Tis thus that all things are From the perspective of a nondual tradition like Taoism (along with Buddhism and Advaita Vedanta) the “enemy” (our greatest obstacle to freedom and lasting happiness) is ignorance of our True Nature. It is out of this primordial ignorance that our perception of a subject/object duality emerges: a “me” and a “world” separate from this “me.” The “images and illusions” behind which this enemy hides are our own projections, born of conceptual elaboration (the naming/labeling of “things”). To “smash the mirrors” of these projections -- as Bruce Lee does in that final scene of “Enter The Dragon” -- is to destroy their web of illusion by rendering the process of their manifestation transparent (re-membering our projections as our own) -- at which point we can become artists of our own creation instead of unconscious victims of the projections. Once the images and illusions born of unconscious projection are dissolved (or, if you prefer, “smashed”), what remains is a kind of “naked perception” of the things of the world: a clear seeing which re-cognizes the ten-thousand things as being none other than reflections in the water-mirror of our mind. From the Samadhiraja-sutra of 2nd century CE (important to Buddhist Madyamaka philosophy): For when at night the moon, reflected on the stream, Shines brightly and within the spotless water seems to be, The water-moon is empty, substanceless; there is no thing to grasp. Now understand: ‘Tis thus that all things are. Or, from the Persian poet Rumi (1207-1273): “Let the waters settle, and you will see stars and the moon mirrored in your own being.”
Posted on: Fri, 29 Aug 2014 09:23:24 +0000
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