Tag: equality
-
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,…
-
From Clarity to Conflict: The Five Phantoms of Ego
How distinction gives rise to the phantoms of ego—and the illusion of self is born. Read time approx. 6 minutes. We’ve already laid the groundwork. Unfiltered Vision introduced the nature of pure perception—non-dual and transparent. In our exploration of distinction, we saw how the unbiased separation of interwoven aspects of a single movement begins to morph into the…
-
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…
-
Spontaneous Mind: The Paradox Of An Actively Passive Existence
I heard an interesting anecdote from former professional QB Hugh Millen. One day his teammate, hall of fame QB John Elway, gave him some simple but important advice, “You don’t want to be thinking out there. You just want to be reacting.” High level quarterbacking involves processing and acting. The margins of error are measured…
-
Unknowing Into The Peace of No-mind: Who Knows?
We have been winding our way through a few of the seemingly endless dualities which arise with Zen thought and practice. Along the way we have seen that many of the concepts overlap each other. Such is the case with today’s topic of no-mind. I like to think of experiences of no-mind as little, momentary…
-
Wu Wei: Self-reliance As Radical Liberation
Wu wei is a prevalent and important Taoist concept. Wu wei can be defined as non-action, effortless action, or action through inaction. It is possible that you have come across this concept before. So, with that in mind, let’s explore a bit of a different take on this idea and consider it within the context of…
-
Koan Practice: Self-discovery And The Virtue of The Unknown
We have been discussing the role that paradox plays in our journey toward obtaining a more permanent and complete Zen mindset. We dipped our toes in the water by exploring some of the various paradoxes that arise during practice. As such, let’s take a small step back, and reexamine the concept of paradox itself. For…
-
Impermanence and the Paradox of Being/Becoming
Today we move our discussion regarding the nature and relevance of paradoxes one step forward. In our last lesson, we looked at the paradox of everything and nothing, or absence and presence. Now we are going to discuss presence, not in the context of the presence or absence of a thing or experience, but rather,…
-
Everything and Nothing: The Paradox of Empty, Pure Potentiality
Over the course of the next few weeks we will be dissecting the concept of paradox by considering it in its many forms. Today we discuss the paradox of everything and nothing. Nothingness contains within it the potential for everything. Yet if we focus on this aspect of nothingness then we continue to be lost…
