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- Path: sparky!uunet!dziuxsolim.rutgers.edu!ruhets.rutgers.edu!farris
- From: farris@ruhets.rutgers.edu (Lorenzo Farris)
- Newsgroups: alt.consciousness
- Subject: Re: I like consciousness
- Message-ID: <Nov.22.16.45.38.1992.14577@ruhets.rutgers.edu>
- Date: 22 Nov 92 21:45:38 GMT
- References: <1992Nov20.175526.1@hamp.hampshire.edu:<1992Nov22.180053.3672@cgrg.ohio-state.edu>
- Organization: Rutgers Univ., New Brunswick, N.J.
- Lines: 49
-
- In article <1992Nov22.180053.3672@cgrg.ohio-state.edu>, leslie@cgrg.ohio-state.edu (Leslie Bishko) writes:
- :When I first read about Zen I was puzzled by the seemingly riddled
- :way of describing the state of "no mind." I thought: what is this
- :no mind thing - I have a complex mind full of intricate ways of
- :manifesting itself - how can I clear my mind to nothingness/all-ness?
- :
- :I am slowly doing more and more meditation through Kundalini Yoga.
- :I'm into the mind/body connection this practice brings me. Meditation
- :is never focused for me, though. My thoughts fly all over the place!
- :So, I like to go flying with them, and I try to follow thoughts while
- :meditating, instead of ridding myself of them.
- :
- :I'm reading Memories, Dreams and Reflections by Jung - he describes
- :the same desire: to experience himself fully. Perhaps this issue,
- :characterizing an East/West dichotomy, is simultaneously an inner
- :conflict of the duality of consciousness?
- :
- :Your thoughts?
- :
- :--
- :Leslie Bishko
- :leslie@cgrg.ohio-state.edu
-
- Until you have experienced a stilling of the mind, even for a moment,
- you cannot compare flying with your thoughts to silencing them.
-
- The 'goal' of Zen is intuitive understanding of existence. This is
- beyond any conceptualization. The state of 'no-mind' is the state in
- which you are not telling yourself, or showing yourself, anything
- about how you think experience is. In the state of no-mind is the
- fullness of awareness of experience with no mental modifications.
-
- It is a principle of many schools of thought that you tell yourself
- how the world ought to be through various scripts you replay in your
- mind, given to you by your parents, society, TV, etc. So what you
- experience is this conceptual world in your head. One way of cutting
- through that 'cultural conditioning' is to stop your thoughts, a least
- for a while.
-
- This is not to imply that there is anything wrong with what you are
- doing. It sounds like lots of fun. :-)
-
- Enjoy,
- Lorenzo
- --
- "Once upon a time men were possessed ******************************
- by devils. Now they are not less * Lorenzo Farris *
- obsessed by ideas" -CG Jung * farris@ruhets.rutgers.edu *
- ******************************
-