mutual aspects of NO THING

'Why are we friends?'

'Because, of course, relatively speaking, we are aspects of one another,' the owl explained.

'So that is it?' mused the rabbit. 'So different---and yet mutual aspects of something!'

'Nonsense!' the owl screeched, swivelling his head and turning his great eyes towards her. 'Mutual aspects of NO THING!'

'Is there really any difference?' asked the rabbit; 'I mean between "some thing" and "no thing"?'

'Of course not,' answered the owl, 'if you understand that.'

'Because what I am---you are, and what you are---I am?' queried the rabbit.

'Quite so,' the owl remarked, 'but, if you know that, why say it?'

'I know it a little,' said the rabbit, humbly, 'but I am never sure if I really do!'

'You necessarily know it,' the owl corrected,'but you are so conditioned that you can hardly believe what you know. Why do you ask?'

'I picked a particularly luscious thistle just now, and I found myself saying "but you are what I am"!'

'And wasn't he?'

'Yes, but it took away my appetite!'

'Conditioning! Conditioning!' hooted the owl. 'He is what you are as I, not as "me"!'

'What is the difference?' inquired the rabbit, puzzled.

'All and none', explained the owl;'"difference" appears relatively---absolutely there cannot even be appearance.'

'But relatively...?'

'Relatively, for instance, your offsprings are an aspect of "you" as "me", as well as being what you are as I, but absolutely there can be no difference whatever.'

'The Pure in Heart'

'"Blessed are the pure in heart---for they shall SEE God"!' quoted the unicorn, 'does that not apply to us?'

'Thank you,' concluded the owl, bowing formally, 'so you shall, so indeed you would be doing now if your "hearts" WERE "pure".'

'How can "hearts" be impure?' the rabbit inquired, scratching one ear.

'"Heart" in basic languages,' the owl replied, 'usually means what today we call "mind".'

'And our minds are not pure?' she continued, lowering her eyes.

'The word "purity" means undiluted, or wholeness, and nothing else whatever,' the owl explained patiently, 'but you are split, and so "impure".'

'So that is why I cannot see God,' mused the rabbit.

'"Seeing God" is "being God with mind which is whole",' the owl insisted, 'so that "the Whole-in-Mind shall be God, and so shall be blessed", as so perfectly stated; also the word "whole" is the same word as "holy"--- as our friend here would probably prefer to call it.'

'That is so,' confirmed the unicorn, 'holy it is indeed.'

'Then you mean...?' suggested the rabbit.

'Such is what God is,' the owl hooted,raising his great wings, 'and only God is WHOLE.'

more from Unworldly Wise

'Do you see who's coming?' asked the rabbit, wide-eyed. 'Open your eyes!'

'Unnecessary,' replied the owl, 'I see just as well when they are closed.'

'Well, who is it?' she asked.

'It's the unicorn,' he replied nonchalantly.

'And who on Earth is he?'

'Not "on Earth",' the owl murmured, 'a religious beast.'

'Does he understand how things are?' she inquired dubiously.

'He does,' the owl answered, 'basically at least, but he is currently misunderstood.'

'Will he talk sense?' she inquired.

'Does anybody?' he replied. 'To you---probably not: according to what he thinks you may understand.'

'Better for you to do the talking, then' the rabbit murmured modestly.

'Probably prefer to talk to you about God,' the owl hazarded.

'Can't you talk about God?' asked the rabbit.

'Talk? Yes, of course,' the owl replied, 'but really I have nothing to say about what I am.'

'And why is that?' asked the rabbit.

'Because there could not be anything to say,' the owl replied with finality.

---Wei Wu Wei

"This-which-I-am is not a concept."

The "Space" in which everything supposedly "appears, stays awhile, then disappears" is metaphorical. "Space", as such, and "time", which enables "it" to last, are concepts.

"act-ING" with neither actor nor act

Our every self-conscious act is a REACTION to a stimulus (via the sensory mechanism).

Therefore WU WEI means "not-REacting,"

And WEI WU WEI means acting (that is) "not-REacting,"

Which is spontaneous acting,

Which is non-volitional acting,

Which is the essence of Taoism.

---Wei Wu Wei

"Nothing I say is the Truth."

Truth can't be spoken. All of these words, all of these concepts are simply pointers, indicators of a Truth that is right here---that is ever-present---as clear, and as unmasked as it could possibly be.---Wayne Liquorman

"in" or "whole-see-ING"

Wayne Liquorman: Though you may have insight, the moment that insight is translated into a fact or a bit of knowledge, you've taken a step away from the insight itself.

Q: Are you saying that we may not be consciously able to get to the Truth, that there is something that we can feel but not think?

Wayne: Exactly. The difference between transcendent Knowing and the articulation of a truth, is the difference between a meal and its description on a menu.

---from "Enlightenment is not what you think"

"your" mind is not "yours"

When you look at me it is in "your" mind that I appear to exist.

When "I" look at you it is in "my" mind that you appear to exist.

When each of us looks at the other it is in the mind of the "looker" that whatever is seen appears.

Everything we may think of one another only appears to exist in the mind in which it appears.

And nothing we attribute to one another exists objectively at all.

"Your" mind is only apparently "yours."

It is not "yours" but what you are, all that you are.

Its "looking" is all "looking", see-ing-as-such manifesting relatively as subject perceiving object.

---Wei Wu Wei

One without a second

What is there that could be missing (or not)?

"just this"

"no thing is hidden"

why? well...

there IS no "thing"

to hide any "where"

from any "one",

nor any "time"

for any "hiding"

to "occur".

no separation

Every "thing" is a part

or aspect of

This-which-I-Am

or Awareness,

so the "parts"

are not truly "apart".

"the concepts of a concept"

How could anything

E x t e n d e d

In the concepts of "space" and "time"

Be other than a fabrication in mind,

As a dream is?

---Wei Wu Wei

Huang Po on "time" and "things"

If there's never been a single thing---

Past, present, and future are meaningless.


And vice-versa one may say,

Things are meaningless---

Because there's never been

A past, present, or future.

"all is"

"Immediacy is all"

Means

That nothing has ever happened,

Or EVER WILL!

" Presence"

As the "media"

Of space and time

Are conceptual,

"IM-MEDIA-CY" is All!

This which always is

Q: What is that reality?

A: That which always is, is the reality. Peace is another name for it. All that we need to do is to keep quiet. Peace is our real nature. We spoil it. What is required is that we cease to spoil it. We are not going to create peace anew. There is space in a hall, for instance. We fill up the place with various articles. If we want space all we need to do is to remove all those articles, and we get space. Similarly if we remove the rubbish, all the thoughts from our minds, the peace will become manifest. That which is obstructing the peace has to be removed. Peace is the only reality.

People all realise, or regard as real what is unreal, and all they have to do is give that up. When you do that you will remain as you always are and the Real will be Real.

--- Ramana Maharshi

"being-aware"

It is only with total humility,

and in absolute stillness of mind

that we can know

what indeed we are.

---Wei Wu Wei

I am awareness of all that is aware.

I am the seeing of whatever is being seen,
The hearing of whatever is being heard,
The perceiving of whatever is being perceived,
The knowing of whatever can be known,
The doing of whatever can appear to be done.

For I am awareness of everything whatsoever
Of which any sentient being can be aware.

And beyond awareness no thing is,
For no thing can be anything but awareness,
And there has never been anything that has existed
Otherwise than as its awareness.

This is the whole truth
And every sentient being can be aware of it,
For "being aware" is all, absolutely all
That he is as a sentient being.


This simple and unstudied statement is a commonplace expression of what all of us must know in our hearts, in the silence of a fasting mind, which represents what we think of as "humility" or the absence of conceptual I-ness, whereby each of us is free to apperceive what he is.---Wei Wu Wei

Non-Being

Unextended conceptually in "space,"

Unprotracted conceptually in "time,"

Formless, therefore, and without duration,

Unborn, therefore, and undying,

Eternally we are as I.

---Wei Wu Wei

How could you live or die when you ARE as I?

"Sad about that poor old pheasant!" sighed the rabbit, "he had such a lovely tail!"

"What happened to him that makes you sad?" asked the owl.

"Shot by one of those bipeds."

"Sad for you, and silly---but neither for him."

"Why not sad for both of us?" asked the rabbit, surprised.

"What difference could there be between 'living' and 'dying'?"

"Well," said the rabbit, "'living' is being alive, so to speak, and 'dying' is---well---being dead!"

"I do not apperceive the difference," the owl declared; "a phenomenon is an image in a psyche, and psychic images are appearances, whether perceived in dreams, hallucinations, or in what is called 'daily living.'"

"If you say so, but I think it matters to you nevertheless!" insisted the rabbit.

"That is only sentiment in relativity," the owl hooted. "Can it matter whether such images appear to 'live' or appear to 'die'?"

"Sentimentally indeed it CAN!" the rabbit persisted.

"That is part of the living-dream," the owl stated. "Besides, and this is the point, I cannot die."

"Can you live?" asked the rabbit.

"'Living' is only psychic imagery extended 'spatially' and in 'time'," the owl patiently explained; "I can neither 'live' nor 'die.'"

"Then what CAN you do?" asked the rabbit, courageously.

"Nothing whatsoever," answered the owl, "nor is there anything whatever to be 'done.' I AM."

from "Unworldly Wise" by Wei Wu Wei

"If you could say it simply," observed the rabbit, "perhaps I might understand."

"Eight words will suffice," snapped the owl.

"As you think," sighed the rabbit; "what are they?"

"I, WHO AM NO THING---AM EVERY THING," said the owl.

seeking?

If no "thing" exists,

"what" could "you" hope to find?

Or lose?

Why Are We Unaware of Awareness?

THE ANSWER is that split-mind, cognising by means of a subject cognising objects, cannot cognise its own "wholeness" as its object.

There is no need to cognise our "wholeness," and it is forever impossible to do so, for there is no "thing" here to cognise and no "thing" there to be cognised.

Any attempt to cognise what is cognising---and is thereby incognisable---forbids apperception of what-we-are. Such apperception is not a function of split-mind. It can only be an im-mediate apperception released by some sensorial stimulus---auditory, visual, tactile, or of an unrecognizable origin.

---Wei Wu Wei