Bill!, I agree with your point 1.).
Perception is already a synthesis of raw sensation. One need not perceive. Sensation can be left to happen, with no perception "attached" to it, or synthesized from it, or allowed to arise. It takes only a small bit of discipline to enable or to undertake a trial to see how this can be allowed to operate. And when this is extended and deep, un-intermittent, I'd say that this is the content of the experience of Samadhi. A simple practice Sheng Yen taught us to practice on later days -- say, by the fourth of 7 days -- of long retreats is what he called "Direct-Contemplation." He'd take us all outdoors, the 25, or 50. or 80 of us, and have us stand facing directions we choose, and would instruct us just to "See everything!, hear everything!. No thinking!" And so we'd practice for 15 or 20 minutes. Then we'd again fall in and follow the teacher in slow walking practice, and fast walking. Wonderful. Of course, many of us practice the Direct Contemplation any time, and place, and not just on retreat. ;-) I also agree with your point 2.). But because I am so sleepy, I only have power to say that reason is not a spur to Awakening, and any reason that operates while we might otherwise awaken is an unfortunate waste, and a pernicious pest, a noxious weed, and Public and Private Enemy No. One. If I weren't tired, I might flog this point further with long _al dente_ Spinach Linguini, the way I like it, but I'll have to leave that for tomorrow's Lunch. I hope you'll understand. Meanwhile, I'll have dreams of cuisine. Night-night!, And bows. I'm into bows, lately. --Joe --- In [email protected], "Bill!" wrote: > > Frank and Merle and anyone else who watched this video... > > First of all I read the synopsis of the video: > > "Our intellects are bound by our perceptions and what we perceive is limited > by our five senses. From what we've learned though modern physics, what we > perceive through our five senses is more unreal than it is real which means > our intellects can only get us so far. To get to the Truth, we need to go > Beyond Reason." > > I basically agree with this statement with the following caveats: > 1. 'Perceive' is the dualistic conceptualization (intellectualization) of > experience [sensory] but not holistic experience itself. > 2. There is no Truth as such, but to get to where you seemingly want to do: > "...[cease]...repeating the same patterns in our life and how to break out of > this cycle", you do not need to go 'beyond' reason but simply need to not > form attachments to reason in the first place. [snip] ------------------------------------ Current Book Discussion: any Zen book that you recently have read or are reading! Talk about it today!Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Zen_Forum/ <*> Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional <*> To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Zen_Forum/join (Yahoo! ID required) <*> To change settings via email: [email protected] [email protected] <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [email protected] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
