On 8/1/2012 4:19 PM, mike brown wrote:
Kris,
I won't respond to your previous points (although I deeply appreciate
you taking time to read and comment on them) because I think we'll
just go round in circles. I think, however, that we have reached some
common ground in this post. I feel grateful that we both have the
Dharma teachings to aid us on our journey on the Path.
Round and round we go, common ground appears below, nothing to stand on.
It's not the destination, it's the journey! Not 'The Dharma' - simply
Dharma!
The 'path' takes care of itself. This can only be seen in hindsight,
just as the way forward is only imagined foresight. The wilderness of
the present, forever eludes - yet is never not here.
I'll go one step further than that tho, to say that one day we will
also come to realise that there is no Path and we are the Dharma (I
owe that insight to Ayya Khema).
She speaks most clearly then, which confuses most.
'The Grand Obviousness' - The ever-elusive mystery, always in plain sight.
What else can 'gateless gate' and 'pathless path' and 'Buddha/Original
Mind' and "Suchness" and all the other expressions be pointing to?! *L*
Such 'insights', are like the recognitions I spoke of - simply seeing
what is so. She offers everything by offered nothing but an introduction
to pathless dharma, this as it is, so you might see it was never not so.
'One day' will never come that is not this ever-present expression of
Dharma.
'One day' is all that makes there appear to be a path.
That path is the only thing distancing you from the gate.
That gate, is all that keeps you seeking to go beyond it....
"One day."
"One day" never comes, as it is never not "one day".
Dharma, realized, or not, is Dharma.
To seek suchness, one must first become ignorant of suchness. To
continue on such a path, one must maintain ignorance by thinking as one
on a path. This requires a great deal of effort. Realization, cessation,
effortless.
As you said earlier in regards to no-self/no self suffering: What a relief!
Seeking, is suffering. Self attaching to its self-sustaining idea of
some grand realization to come "one day".
Seekers, have more than they need yet look for more. Without attachment
to illusory such hindrances, realization is unstoppable.
KG
PS - Realization AS 'this', not of something by someone. Compassion with
all, not offered to someone by someone. Equanimity inherent, not chosen
by someone - all aspects of unfolding living dharma, not individual
states or attainments, not the thoughts or actions that arise - not apart.
