The Middle Way… New MJ Awakening Blog May 22, 2019

THE MIDDLE WAY

Tonight at the West LA Satsang, I talked about how everything both exists and doesn’t exist. Is real, yet not real. Is there, yet not there.

What do I mean? I mean, for example, that this computer I am writing on is impermanent. It will not last forever. So, you can’t say it’s real in an absolute sense. And yet, you can’t say that the computer doesn’t exist at all since here I am using it to write these words!

Thus, the middle way. As the old zen story goes, the zen master said to his student, “Does the table exist? If you tell me yes, I will hit you 20 times with this stick. But if you tell me no, I will hit you 20 times with this stick. What is your answer!!?”

In a flash the student understood and remained silent.

Michael Jeffreys

 

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The 3 components to PERCEIVING ANYTHING. New MJ Awakening Blog May 22, 2019

“Now in order for any perception to happen or any aspect of consciousness to take place there are three main components that must come together, the object of perception, the presence of the sense faculty and the presence of that particular aspect of consciousness. When these three components are present at the same time the perception can take place, can operate.”

-Topga Rinpoche

MICHAEL: So for example, when we hear the sound of a bird chirping, although we may not be aware of it, in order for the experience to take place there must be a bird, the capacity to hear the bird chirps (a working ear) and the awareness that both holds and “connects” the two, as well as understands what is apparently happening, i.e., a bird chirp is registered and what that means.

Suddenly, a process that we’ve always taken for granted is realized to be much more (profoundly more) complex than we first thought. And these three components of one seamless process applies to all 6 of our senses (5 senses + thinking = 6 gates with which we perceive content.)

 

DEPENDENT OCCURRENCE means that one thing relies upon another thing for its existence. New MJ Awakening Blog May 20, 2019

THE RICE SEEDLING SUTRA

“Maitreya, today while looking at a seedling of rice, the Buddha, the Bhagawan said to the monks, O monks, he who completely understands the process of dependent occurrence, understands what is the dharma. He who understands what is the dharma, understands what is Buddha, the enlightened state. Having spoken thus, the Buddha, the Bhagawan fell silent.”

-Sariputra

MICHAEL: Dependent Occurrence means that one thing relies upon another thing for its existence. For example, a window depends on glass for its existence. Glass depends on sand for its existence, etc.

The Buddha is saying that if this is truly realized, then one’s own empty Buddha nature will also be realized.

And so now you know the answer to the famous riddle: “Which came first, the chicken or the egg?” The Answer is neither (or both), because you can’t have one without the other. Hence they depend upon each other to exist.

 

 

 

YOUR GHOSTLY THOUGHTS. New MJ Awakening Blog May 19, 2019

(Painting of “The Hungry Ghost” from The Buddhist Wheel of Life… always craving, never fulfilled. It represents your mind.)

 

YOUR GHOSTLY THOUGHTS

 

If you look for the Source of your thoughts, but do not find an actual thinker, what then?

 

Yes, thoughts seem to arise, but what is making that happen?

 

If you look, you won’t find anything.

 

Thus, are not all thoughts that of a ghost?

 

Nothing is bringing them about.

 

1. The generator of my thoughts cannot be found.

 

2. Who/what hears/reacts to a thought?

 

Can that one actually be found?

 

Have a look.

 

No thought generator can be found,

 

and no thought receiver can be found…

 

 

Michael Jeffreys

Where do the THOUGHTS I appear to think come from? New MJ Awakening Blog May 18, 2019

Where do the THOUGHTS I appear to think come from?

What is their Source?

Where do the WORDS I appear to speak come from?

What is their Source?

To maintain my IGNORANCE, I must ignore/not take seriously/remain distracted from looking deeply into these two fundamental questions.

Michael Jeffreys

THIS cannot be captured in words, cannot be thought about. New MJ Awakening Blog May 17, 2019

The upper 1/2 of THE BUDDHIST WHEEL OF LIFE.

The monster named Yama (death) is holding the world, which is impermanent. On top of his head are skulls which represent our stories. And because these skulls have holes in them, we can collect them/string them together and wear them like a necklace. And then we look to these stories/skulls to tell us who/what we are. But the skulls are dead, just like all our stories from the past. There is only ever Now, just This. And THIS cannot be captured in words, cannot be thought about.

Michael Jeffreys

What agenda does SILENCE have? New MJ Awakening Blog May 15, 2019

What agenda does SILENCE have?

Michael Jeffreys

 

AGENDA (noun): a list, plan, outline, or the like, of things to be done, matters to be acted or voted upon, etc. -Dictionarydotcom

MICHAEL: Noise is Silence forgetting itself. It’s what it means to be ignorant. I am ignoring myself, Silence, because I am involved with Noise 24/7.

The tendency is to go right into story (noise) and not even notice/be aware of the Silence in which the noise appears.
No Silence, no noise.

Telling/believing a story about something that’s not real, and was never real, doesn’t make it real. New MJ Awakening Blog May 14, 2019

“Me” was born 100% in imagination during the body’s first 2 years of existence. And since it has never left imagination, that’s the only “place” it can be improved, fixed, fretted over i.e., tinkered with.

It’s like trying to improve or fix or fret over Santa Claus or the Tooth Fairy. We can tell a new story about it (which is what we are doing everyday, lo every minute, when we tell another about how “we” are doing or think “I” am making progress or “I” am regressing).

But telling/believing a story about something that’s not real, and was never real, doesn’t make it real.

Believing an illusion for 60 years doesn’t make it any less an illusion.

What to do?

Notice this. Repeatedly. Deeply.

As if your life depended upon it.

Michael Jeffreys

When your thoughts change, do YOU change? New MJ Awakening Blog May 10, 2019

For silent reflection:

When your thoughts change, do you change? 

-Michael Jeffreys

 

p.s. And from last Weds. night’s West LA Satsang:

“A thought and a dream are the same, it’s just during the latter the body is sleeping.” 
-Tracey

“And if you look, what’s the body other than sensations?”
-Corey

“You’re not inside the body. There’s blood, and bone, and arteries and organs, but no you.”
-Michael

IGNORANCE is why I keep grasping at the MIND’S EMPTY IMAGES. New MJ Awakening Blog May 8, 2019

IGNORANCE IS WHY I KEEP GRASPING AT THE MIND’S EMPTY IMAGES

Grasping at the empty images of the mind is like grasping at the images in a mirror. They may look real, or funny or scary or boring, or upsetting or lovable, but what do they all have in common? They are all, without exception, empty. You can’t hold on to them despite your repeated best efforts.

Suffering is when I try to hold on to these empty mind images as if they are graspable, as if I could really get hold of one. But like images in the mirror, they are there, yet not there. They appear to be there, but when I reach toward/into the mirror, I can never actually get hold of anything. And the harder I try, the more suffering I experience. Why? Because what I thought was real was only ever an appearance.

Seeking can only take place as long as I believe the transient images in the mirror/mind are real. Meaning I have yet to see clearly their inherent emptiness, which includes the “me” object, that is no different from any other object reflecting off/in the empty mirror/mind. This is called ignorance. I am ignorant of the inherent emptiness of all appearances.

Michael Jeffreys