherwise, it just doesn't make ANY sense …to leave it up to the world, and fortunately, you don't have to.  YOU take total responsibility for your sensory perception and mental postures.  It doesn't require doing— just meeting and accepting conditions for what they are— illusion.  If you can come to the temporary working realization that phenomena is what reality looks like without having the slightest shred of belief it its ultimate nature, then it might be possible to endeavor to work at adapting to conditions as they present themselves out of a sense of inevitability without clinging to good or bad outcomes.

Quote

Selflessness is nonattachment to outcomes.

  It's not a thing. There is no moral implication in terms of selflessness— it's impersonal.  That's mind.

This is actually an entry to the buddha's teaching of Suchness and thus carrying out the activation of enlightening potential and partaking of the Great Vehicle of Tathagatas.  This is penetrating reality, in fact.  Right in front of your nose is this nondual reality 24/7.  As such, it is so whether you are aware of it or not.  In terms of the point of meditation in the first place, and the fact of reality, it is Mind alone.

The lesser vehicle of personal liberation is a temporary expedient as well …why is this?  It's another lie to trick you into the path, that's all.

That Suchness is reality is nominally due to the fact that it is neither absolute nor conditional.  Both Nirvana and Creation are the same illusion.  One is your mind before creation and the other is after.  Clinging to one or the other is delusion.  Neither absolute stillness nor karmic momentum is the essence of reality unified, present and naturally so, without ever entering creation, which is your nature already.

Even those who experience sudden enlightenment must learn to realize this truth by APPLYING it in the midst of situations seamlessly according to its potential.

You can begin to see this if you can dismiss your dependent relationships on circumstantial interpretations.  Reality doesn't look any different than delusion when your relationships to circumstances are not dependent on outcomes, good or bad.

Perpetual unity with reality is just subtly activated nonpsychological awareness of the essential underlying nature of impersonal circumstantial process as your own potential void of attributabilty in terms of an absolute personal identity.

When you act based on karmic dependence, you change inherent selfless enlightening potential into karmic debt.

Ouch!

 

 

ed note: add to the 2nd line, 3rd paragraph; add "of" in first line of 15th paragraph

Edited November 16, 2018 by deci belle