Thanks, Joan-with all the crazy shit going down on the political scene lately Presidential races and Supreme Court rulings I enjoyed reading this recent entry from you. It had a very calming effect on me. Radiant presence includes everything. It is the biggest of big pictures. Thanks for the beautiful reminders. Gary
Thanks Joan, I enjoyed both these last posts. Life does contain it all, evidently, peaceful and wrathful, just and unjust and so on, political and non-political. But these differences are precisely part of duality aren't they, by definition? They all pertain to the dualistic conditioned world. What makes a spiritual perspective different is not simply expanding our minds to include everything, even the uncomfortable things, but touching the unconditioned dimension where nonduality resides. Whether we are aggressive or smiling, unless we are free of conditioning we are still in mundane reality. Surely the point is to SEE things from a non-dual point of view, not just to THINK of them as all equal and included in some way.
I, too, appreciated both of these posts very much, in part because I also struggle with the “what to say” and “how much to say” in times when silence seems inadequate to the moment, yet words unsettle and divide. In a recent (musical) piece of my own, I also used the phrase “staying in my lane” but see here that in the non-dual sense we’re always in each other’s lane, or maybe there are no lanes, or….well, all of the above. It is a paradox, a conundrum, and that (it seems to “me”) is the essence of spirituality or true religion (re-ligio, re-binding): the trying to hold together what seem to be opposites (but aren’t) in consciousness as best we can. Thank you so very much for your presence and wise and open-hearted posts, Joan.
Spirituality, as in the Dogen quote, might allow us to hold our opinions more lightly. Then a situation arises, as in the one referenced in your last post, where the image seems much more clear than most, and the potential for increasing suffering apparently much greater. Nature then elicits a stronger and clearer response to those two dimensions of the appearance. I don't see a "problem" in that response. Thanks for the very helpful reminders.
I like the movie and left eye/right eye analogies. I've thought of duality and non-duality as like sex with a sex doll: a silly and provocative statement, and there's something solipsistic about it. Though not really solipsistic, because Joan is Jeff and Jeff is Joan. Like ripples and waves and new people, we have unique interactions. But it's not really interactive, because we are all one. Which brings us to the movie and eye analogy: we interact with a movie with presence, but we don't actually change what's happening. And with vision, the split-brain research—where the two hemispheres have been disconnected—reveals how we ad hoc what we think is happening: a mental overlay, but not over a solid object(ive) reality, as Zen Master Dogen realized. Science and quantum mechanics are aligning with these ideas, as shown by the observer effect and quantum entanglement. To circle back, I agree: sagely watching the movie of life, never getting swept up in the movie, never commenting on politics etc would be to limit the joyful interaction.
Thank you Joan. I think that sometimes I like to feel that I'm "above it all", hovering far above a world gone mad, and judging it, or turning my back on it and pretending it doesn't exist. A society / civilization that I thought I understood, now making less and less sense every day can fill me with anxiety, sorrow, and anger. I do not like those feelings! At all! Yet, I also know that this notion is absurd. Politics, social strife, war, may be repellent to me, but they're every bit as valid as air, water, and everything else in nature. It's only when I realize that I am this world that I can walk through it without condemning it...
Great topic to take on Joan! It's a challenging one for me as well. Here is my take on how I frame politics in my life.
One of the great blessings of my life is that I have lived in many places in the world and in the US... and the one thing that I learned from that experience is that people are really, really nice!! Christian, Muslim, Jew, Republican, Democrat, Atheist, etc... have all be so generous and kind to me. I just do my best to stick with that experienced reality instead of any made-up stories about the world... we become unkind when we believe the fear stories going on in our heads. And for the simple reason that I want to have a nice time while I'm alive, part of my practice is noticing the difference between reality and what I'm thinking and believing and seeing which part is actually real and which part is not.
Having said that, I still vote and try to do my part in improving the world I live in.
Maybe I'm patting myself on the back somewhat here, but I do like where I've gotten to with this subject and realize that so many people suffer over politics and it's a very challenging aspect of our world.
Amazing insight! Funny, just last night I was struck by something you wrote in “Nothing to Grasp” (as well as others elsewhere): as soon as I have a thought, consciousness takes over and claims it - “I did this! I saw this!”
And I too struggle with “I” judging suddenly which creates that anger, division and struggle between us.
This was what I awoke to this morning, which picks up where I went to sleep last night.
Who exactly did or thought what, and who exactly is there to be angry at on “the other side?” There isn’t really “an other side,” only a left eye seeing things slightly different
To me in this moment, and in light of your written words, it is saying
everything is always changing, or dissolving in the very arising, and simultaneously only ever this Being...radiant presence that IS.
As part and parcel of the here now actuality of being, it isnoticed that my bubble of experience includes both identifying or not identifying with thought and opinion, participating or not participating in whatever seems to be happening, and none of it is inert.
A prayer of mine I share:
The love we are weaves all that is, everything and no-thing, together as one wholeness, not two, in self- illuminating being and emptiness
Joan: You explained it all right here. Thanks.❤️
Thanks, Joan-with all the crazy shit going down on the political scene lately Presidential races and Supreme Court rulings I enjoyed reading this recent entry from you. It had a very calming effect on me. Radiant presence includes everything. It is the biggest of big pictures. Thanks for the beautiful reminders. Gary
Hey Joan...
Transcendental/mundane, perfection/imperfection, emptiness/form, upset/calm...as you say, a matter of perspective, relative and transient.
"Political" and "spiritual" topics have the capacity to emphasise division...but does that mean we "shouldn't" express our views?
One thing I do feel uncomfortable about is the trend for referring to people only by their surnames...to me, there is an implied disrespect in that...
Many thanks as always.
Thanks Joan, I enjoyed both these last posts. Life does contain it all, evidently, peaceful and wrathful, just and unjust and so on, political and non-political. But these differences are precisely part of duality aren't they, by definition? They all pertain to the dualistic conditioned world. What makes a spiritual perspective different is not simply expanding our minds to include everything, even the uncomfortable things, but touching the unconditioned dimension where nonduality resides. Whether we are aggressive or smiling, unless we are free of conditioning we are still in mundane reality. Surely the point is to SEE things from a non-dual point of view, not just to THINK of them as all equal and included in some way.
I, too, appreciated both of these posts very much, in part because I also struggle with the “what to say” and “how much to say” in times when silence seems inadequate to the moment, yet words unsettle and divide. In a recent (musical) piece of my own, I also used the phrase “staying in my lane” but see here that in the non-dual sense we’re always in each other’s lane, or maybe there are no lanes, or….well, all of the above. It is a paradox, a conundrum, and that (it seems to “me”) is the essence of spirituality or true religion (re-ligio, re-binding): the trying to hold together what seem to be opposites (but aren’t) in consciousness as best we can. Thank you so very much for your presence and wise and open-hearted posts, Joan.
All of it belong
<3
...."it's all included.. no separation". Thanks Joan, the clarity of your words are a tonic, they resonate so strongly here ❤️
Spirituality, as in the Dogen quote, might allow us to hold our opinions more lightly. Then a situation arises, as in the one referenced in your last post, where the image seems much more clear than most, and the potential for increasing suffering apparently much greater. Nature then elicits a stronger and clearer response to those two dimensions of the appearance. I don't see a "problem" in that response. Thanks for the very helpful reminders.
I like the movie and left eye/right eye analogies. I've thought of duality and non-duality as like sex with a sex doll: a silly and provocative statement, and there's something solipsistic about it. Though not really solipsistic, because Joan is Jeff and Jeff is Joan. Like ripples and waves and new people, we have unique interactions. But it's not really interactive, because we are all one. Which brings us to the movie and eye analogy: we interact with a movie with presence, but we don't actually change what's happening. And with vision, the split-brain research—where the two hemispheres have been disconnected—reveals how we ad hoc what we think is happening: a mental overlay, but not over a solid object(ive) reality, as Zen Master Dogen realized. Science and quantum mechanics are aligning with these ideas, as shown by the observer effect and quantum entanglement. To circle back, I agree: sagely watching the movie of life, never getting swept up in the movie, never commenting on politics etc would be to limit the joyful interaction.
Thank you Joan. I think that sometimes I like to feel that I'm "above it all", hovering far above a world gone mad, and judging it, or turning my back on it and pretending it doesn't exist. A society / civilization that I thought I understood, now making less and less sense every day can fill me with anxiety, sorrow, and anger. I do not like those feelings! At all! Yet, I also know that this notion is absurd. Politics, social strife, war, may be repellent to me, but they're every bit as valid as air, water, and everything else in nature. It's only when I realize that I am this world that I can walk through it without condemning it...
Joan you looks real! I like you! Hugs!
Great topic to take on Joan! It's a challenging one for me as well. Here is my take on how I frame politics in my life.
One of the great blessings of my life is that I have lived in many places in the world and in the US... and the one thing that I learned from that experience is that people are really, really nice!! Christian, Muslim, Jew, Republican, Democrat, Atheist, etc... have all be so generous and kind to me. I just do my best to stick with that experienced reality instead of any made-up stories about the world... we become unkind when we believe the fear stories going on in our heads. And for the simple reason that I want to have a nice time while I'm alive, part of my practice is noticing the difference between reality and what I'm thinking and believing and seeing which part is actually real and which part is not.
Having said that, I still vote and try to do my part in improving the world I live in.
Maybe I'm patting myself on the back somewhat here, but I do like where I've gotten to with this subject and realize that so many people suffer over politics and it's a very challenging aspect of our world.
Thanks again!
Amazing insight! Funny, just last night I was struck by something you wrote in “Nothing to Grasp” (as well as others elsewhere): as soon as I have a thought, consciousness takes over and claims it - “I did this! I saw this!”
And I too struggle with “I” judging suddenly which creates that anger, division and struggle between us.
This was what I awoke to this morning, which picks up where I went to sleep last night.
Who exactly did or thought what, and who exactly is there to be angry at on “the other side?” There isn’t really “an other side,” only a left eye seeing things slightly different
Love to you Joan!
I love your perspective and how you communicate it through your writing 😍
I love the Dickens passage.
for how it throws comparison out the window.
To me in this moment, and in light of your written words, it is saying
everything is always changing, or dissolving in the very arising, and simultaneously only ever this Being...radiant presence that IS.
As part and parcel of the here now actuality of being, it isnoticed that my bubble of experience includes both identifying or not identifying with thought and opinion, participating or not participating in whatever seems to be happening, and none of it is inert.
A prayer of mine I share:
The love we are weaves all that is, everything and no-thing, together as one wholeness, not two, in self- illuminating being and emptiness