[NondualitySalon] Deconstructing the Mountain.

[Guest guest]

umbada (Jerry M. Katz)

 

Entire confessional texts and scriptures go past my eyes, but never is

the word enlightenment seen. To me it's a generic term such as 'Eastern

Spirituality'. So it's not a word to which I give much attention at all.

 

The word 'enlightenment' (or even the term "Eastern Spirituality") is a

very distant mountain whose shape many recognize, as they would Fuji

through a mist. And even as Gene Poole painstakingly points out what is

required to 'hear' correctly, the vision of a mountain in a haze must be

'seen' correctly.

 

To see it correctly is, first of all, to know that it is not the

feelings it evokes. Mt. Fuji is not romance, thrill, foreign travel, an

exotic past life, life under the volcano. If it is seen as those, it is

not being seen correctly, radically.

 

Those feelings are the mist before the mist, and the mist is well before

the mountain.

 

To truly hear or see anything, the layers of mist must be recognized.

And there are seemingly endless layers of mist. The Skandhas are the

mist makers. So proper seeing of Mt. Fuji must take place in

consultation with the Skandhas. Doing that, one will deconstruct the

Mountain.

 

First there is a mountain, then there is no mountain, then there is.

 

Harsha: Thanks for this Jerry. I was thinking about the notion of mountains

a few hours ago but not the mist angle. So let us boil this down Jerry. I

don't climb mountains, and I don't see mist, and I don't see mountains. I am

the Mountain. And I have swallowed the Whole Mountain. Don't ask me how

:--). In fact, earlier today in my short morning walk such thoughts were

passing through me. I don't experience enlightenment. I am Enlightenment. I

am not steadfast in any wisdom, or any spiritual state of clarity. I am It

Self the Supreme Clarity. I am the laughter of the Universe, rippling

through everywhere (especially in my office). I am the Silence of the

Essence. I am the Heavenly Embrace. My Smile is Whole, Perfect, Complete and

Everywhere. I am going to go have a salad now. Now which salad dressing?