Tuesday 26 January 2010

Open Essay II

Without jumping into analysis and philosophical systems, let us relax the mind and look directly at experience as it arises, raw and naked. Let us drop names and ideas, comparisons and memories, likes and dislikes, and just see. Let us be like scientists without even the idea of science to colour our perception, or like children who have not learnt all the names of things and are still open to wonder.

Let us ask ourselves a question:

What is the one thing in this moment can you be certain about? What is there in this moment that is real and actual beyond all doubt or criticism? Is there anything available now which presents itself beyond all supposition or belief?

If we are totally honest and clear with ourselves we may see that the only certainty we have in this moment is that - in the most simple terms - ‘something’ is happening.

It might be a sensation like hunger or a tingling in the face or fingers, the sunlight coming through the window, a birds shriek, an itch, numbness or warmth, but before we even begin naming and describing, the only fact we can be certain about is that ‘something’ is happening.

Now all you have to do is discover just what that ‘something’ is.

3 comments:

benjamin said...

It feels as if the last line breaks up everything written above. :(
Why figuring out anything about that something? Who will figure it out who is not part of this something already? Which knowledge or thought will be outside of the something to label it? It would just change the equation from something = 1 to Something - thought = 1 + thought...
It would be more judicious perhaps to ask whether anything can catch this something, or if there is anything other than this something, or if any name of this something could stand without this something... or "something" like that :)
But of course i am not enlightened... so who am i to comment...?

Mike said...

Yeah, I know what you mean. I tried to write a longer essay but it just got more and more complex and I wanted to point simply at the direct and immediate fact of 'something'. I hope that all you have mentioned about 'who will figure it out', 'is there anything other than the something' is implied in the last line. When you see this 'Something' directly, as you know, there is no question of a separate 'you'. There is only this 'something', and this has its own peace and stillness inherent within it. Ultimately the 'something' is only yourself, you only ever see yourself, there are no boundaries, just wide open space. The space of knowing.

benjamin said...

Haha i knew you had just been quitting at that line--it was jut to odd and abrupt :)
So in a way i answered the question correctly right?
Am i going to win a price? I need a fridge ;)