Roger/the gap is shining stillness

[Guest guest]

>R: [snip] ...

>Intellectually, I can imagine a state of oneness where the witness & the

>other are united. Yet, the act of imagination or speculation about this

>ultimate non-duality takes me out of the present, takes me away from the

>stillness which is the whole essence of my current practice.

 

D: When the present and the one who imagines an ability to leave

the present are not-two, stillness is no different from

this present, as is. The one who witnesses and that which is

witnessed are not-two, as the present remains unsplit with itself --

neither a "within" nor a "without" to this present.

>R: Perhaps the most useful possibility for this conversation is this: no

>thought is real, the mind can not think about anything real, thought is

>always removed from reality. Therefore, thoughts about non-duality are very

>limited: if the disease of thought continues, seek help! Thoughts about

>nonduality are probably just unproductive mood making. About the only useful

>thought I've ever had about nonduality is: "I'm not nondual, be still now".

 

D: There is always a gap between "this" and "thought about this".

Thought and memory function by separating That which is not, in reality,

separable - call it the separation of structure from movement,

of form from formlessness. Reality can't fully be grasped by thought or

memory, for they require a partialization of Reality in order to

function. They can only work with Reality in pieces, and Reality

isn't ultimately a matter of pieces. The intriguing thing is that

even while thought and memory operate, Reality isn't partialized.

 

Thought and memory occur without there ever being the "duality"

that is assumed by thought and memory to be there. In other

words, thought and memory (as key aspects of our biopsychosocial organzism)

involve working with structures, they assume the reality

and existence of structures. Yet, even while thought operates,

there is all around it a Reality "working" without structure

(that is, without separation of form and formlessness). That Reality

gives thought its life, although thought will never comprehend Its

fullness. The disease is relying on thought as ultimate definer of Truth,

the disease isn't thought itself.

 

The disease is to take the biopsychosocial structuring as

ultimate reality, thus attempting to "live inside" this structure,

rather than living as the Reality which animates the biopsychosocial

structuring. Additionally, the disease is taking thought's

assumptions of a thinker, an initiator, a controller, as really there.

 

Because there is a gap between "this" and "thought about this",

every instant is an "opportunity" for pure "thisness" --

indeed noticing the "gap" itself, which is an omnipresent

fact at the moment any thought appears -- noticing the gap allows

"thisness" as it is - this "gap" itself shines --

there is observation "prior to" thought's divisions.

 

Love,

Dan