Still screwing around with the mind.

By watching the activities of the mind, one can gradually attain freedom from the mind. It is the first step towards being from  mental formations. The phenomenal realm is full of mental formations or various forms and subtle manifestations that is a distraction and attraction for the mind; delusions are inexhaustible, I vow to end them, (A Bodhisatva Vow). Our mind is existing in a realm of delusions and illusions, the Buddha called Maya. Modern scientists have all but agree that this Universe itself is an illusion, it is merely a mental formation of the collective mind. In reality there is nothingness out there as there is emptiness within. Mind created this illusion through the power of thoughts and consciousness and through its creative energy, Mind removes itself from the creation and cease to be by removing the thoughts and consciousness of the manifestations from the present moment. When there is no observer there is nothing to observe, phenomena com es into being when there are thoughts and consciousness present. The mind feeds on what it sees, taste, touch or smell and generates thoughts about each, it takes you back in time and start an episode, a drama and it keeps working on it till it faces a wall of being brought back to the present moment in space and time. A smack on the shoulder like they do at the Zen centers for those who fall asleep while sitting in meditation or Zazen. A nasty toothache and a migraine hitting you at the same time, you kid needs a ride home to her apartment at one in the morning!

“So! Wake up! Stay Awake! Don’t let them fool you!” a Zen Master said.

What on earth is he talking about?! I am awake! How awake do I need to be? Awake with your body and mind and consciousness and see the delusion for what it truly is; all mental formations.  The more you create, the more you will have to destroy, learning to say enough is enough, helps to slowdown the decay. Learn to do less thinking and world will become more peaceful a better place for all. It is from too much thinking and creating that we find ourselves facing a Nuclear Holocaust; our very own creation.

To continue living in denial of the horrors we are creating around the world through our Greed, Hate and Ignorance and not to mention how we are destroying our home planet and its environment, is short of insanity. We are like the cancer the eats away at its host. But we all do. We live in our own slumber of dreams and fantasies hoping and wishing for more and never enough. We will consume till there is nothing left to feed on and the host gives up and the rest is history.

Some two thousand five or six hundred ago, Gautama the Buddha through his own volition set out to understand and overcome human suffering; he was awakened after sitting and fasting for forty days; he was committing suicide. He was willing to surrender his life to attain his quest for an answer. One morning while gazing at the morning star still bright in the sky, the Buddha declared, “I, Am Awakened, the Universe awakens with me!” This was the Mind declaring itself free from the net of delusions, karmic or otherwise. It is like declaring, I and the Universe is One, I Am the Universe, I am the void, I am That, I am.