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What does Huang Po mean by the following quote.......?
wondering
Veteran
“Not till your thoughts cease all their branching here and there, not till you abandon all thoughts of seeking for something, not till your mind is motionless as wood or stone, will you be on the right road to the Gate.”
This seems rather radical to me. How can a person stop thinking? Don't we think when we discuss topics on this forum? If so, then whatever we say is possibly misleading. It is weird, maybe there is nothing to talk about, or think about. Is this what Buddhism leads to? Great discoveries of science and many other very beneficial accomplishments have taken a lot of thought. So why is Huang Po saying to cease thought?
This seems rather radical to me. How can a person stop thinking? Don't we think when we discuss topics on this forum? If so, then whatever we say is possibly misleading. It is weird, maybe there is nothing to talk about, or think about. Is this what Buddhism leads to? Great discoveries of science and many other very beneficial accomplishments have taken a lot of thought. So why is Huang Po saying to cease thought?
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Huang Po is just saying to be simple in the here and now.
"Non-thinking" means non-abiding-- the point of awakening is not simply to transcend (let go of) the relative world of samsara, but to transcend (let go of) the absolute world of nirvana. Its just another way of expressing that emptiness too is empty. All of this has its roots in Nagarjuna and the Diamond Sutra.
From one perspective, zazen is goalless. From another perspective, zazen aims at stilling the mind, dissolving the grasping mind that conceptualises everything. The truth is, we rarely perceive reality, we see abstractions by carving up the wholeness of the world into bits and pieces. When that conceptualising mind (the self) gets out of the way, then we see (we become) reality, as opposed to an abstraction in our minds (along with everything else).
One doesn't stop thinking. One breaks the habit of thinking of a million things at once. You're washing the dishes, but also putting together a grocery list, thinking of the list of chores you have to do later in the day, wondering how to deal with a certain problem at work, and on and on. Via meditation, you learn how to live with a quieter mind that is able to focus on the task at hand, then move to the next one and focus on that, without extraneous thoughts.
the object and subject is projected afterwards. it is an assumption from the mind.
prior to this is just seeing. we assume that when there is seeing there is always thinking. no thinking can be watched. thinking comes and goes. there are gaps. these gaps are the silence.
just see. just hear. just smell. just taste. just feel. just think. all of it is verbs with no subject.
NARRATION: Narration refers to the way that a story is told, and so belongs to the level of discourse (although in first-person narration it may be that the narrator also plays a role in the development of the story itself). The different kinds of narration are categorized by each one's primary grammatical stance: either 1) the narrator speaks from within the story and, so, uses "I" to refer to him- or herself (see first-person narration); in other words, the narrator is a character of some sort in the story itself, even if he is only a passive observer; or 2) the narrator speaks from outside the story and never employs the "I" (see third-person narration). See also third-person omniscient narration; third-person-limited narration; and objective shot.
So there is mental activity about the telling of events. I am a bit confused. On the one hand your saying it is OK to think, just don't think continually. Stop the chain of thoughts for awhile. But on the other hand, you seem to be saying that there is no way to experience true reality or the true nature of things by thought. Wouldn't it be better to see directly? That would require the absence of the formation of thoughts. Then one would see clearly and understand the nature of life. By having a narration people put together wrong ideas about life because thoughts are just temporary/fleeting. So i guess what to do is meditate so one can stop the ever flowing thoughts and then slowly your thinking becomes part of the world as it really is, not what we imagine it to be?
experience and concepts have a disconnect.
you don't stop thoughts. there is no you to stop the thoughts.
thoughts appear and disappear.
just be. in being just see. in seeing just watch. all things come and go. watch how there is grasping to concepts. the self is a projection. the other is a projection. all things only exist nominally. prior to this all is perfection. reality as it is, is what it is. the sky is blue. the grass is green. or JUST THIS or silence or just seeing. there is no inside or outside. all are projections that we place forward retroactively.
don't stop the thoughts. just watch them appear and disappear. they are tourists. stop, be, and see. what's here?
there is a time for thinking...a time for going to the toilet...and a time to stop thinking... sure...but they are also driven by human fears & desires so the mind can develop the peace of tranquility meditation & the liberation of insight meditation
when human beings suffer, when human beings are neurotic & psychotic, it is due to their out of control thoughts
what Huang Po said is quite straightforward, for those interested in meditation
regards :om: