Have you ever lost your car keys? You know they are somewhere, but everywhere you look you don't find them. The act of not finding your keys perpetuates the cycle of looking, until eventually, hopefully, you find your keys.
What about when we look for a self?
When you look for the self as an independent, truly existing identity, you don't find it. The self is dependent and conditioned by the world around us. Keep looking.
When you look for the self as an agent or actor, you don't find it. Every intention and choice is predicated on something else, there is no agent who functions autonomously independent of the environment or situations. Keep looking.
When you look for the self as the experiencer or witness behind the continuum of your life, you don't find it. The subjective experiencer must experience some thing, so by its very nature experience is compounded and dependent. Keep looking.
When you look for the self as the awareness that knows oneself, you don't find it. Awareness isn't a thing, there is no location, no essential beingness, nothing to hold onto. Self-knowing awareness doesn't find a self, what it finds is selflessness. There is no ground of awareness, awareness is empty yet luminous cognizance.
Search for the self until you don't find it. When you don't find the self, you discover selflessness. Stabilize that experience of finding empty but luminous cognizance, which opens the door to the path of meditation.
. . . . .
Still time to register for the Meditation Workshop this weekend.
Hope to see you on the cushion!
No comments:
Post a Comment