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View Burden
RichardH
Veteran
When I'm involved in views and opinions, especially ones I attach to as True, there is implicit an assumption that somehow they migrate beyond my skull, and are carried by other people. When I feel the need to convince another person of the rightness of a view, there is a necessary confusion at play about where that view abides. That view, its feeling, its energy, is entirely within this body and mind. It is entirely my burden. If I am angry at someone, that anger is entirely my own experience, especially if the object of my anger is unaware of my state ....which is very common..
This is all pretty obvious, but of course it often isn't lived that way... If I know that every view, every perception, every feeling about life, about other people, without exception, is happening only within this body and mind, and that the only one carrying this thing is me... how can it be sustained? It can't. Views will come up in response to conditions, the brain views, but they will not be carried more than one step if there is no confusion about where they abide.
I don't think a single big insight into this ends the tendency to confuse.... there has to be repeated variations of that insight, combined with a slow wearing down... a slow sinking-in, and a long term fatigue with refuge in view.... and a kind of forgetting.. into simple sense. Maybe it's just getting old.
just viewing. thanks
This is all pretty obvious, but of course it often isn't lived that way... If I know that every view, every perception, every feeling about life, about other people, without exception, is happening only within this body and mind, and that the only one carrying this thing is me... how can it be sustained? It can't. Views will come up in response to conditions, the brain views, but they will not be carried more than one step if there is no confusion about where they abide.
I don't think a single big insight into this ends the tendency to confuse.... there has to be repeated variations of that insight, combined with a slow wearing down... a slow sinking-in, and a long term fatigue with refuge in view.... and a kind of forgetting.. into simple sense. Maybe it's just getting old.
just viewing. thanks
0
Comments
Which is exactly what Richard said, only he said it better.
(Quotation in one of the Lama Surya Das books).
That all I'm saying ... The karmic buck stops here.
Rather than continuing to talk about the subject in highfalutin or safe abstractions I will speak of it practically. Say someone had a view of a particular social injustice within their community. What would prevent them from taking 'the next step' and do something about this social injustice? Would having the view that this view of injustice only exists within them stop them from taking the next step? Why not do something about social injustice anyway? Isn't it really pride that would prevent taking "more that one step" against social injustice? pride in the self-image of self-control, to the extent that you know something is wrong but you wouldn't do anything about it because of the self-image that you're 'above' right and wrong.
....a righteous view is better than a wicked view.. but a righteous view is pernicious when attached to . The best action..Bodhisattva action, is not view based.
In a way the OP was an unfair one.. because it is not a proposition. I mean it can be taken as one.. but not to me it isn't... it is just practice.
The view that the best action is not "view based" is itself just a view, which would mean that actions based on it would not be the best. This makes sense in that acting blindly would not be the best course of action to fulfill a specific need.
so... Cleverness at a certain point... is just spaghetti headed. At a certain point it is time to cut it off and just sit "without wobbling".
You'll disagree.. and thats ok. I don't want to drag this out though... so you can have the last word..
:thumbsup:
If you're just talking about meditation then yeah, when meditating it's best to meditate. :rolleyes:
They say people really want cognitive ease, because it takes effort think. Resting in our intuitions is a big part of why there are so many mistakes in the world.
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Priming_(psychology)
Intuiting that one's "view" or one's "story" is false in the sense that it is a personal fiction that doesn't require "one step further" is an insight about identity - or rather the lack of need for identity. The fight's over - there's no need to defend this puffed up identity that has been created by a lifetime of pain, pleasure, hurt, need, want, humiliation, explanation, retaliation, etc., etc. etc.....
@RichardH surmises; but first,,, first.. there has to be a crack in our armor.. a little bit of chastening... a gap in our wall to wall stupidity.
Overlooking this little detail is inherent in those whose armor has not been chinked. It is a doorway of perception that illuminates the ignorance with which we honor our "views", our "logic", our "cleverness" and create delusion. Such creation is out of "need" for identity.
Seeing clearly - one doesn't need to spin off into the "storyline" and feed and nourish the "view" - but can simply know that one is that "that is"....
This isn't doublespeak and dragging it out is tiresome when dragging it out doesn't drag the core feeling into the cold hard light of day for a good, hard, honest look-see. Using this insubstantial language we are stuck with to communicate self realization that has nothing to do with the conventional notion of "self" is pretty much like a monkey f@#king a football, too.
So, to the point of such realization being temporary - the habitual creation of a false self is good practice for applying the discipline of practice to uncover, awaken and illuminate the true self - a skillful pursuit devoid of "view" - or delusion.
Ouch....I hurt my brain....
And Richard - don't relax - stay poised - ready. Shit, do you have a choice????
But, whatever... it just makes want to go read book instead..
google it..
The truth is that people are influenced on a daily basis by views that they are deliberately primed for. Can it really be said in any meaningful way that such views abide only within people when these views are intentionally primed by others, and the subjects are not even consciously aware of the views they've been primed for? And even if people are aware of their views, believing that they abide in a particular place apparently makes no difference in their influential capacity.
Just pay attention, as the mans says, and see what happens.
Further, labeling the OP a topic about individuation of views and their suppression is an oversimplification and a reductionist misnomer at best.
Insight into views and the tolerance and observance of them without acting out - or acting appropriately - with awareness of them is closer to the mark.
Whether influenced by other views - conscious or unconscious - primed or spontaneous - one's view can only be said to abide within one metaphorically - as a frame of reference. Really, in truth - we are the view - the influence - the abode - the awareness - the intention - the defiance - the chastening - the armor - the chink - the step - the detachment.
Paying attention to the egoic mind will only reveal what happens to feed it.
so kind, thanks.