Celia dom., 31 mar.

2019 0:40
Steiman <celia.steiman@gmail.com>
para mí

The stars and galaxies we, in our worldly illusory or false ego of Self, worldly see in the night sky
might not be existent? Get it?

This 'illusion' or 'phantasm' of what is described by the Buddha as in the 'sunyata', as in being
empty or void of substance or substrate or total absoluteness in the phantasmagoria of all the
phenomena that we, in our worldly illusory or false ego of Self, worldly sense is also confirmed by
applying the dialectic elliptical logic of the Greek philosophers.

Everything we, in our worldly illusory or false ego of Self, worldly know is changing and moving in
'value' as in the 'measurement' or 'determination' of it, because they are relative or subject to
each other in the juxtapositioning.

Take time and date, it is human knowledge based or computed. We say it is BC or AD and yet we
actually do not know when Jesus was born or died. The time we set is based on the relative
revolving or rotation of the sun, earth and moon, and is of use only to humans. But what about the
aliens out there? So, by deduction, the past, present and future only exist in relativity with or to
each other. Otherwise none of them exist.

Time is relative or subjective like all things when it is dependent on this subject-object axis or
matrix. If this were not true then Einstein's Theory of General Relativity is groundless. Let me give
you a real life example. When you are waiting for your lover to arrive at the rendezvous, 5 minutes
is like 5 hours. But when you are entwined in each other's company later, 5 hours is like 5 minutes!
Accordingly, time is therefore an 'illusion'.

This relativity or subjectivity or duality that all measurements or values are predicated on, means
that there is nothing actually 'totally absolute' about them, which is saying that they are not of a
permanent entity or substantial substrate that we can carry over from one point of moment in
time to another.

Accordingly, in our worldly illusory or false ego of Self worldly 'thinking' (verb) - things are
'created'.

 
At this point, I like to return to the analogy of dreams or should I say 'dreaming' (verb).
Coincidentally, but it is true, the Aborigines in Australia in their folklore explains 'Creation' as 'The
Dreaming'.

This is an exercise in logic in abstruse logic. I am asleep and 'dreaming'. Let us say in the dreaming
of the dream, I am the idealistic handsome and well endowed Casanova (unlike plain and
mundane me!) performing his sexual exploits. The passion of the chase and the capture and the
rapture of the conquest are all very real in the experience of it and I ended in my actual worldly
being with a 'wet dream' of a dreaming. Get the picture.

Let us extrapolate that it is possible that my existence is someone else's dreaming, and his
'dreaming' is also someone else's dreaming and so forth, and imagine all these 'dreaming' of
dreams can be concurrent in infinite parallel worlds as indicated in the movie MATRIX!

Not only that, besides the concurrence, how about the progression and the digression, that is
looking at the two opposite directions of movement of the 'dreaming'? How far back? Or, how far
ahead? That is why in this relativity and subjectivity there cannot be found a first cause or the
beginning or at the other end, a definite terminus or termination.

Now, I ask you again. What is real and what is illusory? It is all relative in perspective is it not?

It comes back to the preamble - from whose (the subject) perspective and what (the object) is in
the everything that is being looked at and within which realm or dimension are we examining this
hypothesis?

If the mind-consciousness of our worldly illusory or false ego of Self (as a collective) were to stay
still like the stopping of this pendulum of thought, i.e. the pendulum at rest - the universe and all
things that we, in our worldly illusory or false ego of Self, worldly imagines or dreams - will just
simply disappear.

So, I think we now understand or appreciate the characteristics of this 'illusion' or 'phantasm' of
'sunyata' that is 'emptiness'. But how do we define or visualise this 'sunyata' and transpose it to
the pervasive mind-consciousness that the Buddha was referring to?

First, in the 'illusion' or 'phantasm' of 'sunyata' that is 'emptiness', the mind-consciousness that it
represents cannot also be anything other than a 'sunyata'. It cannot have an ego of Self, that
screams out -"I am mind-consciousness!". For that would be like a God! But for an illusory God in
'sunyata' to have an ego of Self is to be delusional! Who wants a delusional God? To avoid this
problem in Buddhism we just say - "mind-consciousness just is" or "mind-consciousness is just
thus".

Second, we say that mind-consciousness is 'intangible' and 'formless' like the 'quality' of the
'reflectivity' that is the 'backing' of a mirror. This inherent 'quality' of 'reflectivity' in the matter
that is the 'backing' of the mirror, unlike the physical character of form of the backing itself, is
however unborn, undying, unmoving, immutable and 'absolute' in its 'quality'.

This 'quality' of 'reflectivity' is also inherently pervasive in its total equanimity - it is totally
ambivalent, indifferent, nonchalant and does not get involve with anything, just like a fly on the
wall, for it cannot be bias in any shape manner or form.

We now know that this is mind-consciousness in repose, like a pendulum at rest, is when mind-
consciousness is 'not thinking' (verb).

Third, we say that when the mind-consciousness, that is the 'illusion' or 'phantasm' of 'sunyata'
that is 'emptiness', that is the 'quality' of the 'reflectivity' that is the 'backing' of a mirror,
emanates itself in the worldly false ego of self in the 'samsara' of suffering, where the immutable
law of karma is in full steam, it does so in the 'illusion' that is the kaleidoscopic phantasmagoria of
worldly phenomena, and kindly note, ever-changing and therefore not absolute.

This 'illusion' is like, (in contrast to that is the 'quality' of the 'reflectivity' that is the 'backing' of a
mirror, which is absolute and never moves), the ever changing never absolute 'kaleidoscopic'
'reflections' 'in' the mirror.

We now know that this is mind-consciousness in animated action, in full flight, like a movie, is
when it is 'thinking' (verb).

Fourth, the 'absolute' 'reflectivity' of and the 'non-absolute' 'reflections' in the mirror are neither
'form' (noun) nor ''not form' (noun) and are pervasive 'thinking' (verb) or 'not thinking' (verb). And
they both metaphorically relate to and emanate from the same mind-consciousness. They are the
two sides to the same coin, the same mind-consciousness. The 'absolute' 'reflectivity' of the mirror
is like the pendulum of a grandfather clock at 'rest' and the 'non-absolute' 'reflections' in the
mirror are like the pendulum of a grandfather clock 'in motion'.

 
In Buddhism we describe the former as 'nirvana' [the mind-consciousness in peaceful blissful
repose of 'not thinking'] and the latter as the 'agitated monkey in the mind' [the mind-
consciousness animated and fantasising or should that be phantasming!]

But as we can see, there is neither Self or God to be identified with or grasped of related to. And
that is why it is as the Buddha said of the 'illusion', the 'phantasm' that is of 'sunyata' - that it is
inconceivable, incomprehensible and ungraspable.

Postscript.

Please do not take Buddhism too seriously or should I say do not take it religiously.

You do not have to trouble yourself with the metaphysical or the transcendental, or anything
publicly broadcasted and vainly advertised as spiritual and pristine, when you are young and fancy
free, and able to enjoy the full flight and the full spectrum of the multi-coloured and multi-weaving
intricacies of the magic tapestry that is life.

Be like an intrepid explorer - go and experience and enjoy life to the full - the sunshine and the
rain, the different seasons, the ups and downs, the good with the bad. But keep a copy of the
Desiderata beside you. That is the only Bible you ever need.

To everything there is a season, the Bible says. The Buddha was more plebeian and mundane
when he said - "The mango will fall when it is ripe.".

Go and fall in love, raise a family, look after your aged parents, that is the true Zen (excuse the
pun) for life!

Wait until (a) you are absolutely unhappy and have lost faith of life - when you see it as 'suffering',
as a burden, as a chore, as a gross inequity or as a 'Groundhog's Day' or when (b) you have been
infected with a fear of 'death' all of a sudden or when (c) you have become 'Socrates' and is
verve'd to know who exactly you are, the reason for your 'state' or 'lot' in existence, basically the
'who, when, what, where and whom' of 'you'?.