Knot Dharma
lobster
Crusty Veteran
In many way the centre wants to sustain its existence by pulling the strands and kinks closer around itself. As this ignorance is loosened the emptiness becomes apparent.
The knot is merely a self sustaining pulling and tugging. One Buddhist method is to loosen this compulsive behaviour ...
There is only one mind; it is not that there are two minds, one recognizing the other. In the very moment of recognizing, it is like a knot that is untied. We don’t have to do anything further than that, leave it untied. In the moment of looking, it is already seen. It is not that later on we come to see. Why? Because mind and mind essence are very close. The second reason is that it is not that mind essence is something that we have to get our sights on; it’s not like that. It is not that we need to hold the awareness on it for a while, like one or two minutes and slowly it will appear within our experience. Since there is only one mind, the moment you recognize, it is simply a matter of letting go. The thinker or knower of that moment is just like a new knot, like a new thought. The moment you abandon it, it unties. We are already arrived at where we need to arrive at, we are already in the nature of mind.
Like a Knot That is Untied ~ Tsoknyi Rinpoche
Yes we are a knot. Know we are not.
Next time you have a knot. See how easy it is just to loosen the various tangles rather than passing the ends through each other. In effect, adding tangles. When loosening many of them will just fall away ...
Does this explain the benefits of just sitting? Do you prefer the violent Gordian method (see next post)?
Comments
I'm thinking Gordian, myself..... cut through the crap and just deal with it.
@Lobster
A good way of describing ego, identity or the selfish self.
Take sword, wack it a few times. That should do the trick.
Thanks guys.
In some ways the Buddhist path is a top knot method. We go straight for the mind, in cutting its links to our 'lower chakras' (apologies for new age speak) and aiming for Nirvana we aim to short cut the way out of ignorance.
However I would also suggest that if the rest of the being is convoluted, there will still be much untying or breaking through to complete ... that is my experience. 'Not changing' is just another knot ...
This is why ALL components of the 8 fold path are important including 'right on'.
Letting go appears to be the answer, but by it's nature it seems very difficult to "do". How does one let go? I've found that maintaining awareness on the transient nature of experience is helpful, but it requires strong mindfulness to do that consistently.
^^^ Letting go is key. We really are string players. Just 'letting it be' is very contrary to social and biological evolutionary programming.
This is why when practicing formal sitting, we allow ourselves to sit at ease, rather than going for jhanas, samadhis or the latest insight ... (iz my plan)
Be kind without effort. Focus without morbid concentration. For me this is the return to the middle way, in alchemy 'coagulate and dissolve'. In other words tighten and let go.
Breath in. Breath out. Natural. Rhythm.
I think "letting go" is hard to approach for how aptly it defines and threatens who we think we are.
Often a meditation practice seems like a process of holding ourselves in a position of readiness to let go of an attachment, until we eventually notice that what we are holding onto, is way more of a bother to keep grasping onto than the alternative that the meditation offers. A process of attrition for our own ignorance.
A knot untied.
“Letting be” is a cliché too, but I think it describes it just a little bit better than “letting go”.
There’s no activity in it, no interference. Being in samsara and staring Mara the evil one in the face
“If you want to cross the ocean of suffering, you must take the ship with no bottom.”
(Seung Sahn)
I don't think my mother would allow me to go in a bottomless boat.
Very well said, lobbie. It helps.
Indeed.
'Right concentration' is part of the mindfulness focus.
Letting go is not letting yourself go. Giving up. Nihilism.
Without discipline we are mindless blobs. If you don't 'trim the beard, it will take over the face' is how the sufis put it ...
Like most people who follow the teachings of the Buddha I also don't pursue the extreme of self mortification, now I just need to avoid the extreme called the pursuit of sensual happiness in sensual pleasures, and then I'll see the middle way.