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#4294 -
The Nonduality
Highlights - http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NDhighlights
I've reprinted the
original letter from yesterday's issue, followed by nine reader
responses. Thank you for your letters. Feel free to send more.
Dear Jerry:
I have been a fan of the
ND highlights for over three years now, and while I am still
learning much about advaita, I never fail to enjoy the daily
excerpts and wisdom.
I had to pass this along,
mainly because I didnt know how to answer him appropriately:
My son, who just turned
six, and I went fishing for the first time in awhile over the
weekend. It was a perfect day, and we were catching them as
fast as we throw our line in. It was great to get him away
from Wii, I phones etc to spend some time outdoors. Out of
the blue, he turned to me and asked, "Dad, is all of
this real, or is it a dream?"
Wow, did that hit
home. I am of course weighed down by so much intellectual
baggage to answer him with a quick definitive "yes or
no". But I did say I wasnt sure, and that it
was a great question. And, dont stop asking it.
How would you have tacked
that one, responding to a six year old who may be wise beyond his
years? :)
S.L.
Yosy
yes, s.l. thank you for the most appropriate,
truthful answer...
*********************************
Cultivating unknowing
Increase your doubtfulness, my friend.
Keep questioning all things…
Persist doubting everything.
Until all incertitude
Is wiped out and obliterated
Without a slightest trace
By the ever-present, mysterious,
Timeless and boundless
All-pervading
Grace.
Once recognized doubtless
Self evident truth
Whole, complete and all containing
Needs no further proof.
*********************************
respectfully,
yosy
Rich Murray
Give him a one-dollar
bill, ask him to slowly raise it up with both hands from his
mouth to nose to eyes and hold it there firmly against his face
-- ask him what happened to whatever he was seeing in front of
him -- lead him to understand that what he sees in an image in
his mind, what he hears of your voice is a sense of sound in his
mind, what his fingers feel of the dollar bill and his face are
senses of touch in his mind -- then obviously his mind is real,
whether full of images or full of partial darkness -- ask him to
imagine raising both hands and patting his head -- then have him
actually do it -- get him laughing at the mystery of it -- let
him keep the one-dollar bill -- allow him to change the inquiry
games and invent new ones -- give each game a name.
Ask him to tell you his
dreams.
Gene Poole
In a sense, his son is acting as his
own (disowned, as per conditioning)
prior-to-conditioning, young self.
It is also an example of the 'second
chance' afforded by the experience of
raising children.. We then have a chance
to review our own assumptions, and even
to try them out on our own children but
in a conscious, sharing way.
One good answer to his son would be this:
"Son, I have been studying that question
for many years. What my studies have revealed
is that nobody really knows, whether 'this'
is 'real' or a dream."
"But I can say that pursuing that question,
is a very important activity. I myself
prioritize it as 'always pertinent'. It is
one of the most important questions, and
it is one that can really save you a lot
of trouble in your life, if you do pursue
it as an ongoing activity."
So much for the answer to the child.
>I am of course weighed down by so much intellectual baggage
to answer him with a quick definitive "yes or no". But
I did say I wasnt sure, and that it was a great question. And,
dont stop asking it.
>
> How would you have tacked that one, responding to a six year
old who may be wise beyond his years? :)
>
> S.L.
If we can say that we do not know
the 'real' answer, we can at least
attempt to define our terms:
- what does 'real' mean?
- if something is not real,
can it exist anyway?
- we may agree on what a 'dream' is,
but can we in any way, agree to any
definition of 'real'?
Our conditioned priorities throw us into
a dilemma; we categorize things as 'real',
as a matter of convenience. But this habit
bleeds over into our 'theology', how we
frame the world we experience. Our framework
must by nature (given any framework at all)
needs the central gravity of what is 'real',
whether it is really real, or not.
In other words; we are thrown into a public/
private closet of unceasing hallucinations,
which we try to slow down and catalogue in
some useful way. It is our awareness of the
hallucinatory nature of 'reality', which
sets us apart from those who do not, for
whatever reasons, question the veracity of
their hallucinations.
To say 'we hallucinate' is NOT the same
as saying we are 'delusional'. The delusional
person cannot approximate the great job the
rest of us do, as we define and regiment our
hallucinations. We can pick and choose our
favorite religion or philosophy, complete with
famed and named experts, founders, etc.
Then it turns out, that our hallucinations mainly
serve to alert us to the absence of anything
which is NOT a hallucination. We struggle to
maintain membership in the 'similar believer's
clubs', trying not to appear 'atypical', and
so to avoid social opprobrium. But such practices
become the whole of the 'path of consensus',
which is the universal human 'spiritual practice'.
And breaking away from that 'path', can have
unwanted consequences. Breaking away, living
outside of consensus society, is certainly
possible. But the real question arises when
we try to examine just how 'outside' we
really are. Do such definitions matter? Yes,
for some of us, they do.*
Understanding the unremitting nature of hallucination,
opens the way to simply relax and gradually learn
about the 'real' message about consciousness, which
consciousness itself delivers, by its existence.
==GP==
* Not to worry, though. One may fall back
on, or 'take refuge', in the Buddha Dharma.
Such 'one size fits all' formulas exist, and
of all of them, Buddhism is probably the
most evolved and fine-tuned to fit our 'real'
needs.
Yosy
- what does 'real' mean?
:) everythingl is as real as we are. our life, moment-to-moment,
is our ongoing answer.
****************************
definitions, borders, rules…
they confine, restrict, direct.
but the wind
knows nothing of this
and the sky
cannot be bound.
if you trap the wind
it
dies.
ya yosy,
let your spirit
roam
free!
see:
this moment
is one
with the ocean
of time.
***********************
yosy the fool
Wayne (Wirs)
My reply would have been,
"It IS real, but, unlike it appears, all THIS (spreading my
arms to the Beauty) is one, humongous, wonderful, living thing.
Nothing is really separate from anything else, it's all One---all
parts of a much greater Whole."
Note: Buddha said/implied
that the world is LIKE a dream, not that it WAS a dream (as so
many claim). LIKE in the sense that in a dream all the symbols
and meanings and pieces seem real when in fact all those
"pieces" are just mental fluff. What you are sitting on
is real. The "chair" (the mental symbol and meaning of
it) isn't.
I have a saying which I
often share with readers to help clarify this, "If it
requires thoughts to exist, it isn't real."
Boundless
Presence
Not wise beyond his
years, simply the innate wisdom hasn't been succesfully buried
yet...
"Son, you are quite right. This is not real in the way that
most folks act like it is. They had a moment of fear that they
covered up and forgot, and now they have made up an arrangement
of thoughts to hide from that fear. We can help some of them by
being completely open to their deep feelings. It is fun to let
their fear pass through us. It is simple and refreshing like this
summer breeze. There is no need to limit our Love by pretending,
as most folks do. There have always been people on earth who are
free from the dream. Some awaken at some point in their life and
others never fell asleep and pretended. It is a Joy to share this
great Freedom with you now. Playing here together, we can always
know the Freedom and love any who have forgotten it. This helps
them remember the Freedom and remember who they truly are."
Beth
Dear Jerry - Had to write
this after reading ND highlights #4293. When my six-year-old son
and I were out hiking one day, he spontaneously turned to me and
said, "Mom, do you know what I think life is? I think it's a
dream in the mind of God." I nearly fell over. I had not
encountered Advaita/non-dual teachings at that point, but the
comment really struck me and I've remembered it for these 20
years. We were not a religious or even particularly spiritual
family, so I always took his comment as a spontaneous expression
of Truth through the unadulterated mind of a child. Thanks for
your delightful group, Beth
Pete Sierra
P: Well, not to through
cold water on a father's
wonder about his son's philosophical inquiry, it
probably meant nothing more than 'I can't believe
we are catching these many fish.' That the father
took the question philosophically says more about
the father than the son.
If the child was posing a philosophical question, it
was probably because he overheard that question
in past conversations his father had with others.
It will be very remarkable indeed, if the son of
a Christian preacher would have asked that.
We call real those of our perceptions that others
can verify. What is real has predictable consequences
that dreams lack. We call our life a dream as a metaphor
for its evanescent quality.
Mark
The correct answer (and there IS only one
correct answer...) is "In the immortal words of Albert
Einstein; 'Uhhhhhh, I dunno...'" (It's essential to quote
Albert, as this gives the answer the authority it requires. One
must be firm with children.)
LOve, Mark