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Oneness

I find it difficult to understand the idea of becoming one with something.

I am driving in my car, I become one with the car. How does one become one with the car?

When I carry out the action of driving, I am completely focused on driving (100% driving mind) so there is no separation between myself and the action - I become one with the action. The action is driving the car, so I become one with car?

Inside (the action) and outside (the universe) become one?

Comments

  • anatamananataman Who needs a title? Where am I? Veteran
    edited December 2013
    I don't have time to explain today (I'd love too go through the process again) - but see if this little article helps your understanding: http://www.sgi.org/buddhism/buddhist-concepts/oneness-of-self-and-environment.html
    sinewaves
  • Thank you anatman, hope you're well.
  • anatamananataman Who needs a title? Where am I? Veteran
    Happy as a daisy. Thank you.
  • genkakugenkaku Northampton, Mass. U.S.A. Veteran
    Oneness just means dualism is still in the driver's seat.

    Don't trouble yourself.

    Drive the car.
    zenff
  • Is oneness just referring to clear mind/only go straight/put it all down?
  • My example of the car came from here - I was trying to interpret Seung Sahn's example:

    "We say 'jeon il', completely become one. When you are doing an operation, you and this knife completely become one. When you are driving in your car, you and the car only become one. If you drive on a road with pebbles and you are not thinking, only driving, then you can feel these pebbles under your tires. Only become one means, you and your action completely become one; then you and the universe only become one — completely no-thinking mind. Inside and outside become one. The name for this is, 'only go straight,' or 'put it all down,' or 'don't make anything,' or 'keep clear mind.'"
  • anatamananataman Who needs a title? Where am I? Veteran
    Here's a picture I took whilst out practicing jogging mediation today - The park was empty, and I was one with the scene I found myself in. It was interesting that as I sat down there was your post. "Oneness'.
  • Lovely picture. So, essentially oneness is no separation between you and the other - you were completely aware of the park. Is this a correct interpretation?
  • anatamananataman Who needs a title? Where am I? Veteran
    Not quite but - difficult to use words to describe really - if I try to describe it… what I am trying to describe slips out of the grasp of my understanding.

    Why don't you go jogging in a park, it's a good way to get you focussed on the breath? Find a nice spot and just be present there with what arises. Hey you could even send me a pic back to admire -'Sinewaves in the park'.

    You might want to find a a river or a pond and reflect on the ripples on the water - always good to do that. I once spent a whole day with waders on standing in a river fly-fishing - I didn't catch a single fish but just having the water rippling around me - just made me dissolve into the scene. Nature, and especially water, is good for dissolution.



  • My idea of oneness is pretty much that one cannot exist without the other - there cannot be driving without a driver, and in the same way, there cannot be driving without a car, so there is this interconnectedness - oneness.
  • I was driving in the rain the other day, wishing the rain would stop, then remembering that the car would not exist without the rain and neither would I. Everything is one with everything else on some level.
  • seeker242seeker242 Zen Florida, USA Veteran
    I would say "oneness" is the experience where notions of and referencing "I, my, me" disappear.
    sinewaves said:

    Is oneness just referring to clear mind/only go straight/put it all down?

    Going with yes! But of course that includes putting down "oneness" also.

    :om:

    anatamanDennis1
  • sinewaves said:


    I find it difficult to understand the idea of becoming one with something.
    I am driving in my car, I become one with the car. How does one become one with the car?
    Inside (the action) and outside (the universe) become one?

    I think the concept of separateness is born from identification with defilements, thus without this view, where is delineation?
    In a sense therefore, the faculty that concludes one, two etc, cannot be trusted absolutely as a universal determination of concepts such as one, two etc.
    Is this becoming one with something?
    Or is the something the one thing?
    Not sure.
  • sinewavessinewaves Explorer
    edited December 2013
    seeker242 said:

    I would say "oneness" is the experience where notions of and referencing "I, my, me" disappear.

    Thanks for this.
  • lobsterlobster Crusty Veteran
    sinewaves said:

    How does one become one with the car?

    How does one become two . . . with the car?

    :wave:
    mfranzdorf
  • Sorry, the one is referring to I.
  • lobster said:

    sinewaves said:

    How does one become one with the car?

    How does one become two . . . with the car?

    :wave:
    Quickly.
    DairyLama
  • DairyLamaDairyLama Veteran Veteran
    edited December 2013
    sinewaves said:

    The action is driving the car, so I become one with car?

    If you're fully mindful of driving then it's as if you're one with the car.
    But personally I think cars are noisy, smelly, dangerous things so I tend to avoid them. :p
    sinewaves
  • DavidDavid A human residing in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. Ancestral territory of the Erie, Haudenosaunee, Huron-Wendat, Mississauga and Neutral First Nations Veteran
    When controlling something like a car, it becomes an extension of your body and you are already one with the car.
  • anatamananataman Who needs a title? Where am I? Veteran
    Let's say we are being at one with the car and we drive fast into a wall. Do we become one with the wall and the car, the wall, or the dashboard? However you look at it we will probably lose our self?
  • DavidDavid A human residing in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. Ancestral territory of the Erie, Haudenosaunee, Huron-Wendat, Mississauga and Neutral First Nations Veteran
    Being one with everything, we see there is no lasting and true border between that which we call the self and anything else.
  • The car would have to be in our awareness. If it were outside then how do we sense it? Everything is in the awareness. Of course even a child knows that if you go behind a wall you don't just disappear even if a second party cannot see you any more. But everything is in awareness in the way that I mean.
  • The emptiness which is spoken of is the emptiness of inherent being. Everything which rises (starts or is born) is dependent on something else-a mother for instance. Or maybe, two big rocks smashing together in space and become a bunch of little rocks.
    So, If you are looking at time and you say wow that rock just had a bunch of babies,
    you can see that the entity-the little rock is just a product of two big rocks. They are not independent. They are dependently arisen. Just so, the Earth pulls on us and so does the sun. The stars also pull on us but not very much. Gravity is like that. Everything pulls on you a little and what is close pulls a lot. Like our mother pulls on us a lot. Our family, friends, nation etc. pull on us and shape who we are. So we rise dependent on the world around us. The essence of an individual is that he is separate from others. Well yes we are. We have separate views and experience and opinions and aspirations. We have separate motivations. But as a separate being-a person-we are dependent on others, just as little rocks are dependent on bigger rocks. So all of this separateness, at some point you can see-well-it sort of lacks any inherent (in from the beginning), existence. We are all sort of a part of some big pot of chunky soup. We are the potatoes, or carrots.

    Now when we are looking out at all of the form in this separate seeming world we are being ourselves. This separate self has two important qualities: It has clarity or awareness, and it's essence is empty of inherent existence as a separate entity-really-
    it's (you're) just part of the soup. Your existence has no meaning or function outside of the soup. Well, when you look at the universe as an element of the soup you are just part of the soup (oneness) and just like that you notice that the rest of the world is part of the soup also. In fact, what is not part of the soup? Well there is an answer and that answer is "the Dharmadathu". So we have this awareness-which is intrinsic or inherent, and we have a lot of soup. When we are looking at the other carrots and peas we are just a potato observing a fellow soup ingredient. But, when we are just aware and don't have an object to be aware of, we are not creating duality (subject-object relationship). That is the unity which is pristine cognition. That is awareness without an object. Just like that (image of snapping fingers) you experience the unity of the soup-
    maybe we are just all elements of a very large soup bowl. But then the soup bowl would be empty.

    This is an important experience and an even more important understanding, to realize and make part of your life. If meditation can bring you to this awareness without an object, then you can quick like a bunny rabbit, reach out and make your own, the idea of the value of others. This is the beginning of the path of the Bodhisattva.

    If you experience this unity you should use it to improve your motivation. Get a good book, like the Avatamsaka Sutra-go ahead spend the extra bucks-make the commitment. Yes, you should discover a guru and he will introduce you to a school or lineage. But, You have made an important step. You are aware of being aware-without an object. P.S. This raises your appreciation of peas and corn and is also the cornerstone of Buddha Fields. So before enlightenment there is just the soup. And,
    after enlightenment there is just the soup-and the bowl. So the soup does not appear without a bowl. And you never need a bowl without soup. This is the Wisdom of the 'Prajnaparamita Sutra' which includes the 'Heart Sutra'. You might also check out
    Hua Yin Buddhism which goes with the Avatamsaka Sutra.
    May The Good Be Yours, Dennis
    anatamanHamsaka
  • anatamananataman Who needs a title? Where am I? Veteran
    Great Effort brings Great Rewards @Dennis1. That was a great post - though someone will probably find a fault - Keep going - and if you are feeling generous and you offer me your helping hand, I will take it and kiss it and praise you for your time and effort….

    Mettha
    Dennis1
  • The emptiness which is spoken of is the emptiness of inherent being. Everything which rises (starts or is born) is dependent on something else-a mother for instance. Or maybe, two big rocks smashing together in space and become a bunch of little rocks.
    So, If you are looking at time and you say wow that rock just had a bunch of babies,
    you can see that the entity-the little rock is just a product of two big rocks. They are not independent. They are dependently arisen. Just so, the Earth pulls on us and so does the sun. The stars also pull on us but not very much. Gravity is like that. Everything pulls on you a little and what is close pulls a lot. Like our mother pulls on us a lot. Our family, friends, nation etc. pull on us and shape who we are. So we rise dependent of the world around us. The essence of an individual is that he is separate from others. Well yes we are. We have separate views and experience and opinions and aspirations. We have separate motivations. But as a separate being-a person-we are dependent on others, just as little rock are dependent on bigger rocks. So all of this separateness, at some point you can see-well-it sort of lacks any inherent (in from the beginning), existence. We are all sort of all a part of some big pot of chunky soup. We are the potatoes, or carrots.

    Now when we are looking out at all of the form in this separate seeming world we are being ourselves. This separate self has two important qualities: It has clarity or awareness, and it's essence is empty of inherent existence as a separate entity-really-
    it's (you're) just part of the soup. Your existence has no meaning or function outside of the soup. Well, when you look at the universe as an element of the soup you are just part of the soup (oneness) and just like that you notice that the rest of the world is part of the soup also. In fact, what is not part of the soup? Well there is an answer and that answer is "the Dharmadathu". So we have this awareness-which is intrinsic or inherent, and we have a lot of soup. When we are looking at the other carrots and peas we are just a potato observing a fellow soup ingredient. But, when we are just aware and don't have an object to be aware of we are not creating duality (subject-object relationship). That is the unity which is pristine cognition. That is awareness without an object. Just like that (image of snapping fingers) you experience the unity of the soup-
    maybe we are just all elements of a very large soup bowl. But then the soup bowl would be empty.

    This is an important experience and an even more important understanding, to realize and make part of your life. If meditation can bring you to this awareness0without an object then you can quick like a bunny rabbit, reach out and make your own the idea of the value of others. This is the beginning of Bodhichitta. The path is the Paramitas.

    Jeffrey
  • continuation-I chopped it here is the rest

    If you experience this unity you should use it to improve your motivation. Get a good book, like the Avatamsaka Sutra-go ahead spend the extra bucks-make the commitment. Yes, you should discover a guru and he will introduce you to a school or lineage. But, You have made an important step. You are aware of being aware-without an object. P.S. This raises your appreciation of peas and corn and is also the cornerstone of Buddha Fields. So before enlightenment there is just the soup. And,
    after enlightenment there is just the soup-and the bowl. So the soup does not appear without a bowl. And you never need a bowl without soup. This is the Wisdom of the 'Prajnaparamita Sutra' which includes the 'Heart Sutra'. You might also check out
    Hua Yin Buddhism which goes with the Avatamsaka Sutra.
    May The Good Be Yours, Dennis

    Jeffrey
  • anataman said:

    Great Effort brings Great Rewards @Dennis1. That was a great post - though someone will probably find a fault - Keep going - and if you are feeling generous and you offer me your helping hand, I will take
    it and kiss it and praise you for your time and effort….
    Mettha

    Hi Anataman: Thank you. I feel we are all here helping each other understand and grow.
    I have appreciated your input and hope you will continue in your enlightening activities.
    I like to respond to questions as that implies a desire to see new views. I just move in on that desire and the nature of the question. Best to you, Dennis


    anataman
  • DairyLamaDairyLama Veteran Veteran
    If you want to find out about being one with a machine, try sailing one of these in a strong wind.
    https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=laser+sailing+dinghy&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=Z-aqUuybA5Cw7Aad34CYDw&ved=0CDgQsAQ&biw=1280&bih=935 ;)
  • If you want to find out about being one with a machine, try sailing one of these in a strong wind.
    https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=laser+sailing+dinghy&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=Z-aqUuybA5Cw7Aad34CYDw&ved=0CDgQsAQ&biw=1280&bih=935 ;)

    So awesome! I'd love to try it. I will try it!
    anataman
  • JasonJason God Emperor Arrakis Moderator
    sinewaves said:

    I find it difficult to understand the idea of becoming one with something.

    I am driving in my car, I become one with the car. How does one become one with the car?

    When I carry out the action of driving, I am completely focused on driving (100% driving mind) so there is no separation between myself and the action - I become one with the action. The action is driving the car, so I become one with car?

    Inside (the action) and outside (the universe) become one?

    It depends on the context, but it's generally just a perception attainment where one's awareness is so focused/intertwined with a particuar object of activity that they seemingly become one and the same.
  • anatamananataman Who needs a title? Where am I? Veteran
    edited December 2013
    robot said:

    If you want to find out about being one with a machine, try sailing one of these in a strong wind.
    https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=laser+sailing+dinghy&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=Z-aqUuybA5Cw7Aad34CYDw&ved=0CDgQsAQ&biw=1280&bih=935 ;)

    So awesome! I'd love to try it. I will try it!
    In the easter and summer holidays I sail dinghies with my 3 kids, it really is awesome:



    robot
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