Living in the Ordinary Reality
There is a lot of talk today about escaping Samsara, attaining the ultimate reality, and similar such escapist talk. As a result, if we're not careful we could be traveling in the opposite direction of Buddhism, which is not about escaping our present reality. Buddhism is the opposite of all that; it is about facing our present reality.
It has become a cliche that "reality is now", "we are already enlightened", "reality is in the present moment", but these concepts are not far from the truth. However, we can misunderstand the meaning of these ideas too. We may get the idea that we might somehow realize we are "enlightened" and it will be like a big lightning bolt, and we'll suddenly be "at one with everything", with our mind stretching out into space in all directions, like we have become some kind of god.
It's good to examine our own ideas about these things closely. We also want to move our understanding away from fanciful intellectual concepts, and understand these things on a practical, real level.
It is true that we don't have to seek reality. From the day we were born up until today, reality has always been there, staring us in the face, and we see it and are aware of it constantly, and we interact with it constantly. It is not some holy land of the gods, it is just ordinary, everyday reality, because ordinary reality is the only reality we know; the only reality we can access, as it is the only reality that exists right now for us in the present moment. If we talk about some other reality, other than the present ordinary reality, then that is just an idea in the realm of fantasy. Such ideas are not based in reality.
So we cannot help but perceive reality, but we usually make problems for ourselves whenever we do, as we bring in our mind, which makes all sorts of ideas up about reality. It is helpful to think of it like this: there is the bare awareness/consciousness that is seeing the reality as it is, but in between them is the mind. When I talk about the "mind" I'm referring to the "thinking mind", the realm of concepts and ideas. The consciousness sees ordinary reality, and then the mind comes in and "thinks" about what is seen, and attaches all sorts of meaning to it.
Most of the time, we are far more caught up in the mind, rather than the ordinary reality the awareness is actually perceiving. Rather than just observing things as they are, we are busy thinking about those things. Whenever we experience anything, we are usually busy thinking about the experience, rather than just experiencing it.
Most of our everyday problems come from this. The whole spectrum of our negative emotions arise from thought, not from our ordinary, everyday experiences as it may often seem. Negative emotions always project themselves out onto the world, falsely passing the blame to external causes. It always seems that the problem is out there, that the cause of our negative emotion is external, out there in what we're experiencing. We will find, however, that when the negative emotion itself passes, then the problem is gone, every time. This is because it is the negative emotion itself causing the negative emotion. Now this sounds very matter-of-fact and obvious, but our natural reaction is to believe the problem is somewhere other than the emotion itself.
So the point of meditation, mindfulness, or living in the present moment, is to get underneath the mind, to move our attention away from obsessively thinking about everything, and move our attention to the awareness of ordinary reality as it is.
Ironically you can be studying Buddhism for years, but not really practicing it, as often our Buddhist studies are caught in the realm of thought. We have a lot of grand ideas about Buddhism, about reality, about all sorts of Buddhist concepts, but no matter what our concept is, we are missing the point, if we're not venturing beneath the realm of thought and observing what our reality actually is, as oppose to what we merely "think" about it.
Through meditation we can become increasingly aware of this process of "thinking about" everything, and we can begin to notice the difference between that and actually seeing. When we can more clearly tell the two apart, then "just seeing", or mindfulness, becomes easier.
Buddhism is about being at peace with the world as it is, not escaping anything, or trying to attain anything, or trying to reach some fanciful destination or enlightened state. We don't want to run away, and we don't want to run to some place of excitement. We just want to stop running. Period.
We want to just be at ease with the world. So just take it easy! There is not some great important destination you must strive towards and break your back over. How fast do you need to run to arrive at your present location, now? You don't need to do anything. Allow yourself to be at ease now, and you've already done more than a hundred years of striving, in one moment. Just relax and take it easy. Just as you would tell your best friend to relax and take it easy, be kind to yourself and give yourself the same advice.
The world is incredibly beautiful, and you've been missing it, wrapped up in your worries. The worries are just thoughts, they cannot harm you, so let them float away, and go for a walk and be at peace and enjoy it. How beautiful the trees sway in the wind. How wonderful is the ground that we walk upon. How precious is a conversation or a smile. Hear the sounds of the world; they are the sounds of life; life declaring itself to you, like a flower blooming. Bask it's in beautiful mystery and be at peace. :)
It has become a cliche that "reality is now", "we are already enlightened", "reality is in the present moment", but these concepts are not far from the truth. However, we can misunderstand the meaning of these ideas too. We may get the idea that we might somehow realize we are "enlightened" and it will be like a big lightning bolt, and we'll suddenly be "at one with everything", with our mind stretching out into space in all directions, like we have become some kind of god.
It's good to examine our own ideas about these things closely. We also want to move our understanding away from fanciful intellectual concepts, and understand these things on a practical, real level.
It is true that we don't have to seek reality. From the day we were born up until today, reality has always been there, staring us in the face, and we see it and are aware of it constantly, and we interact with it constantly. It is not some holy land of the gods, it is just ordinary, everyday reality, because ordinary reality is the only reality we know; the only reality we can access, as it is the only reality that exists right now for us in the present moment. If we talk about some other reality, other than the present ordinary reality, then that is just an idea in the realm of fantasy. Such ideas are not based in reality.
So we cannot help but perceive reality, but we usually make problems for ourselves whenever we do, as we bring in our mind, which makes all sorts of ideas up about reality. It is helpful to think of it like this: there is the bare awareness/consciousness that is seeing the reality as it is, but in between them is the mind. When I talk about the "mind" I'm referring to the "thinking mind", the realm of concepts and ideas. The consciousness sees ordinary reality, and then the mind comes in and "thinks" about what is seen, and attaches all sorts of meaning to it.
Most of the time, we are far more caught up in the mind, rather than the ordinary reality the awareness is actually perceiving. Rather than just observing things as they are, we are busy thinking about those things. Whenever we experience anything, we are usually busy thinking about the experience, rather than just experiencing it.
Most of our everyday problems come from this. The whole spectrum of our negative emotions arise from thought, not from our ordinary, everyday experiences as it may often seem. Negative emotions always project themselves out onto the world, falsely passing the blame to external causes. It always seems that the problem is out there, that the cause of our negative emotion is external, out there in what we're experiencing. We will find, however, that when the negative emotion itself passes, then the problem is gone, every time. This is because it is the negative emotion itself causing the negative emotion. Now this sounds very matter-of-fact and obvious, but our natural reaction is to believe the problem is somewhere other than the emotion itself.
So the point of meditation, mindfulness, or living in the present moment, is to get underneath the mind, to move our attention away from obsessively thinking about everything, and move our attention to the awareness of ordinary reality as it is.
Ironically you can be studying Buddhism for years, but not really practicing it, as often our Buddhist studies are caught in the realm of thought. We have a lot of grand ideas about Buddhism, about reality, about all sorts of Buddhist concepts, but no matter what our concept is, we are missing the point, if we're not venturing beneath the realm of thought and observing what our reality actually is, as oppose to what we merely "think" about it.
Through meditation we can become increasingly aware of this process of "thinking about" everything, and we can begin to notice the difference between that and actually seeing. When we can more clearly tell the two apart, then "just seeing", or mindfulness, becomes easier.
Buddhism is about being at peace with the world as it is, not escaping anything, or trying to attain anything, or trying to reach some fanciful destination or enlightened state. We don't want to run away, and we don't want to run to some place of excitement. We just want to stop running. Period.
We want to just be at ease with the world. So just take it easy! There is not some great important destination you must strive towards and break your back over. How fast do you need to run to arrive at your present location, now? You don't need to do anything. Allow yourself to be at ease now, and you've already done more than a hundred years of striving, in one moment. Just relax and take it easy. Just as you would tell your best friend to relax and take it easy, be kind to yourself and give yourself the same advice.
The world is incredibly beautiful, and you've been missing it, wrapped up in your worries. The worries are just thoughts, they cannot harm you, so let them float away, and go for a walk and be at peace and enjoy it. How beautiful the trees sway in the wind. How wonderful is the ground that we walk upon. How precious is a conversation or a smile. Hear the sounds of the world; they are the sounds of life; life declaring itself to you, like a flower blooming. Bask it's in beautiful mystery and be at peace. :)