Todays Dhamma: Merely (a personal reflection) In the seen will be merely what is seen; in the heard will be merely what is heard; in the sensed will be merely what is sensed; in the cognized will be merely what is cognized. (~Buddha: Bahiya Sutta. Udana 1.10) --- I am certainly not there yet - in the recognition of merely as used in the phrase above. The question arises in me: How does one begin to train in recognizing merely? I certainly am not an Arahat. I cannot help but think of Ajahn Viradhammos instruction on meditation: Listen to sound, go to the body. Something stops being what they are when thought enters experience. With thought we are able (if we are aware enough) to see the effects it has on the body. But what if we are able to stop thought and only experience things as they are? This is the root of the word merely. Sound is merely sound, but it transforms into something else when we inject thought. The same is true with the other senses - smell, touch, taste, sight. The sutta goes even further in challenging us into looking cognition itself. Where does cognition come from other than from thought. Cognizing cognition as thought is a big challenge. Listening to sound as merely sound momentarily halts thought. Finding the high-pitch ringing (the sound of silence) and experiencing it as it is puts the brakes on the busy mind enough for it to quiet down. It is then that we can focus on the body. What are you experiencing right now? Observe it as a body sensation. Happy, sad, neutral - they are all the same in that they manifest as physical sensations. MERELY physical sensations. These labels come up from thought. Being open to these physical sensations I am slowly realizing that they are always subject to birth, old age, decay, and death. They pass away once you have opened yourself to the physical experience itself. Sometimes I fall off the wagon and go back into my old habits of self-pity. But this is what the practice is about, isnt it? It is about being aware of old habits and cultivating a new set of habits, wholesome habits, where thought becomes a thing to be observed rather than something to be a slave to. Being unemployed, I am given that opportunity (in between intense job hunts) to sit and to sit and to sit. Sometimes I get to the point where I catch a tiny glimpse and say there it is...There is the nature of merely.
Posted on: Tue, 27 Jan 2015 16:23:25 +0000
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