🚀 go-pugleaf

X-Orig-MsgId: <3866233C.7BE9F115@bu.edu>



Stefan Gmaj wrote: <<To stop thinking is inhuman - Thinking remains a useful
tool>>

Thinking (mentation) is a good tool, without which we should die quick. But it
should be a mere tool, and not a master. With us deludeds, it is a master, and a
ruthless, imperious master that gives no pause. Buddhist awakening puts it in
its place, so that the awakened can think when he wants and not think when he
wants.

Stefan: <<It aint absolute authority if one still carries pain in ones
subconscious (unresolved wounded thoughts or feelings).>>

Thinking (mentation) is largely unconscious, and to attain Buddhist awakening,
one has to penetrate into the unconscious, see it thoroughly, then see through
it and past it into the unthought ground, which is raw sensation. So long as one
has the unconscious, one cannot live in the present, because it will throw forth
its shadows to cover up the present. That is why the Buddhist path is long and
arduous, full of dragons and ogres (as Venerable Punnadhammo says), because the
unconscious will fight for its life to the end.

If anything remains unconscious, like past feelings of hurt and wound, it will
colour one's present in ... unconscious ways, and one has to bring them into
consciousness, get intimate with them, deal with them, resolve any conflict (if
there was no conflict, there wouldn't be any pain), and thus be able to let them
go.

Stefan: <<But the subconscious is dark and misty - it's is difficult to see
clearly.

I think the acid test must be dukkha. If we experience even a scintilla of
dukkha than we still have more work to do. I simply don't think that
non-mentation is enough. For example, meditation, for instance can bring
neuroses to the surface.>>

Buddhist cultivation is not for the mentally unstable or the faint of heart. The
unconscious is strong and vicious, and will not give up the ghost without a
nasty fight. If one cannot deal with things that are released when one pokes
into the unconscious, it is better to stop immediately, before further damage is
incurred, which can be irreversible. The wall of defence is there for a reason.

But if one does a good (which doesn't mean quick!) job of penetrating the
unconscious, one redeems it and transfigures it from dark and misty into light
and transparent, and then lets it go. From then on, the archetypes etc. will
interpret themselves by themselves, so to speak, and not just with oneself, but
also with others, everything will light up by itself. Others will become
transparent to one, without any effort.

Tang Huyen