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No eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, or mind.
Then, what remains?

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No coming and no going.
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If you 'became' enlightened would that mean that you had attained something?
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Don't miss Don's postings for today!

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*"What you think to be your natural state is your unnatural state. With your intellect and imagination you have constructed the castles of your pet notions and desires. But do you know who has built up these castles, who is the culprit, the real owner? The 'I' who really owns them and the 'I' of your conception are quite different. Is it necessary that you put forth some effort to come into the 'I' who owns these, the 'I' behind all states?
*"Would you have to walk any distance to walk into the 'I' that is always you? This is what I mean by saying that no sadhana is required for Self-realization. All that is required is to refrain from doing anything, by remaining still and being simply what one really is. You have only to dehypnotize yourself of your unnatural state. Then you have asked whether there is any difference between the natural state of ordinary persons and realised persons. What have they realised? They can realise only what is real in them. What is real in them is real in you also. So where is the difference?
*"You can doubt and question everything but how can you doubt the 'I' that questions everything? That 'I' is your natural state. Would you have to do labor or sadhana to come into this natural state?"

Ramana Maharshi
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See, Kathleen, how it works? I just opened a book at random, and here's today's quote. And it even has your favorite new word in it. It happened just like the quote says...
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"Free of distraction, free of clinging, free of meditation, beyond intellect:
*Remain in the state beyond intellect, Great Perfection.
*Selfless, unborn, free of extremes, inexpressible:
*Remain in the ineffable nature, Great Perfection."

Nyoshul Khenpo

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*"By the ineffable subtlety of thinking without thinking, turn your attention inwards to reflect on the infinite power of the divine spark. When your thinking can go no farther, it returns to its source, where nature and form eternally abide, where phenomenon and noumenon are not dual but one. Here abides the Suchness of the True Buddha."

Kuei-shan
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*"Everything we see in this waking state is like a dream. These dreams are our thoughts made manifest. Bad thoughts make bad dreams and good thoughts make good dreams, and if you have no thoughts you don't dream at all. But even if you do dream, you must understand that your dream is also the Self. You don't have to suppress thoughts or be absolutely thoughtless to abide as the Self. If you know that even your waking and sleeping dreams are the Self, then thoughts and the dreams they produce can go on. They will not be a problem for you any more. Just be the Self at all times. In this state you will know that everything that appears to you is just a dream."

Annamalai Swami
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Don't try to understand. Rest in and as your True Nature.
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Nice exchange of comments regarding the previous post. I should leave more often.
I've been up north a bit in the beautiful little pocket of land on the Rio Grande called La Bolsa, in Embudo, near Taos, helping my friend of over a quarter century Eric Kolvig with a building project. A great group of Dharma friends involved in this. Eric, a Vipassana teacher, and I were long term yogis at Insight Meditation Society back in the years of its initial formation.
And is this building project, and La Bolsa, and all that's in it an illusion? An illusion is a concept, isn't it? That's why some say this phenomenal world is like an illusion. Chew on that.
And chew on this:
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*Once a disciple asked Ma-Tsu, "Why do you say that this very mind is Buddha?" "In order to stop the crying of little children," Ma-Tsu replied. "When the crying has stopped, then what?" "Then I would say that this very mind which is Buddha is in reality neither mind nor Buddha." The disciple asked, "What would you say to those outside of those two levels of understanding?" "I would tell them that it is not a thing either," replied Ma-Tsu. "If you meet someone capable of the highest understanding, what would you say?" "I would simply tell that being to embody the Great Tao."
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Okay. Back to work. Pray that I don't fall off the illusory roof and break my illusory neck.
LOVE!
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You are not the doer.
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"Externally, while distinguishing well all the forms of the various phenomena, internally she stands firm within the First Principle."

Vimalakirti Sutra
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"...the Buddha-nature is neither permanent nor impermanent, therefore it never ceases to be."

Sakyamuni Buddha
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Go to the root of both permanence and impermanence.

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Because you like Thomas Merton, Rob, we'll re-post this one from him. Do you know it?:
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"If you don't want the effect, do something to remove the causes.
There is no use in loving the cause and fearing the effect
and being surprised when the effect inevitably follows the cause."

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This then brings up the, to me, more important enquiry, "Who is it that can either do something or not?" And consider this, from Ramana, when referring to a question about which is true, free will or fate:
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"Go to the root of both."
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Ramana used an example that went something like this: The mind chases after things, whereas awareness merely observes. It's like the child who pursues toys, and the Mother who looks after the child...
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"Do not pursue the outer entanglements,
*Nor dwell in the inner void.
*Rest in peace in the oneness of things,
*And all barriers will vanish without a trace."

Seng Ts'an
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*"If one reaches the point where understanding fails, this is not a tragedy: it is simply a reminder to stop thinking and start looking. Perhaps there is nothing to figure out after all: perhaps we only need to wake up."

Thomas Merton
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Wordcloud
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( Thanks, cogitatus )
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**As one's natural clarity continues to reveal itself, the unnatural conditioning presents itself as well, from deeper and deeper in the subconscious, to be released. Or rather, to be seen for what it is: empty. And the habit is for the body to contract and feel stress when the old patterns emerge, so one has to enjoy it, in a sense, not resist it actually, and, like all conditioned and temporary, and ultimately, illusory phenomena --it passes away. Even though it never actually existed...
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"Your perceptive mind is already luminous and shining brightly. But you color it with all your attachments. It is not easy to understand this, and many do not. They do not cultivate their perceptive mind. But that mind, luminous and brightly shining, is fundamentally free of all attachments, because they come and go. This you should understand and for you there should be cultivation of the perceptive mind."

Sakyamuni Buddha
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"It was all an innocent misunderstanding."

Pamela Wilson

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*"If you thus come to a definitive conclusion regarding the apparent phenomena that arise from confusion, realizing that they lack true existence, are empty and do not exist objectively, you will have dredged the pit of cyclic existence from its depths. By arriving at the decision that buddhahood is none other than your own inherent ground of being, and by gaining this confidence within yourself, you will actually attain what is referred as the 'natural freedomn of the many buddhas'."

Vajrapani
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*Keeping in 'mind' that 'Mind' and 'mind' are only words, thought, descriptions, concepts --and not the actuality-- which is ineffably beyond words, Mind is That which Is, Pure Awareness, the only Reality --Permanent, Unconditioned. mind is only thoughts, having no reality even in the relative world, unlike eyes and ears that see and hear. Thoughts interpret sense data in terms of like and dislike. And thoughts arise and pass away, like all phenomena. There is no mind. mind is only an idea in a world of ideas. Ultimately, there is no mind, and even relatively there is no mind, only an ever-changing constellation of thoughts.
*Only that which never changes can be called Real. Only Mind is Real.
*And mind is not other than Mind.
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