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consciousness and form

chanrattchanratt Veteran
edited October 2010 in Buddhism Basics
this concept has me tied up in knots and i can't get my head around it. i find it hard to even ask this question because i don't even know how to ask it, or 'what' the question is for that matter. if everything is one, does that mean that the material world and the spiritual and the same thing, or that they depend on each other? i wil stop here in the hope that someone knows what i am talking about. maybe someone could point me to a link regarding this 'doctrine'?

Comments

  • RichardHRichardH Veteran
    edited September 2010
    It can be helpful to put aside ideas like material world and spiritual world, and look at it this way. "Consciousness' can just be awareness, the seer. You are the seer. We usually say "I" am the seer "I see". "Form" is the seen. " I see the seen. The seen is not I". This is how our common sense works. We take I, the seer.... and not I, the seen, to be separate things involved in a transaction, called "seeing" that takes place across a gap.

    What the teaching tells us is that this assumption of a separate seer and seen does not stand up to examination. In Meditation we step out of our notion of how the world should be and look at our immediate experience.

    Is there ever an experience of the seen without a seer? No. Is there ever a seer without a seen? No. So when we look into our experience we realize that seer and seen are abstractions. We say there is seer-seeing-seen, but seer and seen cannot be teased apart from seeing. When we sit with this immediate experience, what clarifies is that the experience is just seeing. Only seeing. No seer, no seen. Just seeing. This is non-duality, and it is not a fabrication. It is what is prior to our fabrications and realizing it is the result of letting go.
  • robotrobot Veteran
    edited September 2010
    That really is a first class explanation, thank you Richard.
  • TheJourneyTheJourney
    edited October 2010
    Richard H wrote: »
    It can be helpful to put aside ideas like material world and spiritual world, and look at it this way. "Consciousness' can just be awareness, the seer. You are the seer. We usually say "I" am the seer "I see". "Form" is the seen. " I see the seen. The seen is not I". This is how our common sense works. We take I, the seer.... and not I, the seen, to be separate things involved in a transaction, called "seeing" that takes place across a gap.

    What the teaching tells us is that this assumption of a separate seer and seen does not stand up to examination. In Meditation we step out of our notion of how the world should be and look at our immediate experience.

    Is there ever an experience of the seen without a seer? No. Is there ever a seer without a seen? No. So when we look into our experience we realize that seer and seen are abstractions. We say there is seer-seeing-seen, but seer and seen cannot be teased apart from seeing. When we sit with this immediate experience, what clarifies is that the experience is just seeing. Only seeing. No seer, no seen. Just seeing. This is non-duality, and it is not a fabrication. It is what is prior to our fabrications and realizing it is the result of letting go.

    great post! :thumbsup:
  • chanrattchanratt Veteran
    edited October 2010
    yeah great reply. that's alli need to hear as that's what i believed but couldn't internally articulate it. perfect thanks!
  • RichardHRichardH Veteran
    edited October 2010
    Thanks. It's good to be of use. I find this forum helpful and a great resource.
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