Tag: dualism
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The Origin of Self-Awareness: The Mirror Cracks
Read time approximately 3 minutes. We’ve been building a new model of reality—steadily, one insight at a time.This article returns to the beginning.Or rather, the beginning of beginning: the origin of self-awareness. In Unfiltered Vision, we explored the old model—simple, but incomplete.It also introduced us to the concept of pure perception: non-dual, unbiased. Tao manifest. In More Than Two,…
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The Illusion of Self: Stink Lines of Reality
Read time approximately 4 minutes All of this talk that the ego is illusion—how can this be possible? The sense of self is one of the more unique elements of life. On the one hand, it is almost impossible to locate and define. On the other hand, it is ever-present, barraging us with an endless…
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More Than Two: Distinction, Duality, and the Illusion of Conflict
Distinction and division are not the same thing. Duality gives rise to division and, more importantly, opposition. Zen teachings often warn of the imperfection of words. These warnings typically point to the limits of language when trying to describe what can only be known through experience. Sometimes, however, words can be just plain misleading. Let’s…
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Unfiltered Vision: Perception Merges Back Into the Perceived
Slowly but surely, we have been pecking away at the nature and causes of awakening. Today we shall consider the concept of unfiltered vision. We should always remember that our inherent tendency to view the world through the lens of duality is the greatest culprit in preventing us from experiencing our already enlightened state. In high…
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Acceptance As Awareness: Goldilocks Gets It Just Right
In my continuing effort to simplify the teachings, today’s topic of acceptance is a familiar one, and, on face value, perhaps as simple as simple could be. That said, an incomplete understanding of the concept can lead to some confusion and, perhaps, even some frustration. I know such was the case for me early on…
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Good Practice Destroys Itself: The Selfishness of Selflessness
Let’s open today’s lesson by considering another quote from Charlotte Joko Beck: “Practice, if you get right down to it, is very self-centered…. But when you do it, something else happens. It begins to eat up the illusions that are making you do it. A really good practice destroys itself.” We concluded this previous discussion…
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No-Mind: Understanding Is A Flow
In today’s video and discussion we will touch upon the concept of no-mind. In doing so we will further see how many of the concepts that we are speaking of overlap and inform each other. The quote in the video refers to the concept of I Am, or our true identity, our true nature as…
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A Universal Act of Letting Go: Easing Inner Struggle
In the last lesson we discussed the idea of a universal act of letting go. Hopefully over the course of the past few days you have had an opportunity to experiment with this practice. Let’s take a moment to explore this practice in more detail. Why does it work in the way that it does?…
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Emotions: Instinctive Body and Intellectual Mind At Play
Our overall conversation regarding letting go takes an additional step forward as we investigate the next element of our emotional activity. We have already seen that there is an underlying distress which raises an existential question concerning the legitimacy of the egoic self. The ego then takes efforts to legitimize and justify itself. These efforts,…
