Little quotes

Reality is all-encompassing: the absolute nature is one. Although we may feel separate from the original uncreated reality - whether we call it 'God,' 'peak experience,' or 'enlightened mind' - through awareness we can contact this essential part of ourselves. - Tarthang Tulku...

Little quotes

"Even the intellectual understanding of the inexistence of our 'selves' is a rare and bitter attainment which few even attempt. And that is only the elimination round which qualifies us for access to Reality... Intellectual understanding should be not indispensable to a 'simple' mind, but, with our conditioning, it would seem to be an almost inevitable preliminary." - Why Lazurus Laughed by Wei Wu Wei...

What is love?

Chow: What is love?

Old man: I do not know.

Chow: Does it exist in duality?

Old man: You're finally learning something. Yes. Love is a concept, and a concept being a concept requires it to exist in duality. Every form of teaching deals in concepts and thus every form of teaching must be false. Love exist in duality and thus it is unreal.

Chow: What is the mirror reflection of love?

Old man: Hate.

Chow: Love and hate are one?

Old man: Correct.

Chow: What about the love demonstrated by the Gaotama or Jesus?

Old man: That is not love. They are merely doing what they must according to cosmic necessity. There is much difference between a Gaotama and a Boddhidarma to the naked eye but they are both enlightened beings. They were simply doing what they must by not identifying themselves with the false ego. To the eyes of an unenlightened person, Gaotama's actions can be interpreted as "loving" while Boddhidharma's "unloving" but every form of evaluation is false. It is not love that you saw, it is something more. Not something that a word could describe.

Chow: So are you saying that they can't love?

Old man: How could they? In order to love, they must hate as well. Love is dependent upon hate. Just like good and evil - evil is defined by good and vice versa. Love is defined by hate as well, they are essentially one. There are no words to describe what the enlightened beings experience.

Chow: So are you saying all form of loving is wrong?

Old man: As long as you could not detach yourself from the "I", every form of loving or even hating will exist in duality thus making it unreal. I do not use the word "right" or "wrong" because these two are also mirror reflections of each other and thus could not be used to describe anything. The term "real" and "unreal" bears more meaning whereby the former pertains to the ultimate truth and the latter a reality misapprehended. And one's ultimate goal is to be able to acquire wisdom in which will allow one to see things "as they are in reality" instead of looking at mirror reflections, thus reducing one's world to nothing but an illusion.

Chow: So are you saying that I should stop loving?

Old man: How could you? As long you're not enlightened, you are bound to love thus hate, and you are also bound to hate thus love. It is your ego to love and hate. To discipline the ego is to fight a never ending battle. It will be like trying to "unfish" a fish, or to "unbird" a bird. The ego can only be dissolved by realizing its not there. And until you come to that realization, there is nothing you can do to stop loving and/or hating.

Chow: So what should I do?

Old man: Nothing.

Chow: So are you saying that I should love and hate until the end of time?

Old man: By doing nothing you are allowing yourself to be aware. Only in a state of awareness can you learn to observe. And only by being more observant can you see the truth. The more you try to stop yourself from hating, the more you deviate from the truth. No discipline is required here. Just do absolutely nothing and let things be.

Chow: So if I love?

Old man: Then love with every beat of your heart.

Chow: Won't that generate hate?

Old man: Then hate with every beat of your heart as well.

Chow: Won't that make me suffer?

Old man: Its either you look, look at once and become enlightened... or you make friends with misery and let it be your teacher. There is nothing else you can do.

What is mine?

Chow: What is mine?

Old man: I do not know. I can't give meaning to something which is unreal.

Chow: What do you mean?

Old man: The idea of "my", "mine", and "me" arose out of your idea of the "I". And because the "I" is not real, thus everything that arose from it must therefore be equally unreal as well.

Chow: Why is the "I" unreal?

Old man: The "I" exist as long as you continue to identify yourself as a separate entity from the universe. Because you still think that there is the seer and the seen thus arose the idea of an "I", "mine", "me" or "you", "yours" etc. But in reality, this distinction is not there. We are one with the universe. On the plane of existence, "I" is the mirror image of "you". It is because "you" exist that "I" can. The existence of the "I" depends on the "you". They are not a "thing-in-itself". And like I've told you before, everything that connotes duality must not be real. They are nothing but a reality misapprehended.

Chow: If the "you" and "I" is not real, then why do we continue to use it everyday?

Old man: Because you still need the "you" and "I" in everyday conversations for the sake of pragmatism, just so that the world can continue to function. The problem however, is not with the word itself, the problem is your attachment to the "I".

Chow: This is absurd! If there is no "I", then obviously other words such as "my", "mine" and "me" loses its meaning!

Old man: That is correct.

Chow: So are you saying that there is no "my", no "mine" and no "me"?

Old man: That is correct.

Chow: And if there is no "my", no "mine" and no "me", then obviously "I" can't own anything!

Old man: That is correct.

Chow takes out his cellphone and place it in front of the old man.

Chow: I bought this phone yesterday and I still have the receipt with me. This is MY phone and I own it! And if I can buy a phone and limit its use exclusively to ME, then what is stopping me from owning it?

The old man takes the phone in his hands, and tossed it far out into the ocean.

Chow: What the fuck are you doing!?? That is MY phone!!

Old man: No. That is not your phone. Now it belongs to the ocean and all its inhabitants.

Chow: Thats because you fucking threw it into the fucking sea!

Old man: But if the phone is truly "yours" and "yours alone", how did I manage to throw it away?

Chow: So... So nothing is mine?

Old man: In reality, we are one with the universe. Nothing, and everything is yours.

Little anecdotes

The leaves shed from the tree unto the earth. They were walking through the woods together and Ananda became more and more anxious with every step he took. Gaotama sensed that there was tension in the air and stopped and looked at him with a smile.

"Is there something you want to tell me, Ananda?"

Shocked, he lifted his head turning his attention away from the dried leaves on the ground of which he was stepping on, and gazed into the eyes of Gaotama, so full of compassion.

"Yes master, I have a burning question. I have not dared to ask because you were always surrounded by people, I know they need your guidance more than I do, thus I wait. But now that we're alone I would like to ask you this question."

"What is it that you want to ask me?" says Gaotama.

"Did you tell us everything that you knew, or is there something else that you're not saying?"

Gaotama just smiled and bent down towards the earth and picked up a bunch of dried leaves in his hands then showed it to Ananda.

"You see this bunch of dried leaves?"
"Yes?" Ananda replied anxiously.
"I have but told you this much, yet there is a forest full of dried leaves that I did not say."

Feeling disappointed, Ananda asked, "why master?"

"Because you couldn't even understand this much, what is the point of telling you everything?"

Why can't I give up sex?

Chow: Why can’t I give up sex?

Old man: Every form of attachment arise out of the failure to detach from the false ego, the false me, the “I”, the “my” and the “me”. In giving up so, you would have attained what we call “satori” or “enlightenment”. But until then, you will remain bound to illusions.

Chow: Is there anything I can do?

Old man: Detachment has got nothing to do with “doing”, it has only got to do with the “right understanding”. You should know this by now.

Chow: How do you mean?

Old man: Just like the fact that you came to the realization that its not only detrimental, but actually futile to be attached to anything or anyone, thus you automatically abstain yourself from being engaged in whatsoever relationships and start losing interest in friends and family. You do so because you “know”. Not because you think you know. You have the experiential wisdom instead of the intellectual. Did it require any effort on your part?

Chow: No… it just happened.

Old man: Exactly. Any form of effort will only bring you further away from detachment. In fact you are just attaching yourself to something else by putting effort.

Chow: And sex?

Old man: Until you acquire the right understanding, it is simply not your time to detach yourself from it.

Chow: So when is my time?

Old man: I do not know.

Chow: Does this mean I’m meant to suffer while waiting for my time to come?

Old man: As the Lord Buddha once mentioned, our karma, determined by our past actions, will decide whatever that unfolds. What will happen, will never fail to happen, no matter how hard you try to prevent it. And what won’t happen, will never happen, no matter how much effort you put into it. You are simply paying your old debts, simply reaping the fruits from which the seeds you sew. And if you sow the seeds of lust, this is what you get. This is the law of nature. Not only you, but everybody suffers until their time arrives.

Chow: But there must be a way to rid myself of the sufferings.

Old man: There is no way. Just like Ramana and Krishnamurti, liberated though they may be, they died painfully of cancer. Pain is definitely inevitable due to their past actions. But the difference between you and them, is that they have realized the futility of reacting to their sufferings thus whatever they experience, they observe, and they observe steadily. That way, no new seeds are sown, and once they are done paying their debts, they pass on into the unknown. Every form of reaction is a new seed sew, and you will have to reap it someday just as long as you do not realize the truth to the universe.

Chow: So are you saying that I do nothing?

Old man: What else can you do?

Chow: I can meditate!

Old man: Is meditating not an action? Is meditating not a reaction to your current situation? You can not meditate. To say that “I can meditate” shows how little you understand about “meditation”. Meditation is a state you be in, it is a state of awareness, just like how the entire life of a buddha is essentially nothing but meditation. To meditate connotes action whereby you are still stuck in the “doing”. To be in meditation connotes non-action, this way you can “be”.

Chow: Nonsense! In that case, then why did the Buddhas invented techniques of meditation?

Old man: As a trap. Because you have been so obsessed with “doing”, it becomes almost impossible to help you realize your nature. In order to slow you down, they will first have to trap you. And since you can only understand “doing”, thus they invent various techniques that involve “doing”, except this time you do nothing. What have you been doing while practicing vipassana?

Chow: I sit around and do nothing.

Old man: Viola!

Chow: So are you saying that I should stop meditating?

Old man: Keep meditating. Just like the great teacher Goenka mentioned, the secret of success lies in the continuity of practice.

Chow: What!? Now you tell me to meditate after telling me that meditating is nothing but a trap?

Old man: A trap it may be. But did you not realize all this while being trapped?

Chow: I did.

Old man: Then what seems to be the problem?