Once we decide on a course of action, we defend it at all costs. We will retract from listening to other points of view, much less try to understand them. That’s why all the traditions emphasize that practice has to lead to a new way of functioning that supercedes the conceptual.
By Angel Roberto Puente
Election! The word has been taken over by politics, and religion has used it too.
In the 17th century, the theologian Jacobus Arminius taught that “election” was “the decree of God” by which believers were accepted into eternal life. But in the midst of all present uncertainty, there are better uses for it.
If we want to make sense of the world we are living in, election has other connotations. The election serious practitioners have to make is between the enslavement to the results of our brain functions, or the liberty of living from the Absolute: attachment or detachment.
From the time of the Buddha, this was offered as the election to make. We have to understand that our thought process is a smorgasbord of past experiences, education, hereditary traits and the environment, among other things. To be attached to the product of this mixture is the root of our suffering.
Of course, we depend on this function of the brain to navigate our daily life. Without it, we would be lost. At minimum, we could accept that it is an imperfect tool that is capable of serious mistakes in judgment. But we can’t even allow that tiny possibility.
Once we decide on a course of action, we defend it at all costs. We will retract from listening to other points of view, much less try to understand them. That’s why all the traditions emphasize that practice has to lead to a new way of functioning that supercedes the conceptual.
This starts with the experience of what can be called Pure Awareness (1) .
The reason this experience is impossible to describe is because it doesn’t include any of the six senses or the sense of time and space. For an indefinable moment everything disappears. There is just that. Practice produces small glimpses of Pure Awareness but they are still in the realm of the intellect. We have to increment its practice until we see it clearly .
The full experience wipes out the confidence we assign to the mind processes. It puts it in its place. We see that we can take or leave whatever comes up in the mind. We become free of its control and can learn to see the multiple from the vantage point of the singular.
From the point of view of Pure Awareness, we can detach from the faulty thought process. We can accept our disappointment when what we thought turns out to be wrong. The sadness, the confusion, all the wearisome emotions can just wash through.
Thoughts are just thoughts, accept them all, listen and let go. The harder we hold on, the more painful the obligated release of them will be.
You can do this! You’ve been doing it in small increments in your practice, haven’t you? You’ve seen the moments of peace and joy in the stillness. Do it more. Let the space expand. Let it be your strength and your refuge from the difficulties of life. Make this your election.
(1) https://mpe-project.info/the-mpe-project/
Photo: Pixabay
Editor: Dana Gornall
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El amor de Ángel Roberto Puente por la investigación comenzó desde su infancia cuando desarmaba los juguetes que recibía en Navidad. Lo único que consiguió después fueron juegos de montaje. Una experiencia temprana de lo no conceptual lo llevó a un viaje para reconciliar una educación cristiana con la práctica de Zazen y los estudios de Psicología. Habiendo logrado una solución cómoda, ahora se sienta con Morning Star Zendo. Un grupo zen dirigido por un sacerdote jesuita/Roshi. Como introvertido maduro, todavía separa las cosas, y ahora los conceptos y las creencias. Check out his site here.
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