"How would this moment be if you were unable to access thought?"
Pamela Wilson

And see what Don has to say:

v

"Do you see the fruitless ping-pong play of concept against concept? The only problem is that there are concepts. This conceptualization hides the Truth.
...
"To see the Emptiness of concepts is to see their essence, which is Freedom. And in this seeing even the seer disappears."
Karl Renz

"The seer disappears?", you might ask. "I don't want to disappear!", you say.
This is again conceptualization. Seeing requires a seer and what is seen. This is the triad of misperception. But it is all conceptualizing to view this process this way. You Are. You are not this and that. Who you Are never appeared. So how could you disappear? Those are dualistic concepts.
On the other hand, maybe you Are this and that. Again, the Mahavakya:

The world is unreal.
Only the Absolute is Real.
The world is the Absolute.

"There must be some kinda way outta here,
Said the joker to the thief.
There's too much confusion--
I can't get no relief..."
Bob Dylan, All Along the Watchtower


"The main thing is to see that there's no need for a way out. And in this resignation--the realization that you're the essence or substratum of what is--there's no way out because you are the very source of what is. Only then is there peace."
Karl Renz

Forgetting our original oneness, bound tightly in our imaginary separateness, we spend our lives mastered by a specious sense of purpose and value. Endlessly constrained by our habit of individuation, the creature of preference and desire, we continually set one thing against another, until the mischief and misery of choice consume us.
But our true nature is pure and choiceless awareness. We are already and always fulfilled. 'It is easy,' says Ashtavakra. 'You are the clear space of awareness, pure and still, in whom there is no birth, no striving, no "I".'

Thomas Byrom

As Don Iannone puts it in his Conscious Living Journal,
"all things in life are equal".

And consider that the word mischief breaks down like this:
mis-chief.

"Do not seek the truth;
Only cease to cherish opinions."
Sengs'tan

"Today I will judge nothing that occurs."

'I will be honest with myself today. I will not think that I already know what must remain beyond my present grasp. I will not think I understand the whole from bits of my perception, which are all that I can see. Today I recognize that this is so. And so I am relieved of judgments that I cannot make. Thus do I free myself and what I look upon, to be in peace...'
A Course In Miracles

This reminds me of the one about the native american medicine man who gets called to testify in court.
When he's asked "Do you swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?", he replies "I can't do that."
The judge turns to him angrily. "What do you mean you can't do that?!!"
The shaman smiles at the judge. "Your honor, I don't know the whole truth!"

Judge Not.

Jesus

Who would you be if this didn't bother you?

Suffering is wanting things to be other than they are.

In one Tibetan model, there are 3 types of suffering, or perhaps a better term would be unsatisfactoriness: Suffering, Change, and Pervasive Conditioning. The first two speak for themselves. The 3rd, Pervasive Conditioning, refers to that nagging background mind noise that almost constantly tells us that we would be happy if only we were somewhere else doing something different. It only goes away, it seems, when we sink into the samadhi of forgetting our self for a moment.


"No composite thing has permanence,
So cut your ties to them and be free of clinging.
There is no joy in the cycle of existence,
So engender the disenchantment of renunciation.
...
Habituation to delusion comes easily,
So send forth the spy of mindfulness.
Skilled you may be in gliding along on sensory objects;
Wake up, for they are of no use.
...
Whatever appears to your perceptions, leave them as they are;
This essential point ensures cyclic existence is liberated naturally.
...
This illness does not exist as an absolute reality, so pierce your grasping..."
Yangonpa


The mind goes in circles, from this to that to this to that to this to that to this to that to this...and on and on. This is the cycle of existence, repetitive history, habitual patterns, samsara. But it does not exist. Know that. And wake up.
Here is a teaching that happened in a dream. The first two lines were given by a man in a clothing store, who then morphed into a woman on the sidewalk outside the store:

Recognize your true nature.
Rest there.
Remove all doubts.
Roam freely, like a happy dog.

Emptiness is empty of concepts.


"Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin; and yet...even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these."

Jesus

What do we mean when we talk about emptiness, or voidness?
When the Heart Sutra says "Form is emptiness, emptiness is form," what does that mean?
Does it only mean Samsara is Nirvana, this is that, here is there? It does, but this is still looking at these concepts as if we're talking about opposites. On the conventional level, this may seem to be true. Because of our habitual way of looking through language and concepts--because it's the mind's function to compare--even the absolute, if such there is, becomes the opposite of the conventional or relative.
And so, emptiness becomes, in the mind, the opposite of form. But the Heart Sutra proclaims that these are not different, it seems. And yet, this still implies the idea of difference. And so on and on and on. This is where the mind spins out the world. Even in the midst of a pointer at the truth.
So, what is my point, you may ask? No point, except this: we can spend eternity trying to figure this out with the mind, but the mind cannot understand what is beyond understanding. The Peace beyond understanding.
But this begs the question, how do we even know that peace is possible? For the ego, it's not. But then again, even the ego is peace. Why? Because form is emptiness. Well, you ask, how do we know that emptiness is peace? Find out for yourself.
And consider this: every single thing we apply ourselves to is a search for peace. Isn't it? Misguided, usually, but nonetheless...
Again, where am i going with this? Nowhere. Now-here. Just babbling. But you know what i'm driving at, don't you? And the mind can't figure it out.
So, what does it mean when we say that something is empty, as everything is? It doesn't mean it's nonexistent. It means it's empty of something. It means it's empty, or void, of inherent existence. Nothing exists in and of itself. All things, mental and physical, are interdependent. Relative. And thus, form is emptiness. Doesn't mean it doesn't exist. Or does it? Look into it.
Look inward, and examine. What do you know for sure? Here's a hint, to save you years of sitting on your cushion. Everyone has the same sense of being, of existence. Go into that. Go back the way you came. To whom do all of these sights and sounds and tastes and smells and sensations and thoughts come? You are That. But don't take my word for it. Find out. Are you That?
Ponder deeply what Jesus meant when he said "Judge not." He was talking about resting in That. And not in opposition to This. Because This is That. Get it?
Good! Now explain it to me, because i don't. i never gets it.
Maybe better to ask " Am I?"
Are You?

"Though you have experienced renunciation,
And conceived the spirit of enlightenment,
Without the wisdom realizing voidness,
You cannot cut the root of cyclic life--
So you must strive to realize relativity.

If you see the inexorability of the causality
Of all things of cyclic life and liberation,
Your insight dissolves all objectivity-habits
And you find the path that pleases buddhas.

Appearance inevitably relative
And voidness free from all assertion--
As long as you understand these two apart,
The Buddha-intent is not yet known.

But when they coincide, not alternating,
Your mere sight of inevitable relativity
Secures your knowledge beyond objectivism,
And your investigation of the view is perfect."

Manjusri, through Tsongkhapa

"...released into pure sky awareness free from perplexity. You do not fall for the seeming absoluteness of that magnificient sky experience, you re-enter the dreamlike aftermath reality, and you hold the two in a balanced unity-and-diversity experience of the inconceivable, nondual, perfectly liberated and fully engaged, open-field infinity awareness."

Robert Thurman

"I am the dwelling place of all ordinary beings;
their habitual patterns manifest as bodies.
I am inalienable sublime knowing.
Outer, inner, and secret are perfect in me.
...
I am the ultimate meaning of unborn awareness.
...
I am beyond any talk of emptiness."

Naturally Arising Awareness Tantra

"To whom is the illusion? Find it out. Then illusion will vanish.
"Generally people want to know about illusion and do not examine to whom it is. It is foolish. Illusion is outside and unknown. But the seeker is considered to be known and is inside. Find out what is immediate, intimate, instead of trying to find out what is distant and unknown."

"Self-inquiry is a way to recognize that you are not the body, the mind, or the world. You have nothing to do with this universe. Yet, you appear normal, like everyone else. Everything is attached to the 'I' thought. Get rid of the 'I', and everything else will go with it.
"So, how do I stop suffering? Realize that no one suffers. When the imagination is transcended, there is peace and harmony. The way to attain this is to question yourself, 'To whom does it come?'
"Follow it through."
Robert Adams

"Go back the way you came."
Ramana

Ramana used the example of employing a thorn to pluck out another, after which you would discard both, since they had served their purpose.


A Course In Miracles puts it this way:

"It cannot be emphasized too often that correcting perceptions is merely a temporary expedient. It is necessary only because misperception is a block to knowledge, while accurate perception is a stepping stone towards it. The whole value of right perception lies in the inevitable realization that all perception is unnecessary. This removes the block entirely. You may ask how this is possible as long as you appear to be living in this world. That is a reasonable question. You must be careful, however, that you really understand it. Who is the 'you' who are living in this world? Spirit is immortal, and immortality is a constant state. ...it is not understood by being compared to an opposite. Knowledge never involves comparisons."

"Go to the root of both."

Ramana

"Reality is that which underlies relativity.
"We must ask ourselves: 'What is the only unchanging reality of our life? What is the only phenomenon that has never changed since we were born?'
"The answer can readily be experienced when we close our eyes and go introspective. It is our sense of BEING, our I AM-ness. Everybody can always experience the sense that they exist. That inner sense never changes; it is there if we are happy, angry, sad, drunk...whatever. Further, it cannot be localized within any part of the body. It is limitless and is experienced by everyone in the same way. It is infinite REALITY!"

John Veltheim

"It's interesting isn't it; so much attention is given to inconstant experiences and the need to control them. Meanwhile the experience of being, which is crucial to the perception of any experience, is ignored."

Esther Veltheim

"And when the wish for peace is genuine, the means for finding it is given."
A Course in Miracles

You have one choice: you can identify with what is true, or you can identify with what is false.

"Give up regarding the unreal as real."
Ramana Maharshi

"Mind creates the abyss. The heart crosses it."
Nisargadatta Maharaj

"Enlightenment is not about becoming. It is not about transformation. It is about death. It is the end of the whole illusion of improvement and separation and time. Above all, it is the end of the 'somebody' who would 'get' enlightened. Not that such a one has ever really existed. The whole problem, the whole search is imagination. Enlightenment is the default state, our natural being, what is. It has never been absent."

Joan Tollifson

"Purity of heart is to want one thing only."

Soren Kierkegaard

"Whatever you attend to becomes your reality."

William James

"You ought to realize that, when you become involved in thoughts, you suffer from exchanging the Buddha Mind for thoughts. That which is originally without thought is the Unborn Buddha Mind. Failing to realize the unborn nature of the Buddha Mind, you suffer and exchange it for thoughts."

Bankei

"Please understand that there is only one thing to be understood, and that is that you are the formless, timeless unborn."

Nisargadatta Maharaj

"There is absolutely nothing to attain except the realization that there is absolutely nothing to attain."

Tony Parsons

"That which is before you is it, in all its fullness, utterly complete. There is naught beside. Even if you go through all the stages of a Bodhisattva's progress toward Buddhahood, one by one; when at last, in a single flash, you attain to full realization, you will only be realizing the Buddha-Nature which has been with you all the time; and by all the foregoing stages you will have added to it nothing at all."

Huang Po

Here's a story i like. Wonder if it will be in the new movie about Alexander?

Alexander the great hears about this Great sage named Diogenes and wanted to meet him. His guys track Diogenes down, as he's a wanderer who's given up even his begging bowl.
Alexander goes down to the river where Diogenes is sitting on a rock, sunning himself. Alexander greets him and tells him that he, Alexander, is a great conquerer with many riches, and Diogenes can have anything he wishes. "Anything?" asks the sage. "Yes, anything," replies the conquerer.
Diogenes looks up at Alexander from his rock by the river and says, "Well, there is something you could do for me. You could move a little to the right. You're blocking the sun."
After a short time hanging out there by the river, Alexander, who is busy and all being a conquerer, says, " I've got to go conquer Asia Minor (or India, or whatever it was). When I've finished, I'll come back and relax with you by the river."
"Why don't you relax now?"
"No, I must conquer first, then I'll relax."
"You will die first," replied the sage.
And so he did.

All of our endeavors, be they worldly or 'spiritual', are contrary to our natural state, which is relaxation. No effort required. The paradox is, we have to make these efforts in order to discover that we were, we are, relaxation itself. All along. Like St Francis said, "What you are looking for is what is doing the looking."
At some point, sooner or later, we give up all views and just rest. Then we can truly help all beings who don't exist and think they do and thus suffer.

"Is not all this based on the erroneous premise that there are two powers in this world? There are not two powers -- there is only one."
Joel Goldsmith

All polarities, such as arising and passing away, mental and physical, thing and eternal present, are of course only concepts. Every stick has two ends. Nagarjuna deals with this with his tetralemma that discards all possibilities: this, that, both, neither --to take us beyond duality. But then, "beyond" is just a concept. So what to do? When Ramana Maharshi was asked which was true, free will or predestination, his answer was, and this applies to all dualistic pairings, "Go to the root of both."

Every thing, mental or physical, arises and passes away in the eternal present. Are you a thing, or the eternal present?