Freshness
misecmisc1
I am a HinduIndia Veteran
hi all,
good morning.
theoretically i understand that each moment is new and each moment can be so short that i may not be able to see its arising and ceasing.
but why i do not feel the freshness of each moment? if i am suppose just sitting as said in zazen and there is not much external noise, then how do i feel the freshness of each moment - after all, if suppose i sit for 5 minutes, then the wall which is in front of me at the 1 min is the same wall at the 2 min - i cannot forget at 2nd minute that at 1st minute i had not seen that wall, nor i do not know that it is a wall. here if we try to go into the emptiness way of seeing there is no wall, then what am i doing in meditation because at that moment level, which can be so short, what can be done in that moment.
so where would the question arise - what is it? meaning how would the curiosity of mind arising trying to figure out what is new in this moment and how to feel its freshness?
please suggest. thanks in advance.
Comments
Well so are you finding some moments are not fresh?
Tee Hee.
Fresh boredom eh? Fresh past moments awareness eh?
Well said @Jeffrey
Ah fresh seeking freshness ... not fresh awareness ... some other fresh stuff etc
etc freshness ...
@misecmisc1
When we see 2** different** moments that look the same, what we are usually seeing is the habituated editing of our own programmed responses to those moments.
We practice meditation, to soften and dissolve over time, these same conditioned responses (what we cling onto, push away or ignore) that keep us slumbering within the dream of our own ignorance.
In Zen, the meditation practice is just trying to allow all the passing phenomena of each moment to freely arise, exist and fade without diverting that data through our identity's dream production department.
It's more about abiding within the wisdom of the heart than of mentally directing anything.
Quit trying to escape your suffering through mental isometric exercises.
The continued deification of ones mind will not help you with a Zazen practice.
Cheers.
You do not find freshness because you do not seek it, and are thus unaware. You may be conscious that each nano-second following one after the other, is fresh - but you are not in that 'freshness' mind-set.
If the Mountain will not come to Mohammed, Mohammed must go to the mountain.
First, perceive, be aware.
Then, each moment may reveal its freshness to you.
From my view there are no new moments, only this ever changing moment.
Nothing fancy. When you sneeze, well, that's it, right? No believing, no hoping, no jostling thoughts of freshness. There is no something else so there is no escaping the freshness... a 'now' so 'now' that there is no such thing as 'now.'
And if there is something fancy, well, go ahead and be fancy until that wears out.
Maybe you're not thinking right, or rather your thinking activity just plumb gets in the way?
Cannot figure that one out.
How can you express in words or ideas the taste and smell of a delicious orange you are in the process of eating? How can you entirely separate your delight from either your person or the orange?
What Genkaku said! To be awake (bodhi) is to take delight in the great All —so much to be discovered in that great expanse. Just don't push too hard. It's a matter of time spent and heartfelt dedication —not self-imposed obligation.
Some people say that most problems can be reduced to the subconscious. Even if we
'consciously' try to be quiet, the subconscious is so active underneath the surface that we never really taste genuine silence. So maybe this is why a 'fresh moment' is so hard to come by.
The wall watching freshness is not in 'watching paint drying' - sounds a fun activity to me - but in experiencing the fresh noise of the subconcious that @techie describes or the sitting in the sneeze absent now ...
Fun for all the inner family
Are you expecting this "freshness" to be something special @misecmisc1 ?
Just seeing the extraordinary in the ordinary is seeing something afresh = freshness....
If each moment was the same as the next you wouldn't notice any change.
Not a frozen moment, a fluid moment. It is change that makes it seem like different moments but if moments were truly separate there would be no allowance for change.
It is only a different moment in the same sense it is a different river. Because it has changed, not because it was replaced.
If there are different moments it should be easy to find the smallest increment, however, as far as we know there is no smallest increment.
There is no way to find the smallest without finding the biggest.
This is just as true for time as it is for space and form.
All borders are convention.
All of them.
Open the window and let fresh air come inside.
But talking about an "it" which changes is also problematic.
Anyway this kind of philosophising takes us further away from the OP.
Or even better step outside and feel the wind on your face.
If the interval is not important that only proves the separation is relative and thus convention.
We have found the smallest moment we can measure but that is certainly not the smallest because any whole can be divided infinitely.
It doesn't matter what the interval is, only that one interval is different from the next. If one interval were the same as the next then there would be no observable change. Talking about "something" changing is inaccurate because there are no things, only processes. What we actually experience is a succession of moments, rather like the frames of a film. And like the frames of a film we get the impression of continuous change.
The point of staring at a blank wall or closing your eyes is to become more aware of internal processes. Just observe what is happening in your body and mind, there is always movement though it becomes increasingly subtle.
There's a difference between fresh foods and unfresh foods, but there really is no such thing as fresh sunshine. Most of what we think of as "fresh" is fabrication. Fabricated to entice our senses so that we become better consumers.
Isn't feeling the warmth of the sun on your face a fresh experience?
Fresh would suggest something new. If the label is put as "new", then that's dualism. Which would make it not a new experience anymore, but a new/old comparison.
It's fresh if you're paying attention.