Tony
18th September 2012, 10:24
When we wake up, we wash and then dress.
All phenomena arise within absolute reality.
Nothing lies beyond.
For us to realise this, we have to wake up, wash and dress. Then we follow our heart.
The waking is our basic ground.
Washing is clearing our defilements.
Dressing is equipping ourselves with knowledge in order to be of use to others.
Waking up to what is going on in the mind is the first step to realising what is going on in the outer world - why it is all churning about! But that is only the beginning. This waking up gives us the ability to observe the defilements that have been (and still are) obscuring our pure vision.
It is easy to get carried away with excitement about waking up!
If we are not careful, this excitement can put us back to sleep again...
Any distraction has the same effect! Along the path of increasing perception is the path of deception...'here there be dragons'...
“I” know “this” is not the same as “pure knowing”.
The basis of our ground is profound, peaceful, beyond conceptual limitations and lucid.
To gain conviction about the nature of our ground, we need to study, reflect and practise.
Then we start to wake up, realising emptiness is lucid.
Now if we look into the mind, we see that there are still emotional defilements of ego, clinging to this and that.
We need to be scrupulous in our purification process on order to be of benefit to others, so we have to be as honest as we can with ourselves. There are two types of ignorance: one is ignorance of our basic nature, and other is maintaining that ignorance.
Dressing is equipping ourselves to maintain a pure view when addressing the outside world. With knowledge comes clarity. This clarity sees through phenomena, and therefore we can then address the world with loving kindness rather than separate ourselves from it.
Maintaining the awakened state means being precise, and therefore not creating karma. In washing away the old karma, we try not to create more: that is where we have to tread carefully. Once we have washed away old karma, we can then be of use.
As we progress, the surgical knife gets sharper...and we realise that the only person to be critical of is ourselves.
Tony:washing:
All phenomena arise within absolute reality.
Nothing lies beyond.
For us to realise this, we have to wake up, wash and dress. Then we follow our heart.
The waking is our basic ground.
Washing is clearing our defilements.
Dressing is equipping ourselves with knowledge in order to be of use to others.
Waking up to what is going on in the mind is the first step to realising what is going on in the outer world - why it is all churning about! But that is only the beginning. This waking up gives us the ability to observe the defilements that have been (and still are) obscuring our pure vision.
It is easy to get carried away with excitement about waking up!
If we are not careful, this excitement can put us back to sleep again...
Any distraction has the same effect! Along the path of increasing perception is the path of deception...'here there be dragons'...
“I” know “this” is not the same as “pure knowing”.
The basis of our ground is profound, peaceful, beyond conceptual limitations and lucid.
To gain conviction about the nature of our ground, we need to study, reflect and practise.
Then we start to wake up, realising emptiness is lucid.
Now if we look into the mind, we see that there are still emotional defilements of ego, clinging to this and that.
We need to be scrupulous in our purification process on order to be of benefit to others, so we have to be as honest as we can with ourselves. There are two types of ignorance: one is ignorance of our basic nature, and other is maintaining that ignorance.
Dressing is equipping ourselves to maintain a pure view when addressing the outside world. With knowledge comes clarity. This clarity sees through phenomena, and therefore we can then address the world with loving kindness rather than separate ourselves from it.
Maintaining the awakened state means being precise, and therefore not creating karma. In washing away the old karma, we try not to create more: that is where we have to tread carefully. Once we have washed away old karma, we can then be of use.
As we progress, the surgical knife gets sharper...and we realise that the only person to be critical of is ourselves.
Tony:washing: