Best Of

Good progress guys! Keep it up. Maybe worth re-assessing your goals? Up to you. Finding a balance between setting something achievable but also pushing ourselves is tricky.

@FleaMarket said:
So I guess the question is what to do about it?

The other thing to be clear about is that “seeing the world as it is” carries with it a revolution in thinking. All at once, the impact of right view is felt throughout one’s thinking.

what to do about it.

The most difficult course of action is inaction or in Buddhist terms non-action, or Taoism - Wu Wei. Doing nothing, apathy, a giving up nihilism, is the dank side. Rather we do as we always do but with increasing perception/wisdom comes:

• Disciplined restraint
• Easing into hidden virtue
• Increased mindfulness embodiment

I could say less …

@FleaMarket said:
Perceiving the world as it really is, is a critical component necessary for wisdom.

Such perception, being a result of enlightenment, seeing things as-they-are, will provide wisdom.

Concentration and mindfulness practice helps with this. Though it isn't enough to perceive it as it really is. There has to be an understanding of sorts. Or the way it's stuck in my head, what to do about it.

So I guess the question is what to do about it?

Nothing. After enlightenment, there's really nothing left to do. Simply rest. I would see it as constant samadhi. I suppose you could teach. If you wanted to. Teaching from the experience of, let's call it, seeingasis, would be a hot commodity.

Move to Boulder. Or Sedona. We could use some help in the Carolinas.

Hire Lobster to coin your mantra. Maybe they're a terton, and you could have them compose a sadhana too!.

The first thing to do is to realise how limited words are. Every word in the dictionary is defined in terms of other words. Every word is just a pointer to a thing or concept. Many words point to things that do not exist, or are supposed to exist. If you think in words, you think essentially in pointers to the world, most of which do not exist.

Getting out of the habit of perceiving words is also important. If you see a tree and you dismiss it as being ‘just a tree’ you miss the digging roots, the splendid branches, the leaves and the nuts or even flowers. You won’t know whether it is a good tree for climbing.

One important saying here is that “in the beginning, rivers are rivers and mountains are mountains. Further on the path, rivers are not just rivers and mountains are not just mountains. But in the end, rivers become rivers again, and mountains become mountains.” I always took it to mean that in the beginning, things are just as we perceive. As we approach freedom, things become laden with our memories and imaginings. As we reach freedom and all these things of mind dissipate, it all clears up and we see things as they are again, but now washed clean of implications.

Today I am pissed off...
... at my laziness...
... at my fearful attitude (ie. anxiety)...
... at my passivity...
... at my moral cowardice in face of potential judgment by others...

Today I am determined to hack away - hack, hack, hack - at these impostors.
I will fail and whine and succeed and fail again.
But today I am pissed off and determined.
And today is what counts.