Ignorance within
Jeroen
Luminous beings are we, not this crude matterNetherlands Veteran
For a long time, I have been looking for wisdom within (and without). I encouraged my inner self to do the things that need doing, and to spend the rest of the time looking for ways to become better. But in meditation today I got back one thing, the words ‘most of them are ignorance’. It was different from the norm because it was not some detail from my memory or something that I had said to it.
On contemplating it further, it seemed to me that it was talking about the fragments of my inner mind, the things the inner self works with on the inside of the mind. I’ve always avoided imposing a rigid order on these kind of meditations, just working with the impressions I gather of there being some kind of entity in charge of the mind. It’s my own inner system.
I have always thought that the inner self would know how to work with the mind to make it meditative. Now for it to say that most of the things it works with are ignorance seems like a useful insight on its part. Slowly wisdom is arising in the inner world.
Comments
I believe that wisdom is difficult to find while dualistically limited by a perspective that there is a within and a without.
So long as we continue to give our mind in our practice some special status over our other senses, our ignorance will thrive in the sanctuary that we've created for it. Remove the dominance we have habitually given to one sense gate over any of the others, and on that resulting level playing ground, ignorance & wisdom can more easily be discerned from one & other.
When I use words like inner and outer i am merely using them descriptively. They fit what I experience, which is not a non-dual oneness but a separation at the boundary of the body.
If I choose not to discern a distinction, I am merely playing with the senses, am I not?
@Kerome
I think....
It is the misconception of the solidity of that separation between self and other that gives duality its existence. This is just our mentality's connection with our karmic momentum that breathes life into our storyline of us being intrinsically separated from everything else. To the degree that we are unwilling to surrender up the inertial identity of this dream, is the degree to which a complicit mind will continue to remain the large elephant in our living room to ignore.
Would you still argue about the relative values of a caste system when a simple stopping of ones mindless participation in its support structure was also possible.
The senses are playing us. They choose.
Ignorance is finding what separates rather than allowing our wholistic 'empty'/still being.
Sometimes it is as simple as recognising that there is no distinction, that is true. Class systems have always seemed crazy to me, whether we are talking about 18th century Europe or ancient India. So it is definitely worth giving it serious thought.
Not a bad observation, friend @lobster.
"For things to reveal themselves to us, we need to be ready to let go of our opinions about them."
-Thich Nhat Hanh.
We are so not seperate looool
And yet we are , double lol