Ron, Steve's book is written so well; it's so clear and simple. I think whatever I would add would make a mess of it. I'm just typing a few paragraphs from this book, a book well worth reading in full.
Marsha "There are two kinds of knowledge and two types of views. One consists of beliefs, opinions, conjectures---having an idea of something. It's an intellectual grasping of concepts. This is how we commonly think of knowledge. "But this is not true knowing. In fact, the natural results of relying on mere conceptual knowledge are fear, discomfort, and confusion---in short, duhkha. "We think that our beliefs and ideas can be relied on to give us satisfaction. But if we examine the effects they have on us we'll discover that, at best, they only temporarily satisfy us. In fact, they're actually our primary sources of anxiety and fear, because they're always subject to contradiction and doubt. "By their very nature, all our ideas and beliefs are frozen views---fragments of Reality, separated from the Whole. In other words, because we rely on what we think (conception), rather than on what we see (perception), there's unrest in our mind. Underneath it all, we're uneasy---and, furthermore, we _know_ it. "The fact is, we are already enlightened, even now. We _know_ Truth. We just habitually overlay our direct experience of Truth with thoughts---with beliefs and opinions and ideas. We pile them all onto our conceptual frame, not recognizing the consequences of what we're doing. --- "The problem is not so much that we do this. In fact, we can hardly help but conceptualize. I couldn't write this book, and you couldn't read it, if we didn't conceptualize. The real problem is that we are caught by our concepts. We don't have to grant them power or accuracy or validity that they don't have. We simply need to recognize that our concepts are not Reality. "What we overlook is that underneath the ground of our beliefs, opinions, and concepts is a boundless sea of uncertainty. The concepts we cling to are like tiny boats tossed about in the middle of a vast ocean. We stand on our beliefs and ideas thinking they're solid, but in fact, they (and we) are on shifting seas. Any ideas or beliefs we hold in our minds are necessarily set against other ideas and beliefs. Thus we cannot help but experience doubt. "This is the deep end of duhkha---existential angst. It's the realization that beneath all our ideas there's profound, unremovable doubt. In the very moment that we overlay our actual, direct experience with conceptual thought, doubt is right there, forever wedded to it. --- "To see separate, distinct forms is to conceptualize. This doesn't refer only to ideas and thoughts. Physical objects---a cup, a book, even the light falling on this page---are still conceptual. They're still things that we've framed in our minds separated out from the Whole, and contrasted against everything else. We can talk about them; we can use them; we can manipulate them. We can seek them out, long for them, or push them away. But we shouldn't take these conceptualized, frozen, separated-out objects for Reality. That's where we go wrong. That's where we give rise to duhkha. "The biggest mistake we make in confusing a concept with Reality is making that nearest and dearest and most fundamental distinction: the separation of self and other. "I am over here, and over there is a world external to me." Unquestioningly believing this to be a full and accurate description of Reality, we ignore immediate experience and seek for things---comfort, happiness, meaning---"out there." "Go for it," we say. (And our confusion remains undiminished even when we seek such things "in here") "We even turn enlightenment into such an object. But in doing so, we fail to see that we've made it just another concept, another idea, another item to go after---something quite ordinary and illusory. "But if we look closely at our immediate experience, we simply cannot find such a division. Indeed, the harder we look, the more absurd and impossible such a distinction becomes." (Hagen, Steve, 'Buddhism: Plain and Simple,' Tuttle Co., Inc., p.110-112) _____________ Shoot for the moon. Even if you miss, you'll land among the stars... Moq_Discuss mailing list Listinfo, Unsubscribing etc. http://lists.moqtalk.org/listinfo.cgi/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org Archives: http://lists.moqtalk.org/pipermail/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org/ http://moq.org.uk/pipermail/moq_discuss_archive/
