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Redux: In Mind

Posted January 16th, 2009 by Michael McAlister

I wrote about this in Chapter 4 of AiTL. Here’s another look.

Past and future veil God from our sight.
Burn both of them with fire.
—Rumi
What is troubling us is the tendency to believe that the mind is like a little man within.
—Ludwig Von Wittgenstein

The only version of time that is infused with Awareness is this very moment. The present moment, or the Now, is always here. Always. It is never absent. In fact, there has never been any time other than Now. Something in the past may arise in our minds as a memory, but it still arises in the Now. Something in the future may arise in our minds as anticipation, but even this only ever shows up in the Now. From this moment, the past extends infinitely. From this moment, the future also extends infinitely. Therefore, the present moment is forever at the center of all existence. Just like Awareness, the Now never moves. The causes and conditions that arise in the Now might change, but the Now itself is always simply right here. The present moment itself is simply always, already, forever outside the boundary of past and future, never falling behind or moving ahead. It is in all ways just this. When we connect with this present moment with our full attention, we can actually experience what the Zen tradition calls “No Mind.” No Mind shows itself when the mind lets go of itself and connects spontaneously to the impersonal experience of the Awareness that exists between each and every thought that we might have. In this spaciousness offered by the present moment, we are totally alert yet unfettered by anything personal.

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Selfless climbing

Posted January 16th, 2009 by Linda Hollier

 

In “Zen and the Art of Motorcyle Maintenance”, Robert M. Pirsig makes a distinction between ego climbing and selfless climbing.  He writes:

“To the untrained eye ego-climbing and selfless climbing may appear identical.  Both kinds of climbers place one foot in front of the other.  Both breathe in and out at the same rate.  Both stop when tired.  Both go forward when rested.  But what a difference!  The ego-climber is like an instrument that’s out of adjustment.  He puts his foot down an instant too soon or too late.  He’s likely to miss a beautiful passage of sunlight through the trees.  He goes on when the sloppiness of his step shows he’s tired.  He rests at odd times.  He looks up the trail trying to see what’s ahead even when he knows what’s ahead because he just looked a second before.  He goes too fast or too slow for the conditions and when he talks his talk is forever about somewhere else, something else.  He’s here but he’s not here. He rejects the here, is unhappy with it, wants to be farther up the trail but when he gets there will be just as unhappy because then the it will be ‘here.’  What he is looking for, what he wants, is all around him, but he doesn’t want that because it is all around him.  Every step’s an effort both physically and spiritually because he imagines his goal to be external and distant.”