At the retreat mentioned in the previous posting, the head of our Healing School contrasted two approaches to finding God.
She told us that Kashmir Shaivism, a branch of Hindu philosophy, identifies God by what God isn't. God is not the earth, God is not the sky, God is not this or that. And once you have eliminated everything, what remains is God. (I'm pretty sure I've got that right...) For more information, visit: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kashmir_Shaivism
It intrigues me that this approach to finding something by eliminating everything is reminiscent of the concept of "vacuum energy," which is what you have left when you've removed all matter from space. For more information, visit: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vacuum_energy
So what we have here is Kashmir Shaivism, an ancient religious concept; and vacuum energy, an idea developed by 20th-century quantum physicists. But the concepts seem to overlap heavily...
(Coincidentally, a manifestation of vacuum energy is called the "Casimir Effect" -- but enough of idle musings...)
My point is that different people in considerably different times and pursuing considerably different disciplines have used this "eliminate everything" approach to find information or guidance or wisdom or something else useful to them.
And it then occurred to me that my (informal but lengthy) study of the Tao Teh Ching indicates a strong flavor of the same approach to finding Truth: eliminate everything you can to find the deepest truth.
ANyway, something clicked at the retreat and I found myself writing the following:
-- you are not your ego!
-- you are not your mind!
-- you are not your emotions!
-- you are not your fears!
-- you are not your desires!
-- you are not who you think you are!
-- you are not who you want yourself to be!
-- you are not who you want others to think you are!
And I'm coming to believe that, in the search for your deepest and most-true/most-real Self, you are not the collection of all of these things or any subset of these things.
Perhaps your True Self is what you have left when you have abandoned all of these things. This resonates with the Buddhist concept of non-attachment. And it is the fundamental position of (Japanese) Zen and (Chinese) Chan. Perhaps.
So, does all of this qualify as idle musings? New openings?
Can anything be more important than searching for your True Self?
Dunno...
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Is the True Self something to find, or something to make, perhaps? Or something to be told? Or written, like a poem? Or tolled, like a bell?
ReplyDeleteLot's of existential choices here, and no foundations that hold up under scrutiny, including that God who is not whatever one can name. What can we expect, from mere disturbances in the vacuum? Maybe just a continual effort to transcend oneself.
Certainly nothing idle about these musings, Randy. I appreciate this opportunity to be with you as you explore these concepts, and I lovingly challenge your "dunno" at the end of the post. Seems to me you already know what you need to know.
ReplyDeleteTracy