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Onion or Union?
lobster
Crusty Veteran
In other threads members are posting threads about an integration or union with a component of being.
They may describe this as awareness, being, presence, I AM A YAM, mindfulness etc.
Accompanying this are feelings of greater wholeness, progress, integration and so on. Hooray. 
In the Buddhist model we simultaneously allow these insights a settling or aware arising and realise they are the rings of an onion.
Don't cry guys.
As we peel away the attachment of these subtle states of being, 'Buddhas that need killing', we eventually arrive at the centre of the onion - Nothing ...
Anyone got to the empty heart of the Onion [lobster keeps his claw down]?
http://rebelzen.com/2008/08/you-are-already-enlightened/
5
Comments
It might be more like experiencing the space in the mind, instead of the contents. Not sure how that translates to vegetables though.
Onion divides union.
Indeed.
That is more like the space that exists in each ring, whether they are a joined slice (Form) or empty (as in the below spaced out rings)
'Emptiness is form and Form is emptiness' as the Bodhi said to the Arahat ...
I often explain to our customers that sometimes, re-folding jumpers, men's shirts, leggings, Boxer shorts, and tights, and re-packaging them, is like putting an onion back into its skin - once you've sliced it.
It's never gonna look quite as good as the original...
is this an idiom?
Or an allegory of something?
I leave it to you.....
Retail Pandora's Box? Oi dunno.
Hold the onion in your hand and peel away layer after layer until it is gone. What is left? Nothing or the Universe?
All which you have described are objects for mind to hold on to so that it does not wander or become entangled.
The non verbal feeling I am in Advaita is the object of meditation, like the breath is in anapanasati. It's held firmly, solely to prevent simple knowing (bare; raw; absent of name, definition, description, judgment, craving, liking or aversion) from becoming entangled with what has been learned. As is one of the functions of mindfulness.
But it was never meant to represent the cessation of suffering. Only a stepping stone to discover that.
The onion is an excellent example. At least from my position.
Once the countless layers of entanglements are no longer an issue, one is no longer bound.
I wouldn't say there's nothing there. Because there is still a simple, basic knowing of appearances. But it's certainly not anything tangible.
The heart of the onion appears to be bound by Its layers until they are removed. Then there is realization that there was never anything that was bound.
The many layers gave the impression that there was a center. The layers created the center (I-ness) But as soon as the layers are removed, the center also goes. It was never really there. Or we could say that the center exists as long as the layers exist.
I wouldn't express it as a union because there was never separation. More of a discovery.
The terms union, merging, becoming one with God are only methods of expressions for that tradition.
This is how the teacher describes it to the student. Then when they realize, they speak of it using the same terms. But it is understood that there is no real merging or union.
You are already that.
But I can understand how that could be confusing when one is coming from a dissimilar tradition.
They are all more alike than appears superficially. If you can know beyond the words.
Just to clarify.
Meditative traditions focused on the cessation of suffering.
Just so.
Something to put in a salad?
@lobster and @Tony_A_Simien Thanks for your input into this thread, things have been really easy today as you've made me think that the defilements are just as much phantoms as everything else. Put into that perspective they are easy to smile at and let them drift by on the wind.
The onion is never gone, it's just been moved around.
The center of the onion is in the tears.
Just so.