The Buddha MInd

The simplicity of not allowing the conditioned mind to dictate, but instead allowing the moment to be what it is without the interference of knowing. As you move through your day are you aware of thoughts desire to define and decide what is acceptable and what is not acceptable? This is to observe ones outer reaction and response as the product of inner turmoil. Is it possible to live each moment as it is without the conclusions of a self that is a defined and conditioned entity? When you are aware in the moment, of all of thoughts opinions and prejudice about all that you have defined as the self that accepts or rejects, then it is possible to negate and live a life of freedom. A life in which there is the joy of allowing and vulnerability. Living life with an awareness that is not seeking to be or not be anything. Then it is to live and work as a entity that is not tied to the whims of a mind that is emotionally and physically attached. One is the freedom of the moment, not a defined concept of freedom, but the actual reality of it.

The most difficult thing is to see in the absolute moment. To realize the self for what it actually is and not ones defined and accepted image of self. To see the truth of the moment takes a mind that is of a different intelligence. It is the ability to get past the illusion of ones projected image. You cannot conceptualize it or define it as something to be controlled or suppressed. It takes a mind that has the clarity of emptiness to see and understand. A state of existence that is a non-movement of thought. One in which the mind is not cluttered with the comparative issues of position and opposition. To grasp the wholeness of the undivided moment and realize a transcendent field of existence in a single breath. This is the illumination of the unconditioned, the nameless and formless Buddha mind.

The Changeless Change

Change it seems has this dichotomous nature to it that defines and attempts to undefine in the same moment. There is the person that one was and the person that one will be. How can one realize a change that is not a definition of what has been as the projection of what will be? The mind, as the movement of thought, cannot change the basic elements of its existence as accumulated knowledge. It can only create a reorganization of its content, it cannot produce what has never been. The nature of thought is to define, that is its primary purpose. Through the defined we formulate and project. Is their change that is not a product or result of what has been? If a conscious effort is made to change then that change is always the result of a conclusion about the self. When there is conclusion there is the conflict of opposition. The opposing view of what is and what should be. To "seek" difference is the repetition of a mind that is caught in a never ending struggle to escape from the reality of the moment. To realize that the activity of escape is to engage the entrapment of a conditioned consciousness is to see the subtlety of ones own conditioning. So the change that you realize is largely a modification of what has gone on before. In truth one may be just adding further defining elements to ones established conditioning.

The new and never before is the outcome of negation. One has to empty out the closet if one is to realize something that is not a result of what is in the closet. This does not mean that you forget everything that you have ever been exposed to, for to attempt that is to live in denial. Negation is not an activity of the self that is trying to escape, it is putting aside the self that knows so that a different level of consciousness is realized. In that level of consciousness one has new understanding that is not a result of the old, or that which has been. That understanding which is moment to moment is the change that cannot be changed. Because it is ever the new and never before. It has no connection to the past. Ones whole life can be transformed, but that transformation is not a recognizable permanency. It is a continuous inner realization of the true self which is manifested externally. But it is not sought as the external path of a religion, philosophy or any other new age accumulated self knowing. Total freedom is the door to that which is the undefined and changeless.

Attachment

Some have asked about the nature of attachment and why the mind attaches its self to the material and the psychological. Many people have the view that to merely "detach" themselves is all that is needed to follow the "Buddhist" nominal ideal of unattachment. One must look deeper into the origin of attachment and not get bogged down by whether one is attached or not. On the surface it seems a simple thing to simply deny attachment which is what most people do. If you ask yourself this question: In truth, do you have an expectation? Then it is possible to realize that all expectations are the result of attachment. All the very subtle movements of thought are ingrained with expectation. Indeed to think about anything is to expect. So you may begin to see that the mind exist in a state of attachment. To merely say that you are unattached is in the reality of the moment, just another form of attachment. As long as the mind holds any ideals that suggest a conclusion you are attached. You may be a "Buddhist" that is just in denial. There are many articles that purport to explain attachment in the Buddhist sense and to provide understanding. But true understanding is never the result of something provided by another. Understanding is in the "experiencing" of the absolute moment. The moment reveals the true self. No amount of practice or study will bring you to that place. Logically and intuitively it is realized that the self as the one who knows cannot possibly be unattached.

Is there a state of existence that is beyond the ideals of attachment and unattachment? That is can one realize the subtlety of a mind that is seeking to be unattached through attachment? If one defines the other then are we not in the illusion of a self that is caught in the duality of time/space, a movement toward a desired end. Which in its self is just a continuity or continuation of what has been...our self created state of defined attachment. So one cannot through the efforts of a practice or a philosophy or ??? "become" unattached. Seeing that the conditioning of self is that one be attached, then it is realized that all attempts at unattachment are simply the illusion of the defined therefore the attached.

When you are totally free of the conditioned mind then a byproduct of that freedom is unattachment, which goes beyond the defined. It is not a conceptual ideal of accomplishment or a sign of "arrival" or any other such nonsense which you may feel separates you from others. One who is "unattached" does not "know" that he or she is "unattached". One only stays with the truth of the moment and realizes a peace that cannot be disturbed. If a person says or thinks that they are unattached, they are in reality, the most attached.

Living in the Past Tense

Why do we re-visit the past? Is there something about the past that we have left incomplete, that was left undone, unfinished.? It may be that we actually live in the past tense, revisiting what we know in order to escape. To one who lives in the memory of what was, the moment is a reality that one wants to avoid. We avoid it because it forces us to realize who we actually are and not the illusion of who we are as a creation of thoughts accumulations. The mind is enslaved by the memory of what was. It seems that the only way that one can accept the moment is to revisit selected memory and bring it into the present. It is seeking the security of what was, the known. To escape the present by revisiting the past and projecting it into the moment. The moment is in reality vacuous, it is without the self. But mind cannot accept the reality of a state of non-existence, of emptiness, so it escapes into what was and fills the moment with the illusion of a self created existence. It is the illusion of a projected past as the existence of a defined self that knows.

It is a very difficult thing to be done with and completely free of the past. The "I am" is a product and result of the "I was" or accumulated past. When you are in the moment and aware of thoughts movement as a referencing of the past then it is possible to break away from the illusion. To perhaps see for the first time the how and why of all comparison and conclusion and thus all conflict. True freedom is born out of this understanding which is the simplicity of seeing in the absolute moment. The subtlety of thoughts movement as the duality of a self and what it knows makes it very difficult to comprehend the illusion of knowing. You cannot grasp it and make it part of what you know. Conceptually it makes no sense and seems just a mind game. The reality of it is not in knowing but in not knowing. The key is not to formulate an idea, but to just be aware of thoughts movement. It is an awareness that is not seeking, wanting change, or trying to understand. With the dissipation of a self that is attempting to define there is a quietness that will allow the moment to reveal the truth of what is. In that moment it is possible to realize something that is beyond the intellectual and conceptual abilities of a mind that is seeking. A person must realize that the mind always seeks its conceptual ideal, because that is the substance of its existence. It cannot go beyond its content therefore it cannot escape its conditioned existence. A consciousness that is unconditioned is the outcome of total freedom. Total freedom is the outcome of an "awareness moment" in which the self is realized as a creation of the known. The total freedom of an unconditioned consciousness is realized only in the absolute moment and cannot become a conceptualized method of accomplishment as a repetition of the self that knows. Each moment is the new and never before as is the existence of the unconditioned.

The Representational

Knowledge is representational not actual as such it can never be the reality of the moment. Knowledge can only intimate and postulate it can never realize the truth of the absolute moment as an abstraction. This simple fact can lead a person to an understanding that realizes the necessity for the negation of thought as the known, the illusion of the self created and the self centered. Mind as thought, the accumulation of abstract ideal, understands through the activity of intimidation. The fear of what might happen or be as the result of not believing or projecting the known. There is security in the known because it is the projected repetition of the familiar and predictable. When thought can predict a desired outcome then one feels that one exist in a world that is known. But the reality is something quite apart from thoughts desired result. Because thought is constantly seeking the repetitive known it is always in a state of varying degrees of conflict. The projected ideals of a mind that must know creates an atmosphere of fear and apprehension. Allowing the moment to be what it is, is simply being aware of thoughts projection and its desire to escape into the known as a representation of the past.

There is the peace of an all encompassing freedom that is not an activity of self ideation. It comes uninvited, without cause or result. Mind cannot "know it" or seek it for it is beyond definition. Yet it is ever present within and without all that is. It is experiencing the moment without the one who experiencing. In that eternal moment is the realization of the true self...al-one-ness (aloneness) and the dissipation of all conflict and fear.

The Opposing Illusions of Self

Right and wrong, good and evil is the perceived reality of a mind that thinks in terms of a result. It is a mind that is seeking through the conclusion of the activity of referencing. When you say or act according to preconception then you are escaping the moment. As soon as you make a judgement or have a conclusion you have left the truth and reality of the moment. A person enters the conceptuality of ones conditioned mind. If you can see the truth of this then you may have the realization that to not judge or conclude is to realize a peaceful state of existence, one in which the mind is tranquil. The mind that is in conflict and fear wants to dismiss what does not conform to the illusion of the known. We are constantly dismissing the obvious truth of each moment because the mind automatically clings to the continuity of the content of memory as the defined self. Mind projects its desires over and above the reality of what is. When you are aware of the minds activity of pigeon-holing every event then it is possible to side step this activity and see for the first time that, "what is", is the true reality of the moment. Then all else is realized as the illusion of the self created and self centered. But it is not without difficulty because the mind wants to escape into what it knows and what it believes to be right or wrong, good or evil. The minds ability to reason and conclude always steps in and justifies its escape into the conceptual. Unless you can see without judgement and conclusion you cannot realize an intelligence that transcends the self that knows. Perception is based on understanding. That understanding is either the result of what is known or it is the outcome of freedom from knowing, which is the intelligence of the unconditioned.

Seeing this all encompassing activity of thought as the self along with an understanding of motivation and seeking brings one to the origin of all conflict and fear. This is a very deep understanding that cannot be fathomed by a mind that is obsessed with finding through the illusion of what is sought. For it is clear that what is sought is the projection of ones belief which is the content of a conditioned mind. Only when a person is totally free is there the capacity to see and realize beyond right and wrong, good and evil to a state of existence that emanates love and understanding. Then ones life is spent in the eternal moment, in the light and illumination of a consciousness that is the dissipation of all conflict and fear.