I think of it as the one track mind because I find that every thing is resolved easily when I don’t stray far from it. In the spaciousness of this mind events unfold and go on their way. I laugh when I have to and cry when we have to. Everything is experienced completely without rejecting anything or running towards anything. Thoughts are a natural consequence, to be seen and let go.
By Angel Roberto Puente
Siddhartha Gautama—the awakened one—gave a great gift to humanity.
It doesn’t belong to anyone or any group in particular. Just like Jesus, the anointed one, Buddha wasn’t starting a religion. They were both sharing what they knew. For both “religions” it would be at least a hundred years until its followers organized the teachings and messed them up. (Priesthood, hmmmm. But, enough with this tirade.)
For both teachers the essence of practice-prayer is detachment.
As long as there is attachment to the contents of our six senses, mind being the one that can recreate all the others, there will be suffering. To, “be in the world but not of it,” is the gist of it. The psychological genius of Buddha provided a method for achieving this.
I’ve wondered, why wasn’t Jesus explicit like Buddha?
He gave a lot of why’s but very few how’s (and, even those, the Church did their best to hide). I like to think that His travels on the Silk Road gave Him assurance that there was already enough training available.
The early Buddhist sutta—Anapanasati Sutta—is the step by step manual. Scholars believe this was the method Buddha used and is the basis for all practice based on breathing. Training in this method will open us to recognizing the ground of all existence, which is right in front of our noses.
In some traditions this was condensed into the view of “one mind.”
Essentially it means that by maintaining the mind before concepts and not attaching to any thing, we are free.
I think of it as the one track mind because I find that every thing is resolved easily when I don’t stray far from it. In the spaciousness of this mind events unfold and go on their way. I laugh when I have to and cry when we have to. Everything is experienced completely without rejecting anything or running towards anything. Thoughts are a natural consequence, to be seen and let go.
Buddha had this to say:
“Then, Bāhiya, you should train yourself thus: In reference to the seen, there will be only the seen. In reference to the heard, only the heard. In reference to the sensed, only the sensed. In reference to the cognized, only the cognized. That is how you should train yourself. When for you there will be only the seen in reference to the seen, only the heard in reference to the heard, only the sensed in reference to the sensed, only the cognized in reference to the cognized, then, Bāhiya, there is no you in connection with that. When there is no you in connection with that, there is no you there. When there is no you there, you are neither here nor yonder nor between the two. This, just this, is the end of stress.” (1)
So we train, we follow the instructions, and we have experiences and insights and our understanding grows. We find friends that accompany us and help us to stay the course. Eventually the training becomes habitual. It’s not practice, it’s our life.
We won’t be of the world, many will not understand. But even that will be okay. Because without proselytizing others will be attracted to the simplicity. They’ll be able to see the results of non attachment.
But even if they don’t, “every day is a good day.”
(1)”Bāhiya Sutta: Bāhiya” (Ud 1.10), translated from the Pali by Thanissaro Bhikkhu. Access to Insight (BCBS Edition), 3 September 2012, http://www.accesstoinsight.
Angel Roberto Puente‘s love of investigation started in his infancy when he would take apart the toys he received at Christmas. Erector sets were all he got afterwards. An early experience of the non conceptual set him on a voyage to reconcile a Christian upbringing with Zazen practice and studies in Psychology. Having achieved a comfortable solution he now sits with Morning Star Zendo. A zen group led by a Jesuit Priest/Roshi. As a mature introvert, he still takes things, and now concepts and held beliefs, apart.
Photo: Pixabay
Editor: Dana Gornall
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