notrehta

on any and all being

2022-12-08T01:58:00Z

for a note on this video, see the notes following the post below

the whole – all that is – is what is

nothing is other than what is

nothing is other than the whole

nothing doesn’t change

nothing is perfect

nothing depends on nothing

only in the mind or by convention
is anything or anyone an entity

nothing is other than the whole

no one is

20221208T0158Z*

*a link; see a note on notes and links and a disclaimer; see also the about post and the archives of miscellany, notrehta, or fw posts

/ the video above is of the Sunday service on November 6 at a small Unitarian church in Fall River, Massachusetts, and is set to start at the point when Rev. Richard Trudeau begins to speak on the topic of the day – with breaks during the next twelve minutes for other aspects of the service

nothing doesn’t change … nothing depends on nothing / anicca, dukkha, anatta (!?)

nothing is perfect / apart from the whole … dukkha/nirvana (!?)

/ nirvana: wanting nothing; being at one with what is – the whole – as seen in this moment by the whole

/ dukkha: wanting something; being at odds with what is – the whole – as seen by an entity not the whole

no one is / the self – an entity not the whole – is an illusion, a mental construct reinforced by convention

/practice self-inquiry (!?) …
as a thought – or anything – arises, silently ask to whom it arises, and then ask: Who am I? (!*)

absolute truth

2022-11-02T23:13:02Z

relative truth and absolute truth are two sides of the same coin*

any thinking being is amphibian,
existing at any moment in one or both of two worlds:
the world of what is and the world of what is thought to be

the truth of anything thought to be is relative:

it depends on what else is thought to be

as for what is,

nothing doesn’t change
nothing is perfect
nothing depends on nothing

☛ what is depends on what is

the truth of what is depends on nothing else;
it is absolute, beyond words, beyond the mind,

open here and now – even so – to any and all being
as nothing other than the direct experience of being

nothing thought or said is the absolute truth

the thought of being – I am – is the first thought,

the origin of relative truth, of the world of what is thought to be:

the origin of separation into me and not-me, this and not-this, …

may all be well, letting that thought of being invite the question: Who am I?*

20221102T2313Z*

*a link; see a note on notes and links and a disclaimer; see also the about post and the archives of miscellany, notrehta, or fw posts

date and time of last edit: 2023-07-17T10−07*

“Man is an amphibian …” / from the foreword by Aldous Huxley to Krishnamurti’s The First and Last Freedom (!?)

nothing doesn’t change … / anicca, dukkha, anatta – the three marks of existence (!?)

nothing is perfect / ideal, complete, beyond change … from notes on a Substack post*

nothing depends on nothing (!*) / a site-specific search

the direct experience of being / aka choiceless awareness (!* !*)

a direct frontal attack on the question: Who am I? / see “The Answer” by Thanu Padmanabhan (!?)

/ click on the search icon in the reader below, enter the word direct, and step through the six matches

nothing and being

2022-01-26T05:10:29Z

image credit: Samuel Regan-Asante*

nothing depends on nothing, and nothing is unchanging

nothing is other than what is or seems to be

what is – what seems to be – and nothing are not two:
neither exists without the other

nothing exists, and nothing is other than being

no one is

2022-01-25T21:10−08* / January 25, 2022

*a link; see a note on notes and links and a disclaimer; see also the about post and the archive of miscellany or notrehta posts

nothing depends on nothing (!*)

want no more

2021-09-02T16:47:23Z

Jacob Needleman, at +3:06:

Consciousness – meaning the totality of thought, feeling, perception, sensation, pleasure, and pain – is not a being . . . Individuality is motivated by and perpetuated by wanting; and the cause of all wanting is ignorance . . . The ignorance meant is of things as they really are, and the consequent attribution of substantiality to what is merely phenomenal; the seeing of self in what is not-self.

the above is from a transcript of Jacob Needleman’s afterword to his reading of the Dhammapada*

whatever you do is never enough until you see what is

do no more than need be done to be and let be:
pay attention to what is, to direct experience,
to the miracle of being aware of being

this is being – being well – and it’s enough

no one need do more, no one need want more

may all be well and want no more

2021-09-02T09:47−07* / at the about* post – at bit.ly/dateposted – anyone can link to this post from its date: September 2, 2021

*a link – or not; see a note on notes and links and a disclaimer / … and maybe browse or search the archive*

to want is dukkha* / site search
may all be well and want no more* / ditto
direct experience* / Sam Harris on the topic, quoted by Oliver Burkeman:
“If one pays sufficient attention, one can notice that there’s no subject in the middle of experience – there is only experience.”

may all be well

2021-06-15T02:31:28Z

Instructions for living a life:
Pay attention.
Be astonished.
Tell about it.

be well – pay attention to what is, to direct experience,
to the miracle of being aware of being – and want no more

nothing less than our survival depends on wanting nothing more

may none want more than they need to be and let be, to live and let live,
and pay attention to what is, to direct experience, to being aware of being

may all be well and want no more

2021-06-14T19:31−07*

*a link – see a note on notes and links :: block quote is from Mary Oliver :: this is a stripped-down version of the previous post*

pay attention to what is, to direct experience* / click on the asterisk or here and then scroll down to notes and the PDF reader

may all be well and want no more

2021-05-01T19:12:23Z

image credit: Google Books / Mary Oliver*

be well – pay attention to what is, to direct experience,
to the miracle of being aware of being – and want no more

nothing less than our survival depends on wanting nothing more

may none want more than they need to be and let be, to live and let live,

and pay attention to what is, to direct experience, to being aware of being

may all be well and want no more

2021-05-01T12:12−07* / at the about* post – at bit.ly/dateposted – anyone can link to this post from its date: May 1, 2021

*a link – or not; see a note on notes and links and a disclaimer / … and maybe browse or search the archive*

attention* / cached audio: from 23:18, Mary Oliver on attention; “Attention without feeling … is only a report.”

attention* / tweet quotes Sam Harris: “If one pays sufficient attention, one can notice that … there is only experience.”*

what is* / the ever-changing present

direct experience* / Thanu Padmanabhan (!*)

direct experience* / of the mystery and wonder (!?)

the miracle of being aware of being* / the observer is the observed – Krishnamurti* (!?)

nothing less than our survival … / Yuval Noah Harari, Sapiens*
to be and let be: “allow everything to be as it is” / Caitlin Johnstone (!?)

may all be well* / results of a site search for this term
be well and want no more* / ditto
nirvana is wanting nothing, not even this* / ditto

there is a stripped-down version of this post at tiny.cc/mayallbewell

a vibrant flame: the ever-changing present

2021-03-01T01:24:09Z

image source: UUA post on Unitarian principles – archived*

My life is a vibrant flame that shines while it may, and my body is a candle meant to be consumed.
—Rev. Charles G. Girelius, Unitarian minister*

being is a vibrant flame: the ever-changing present*

no being is other than this ever-changing presence

nothing is other than this

no one is

20210228T1724−08*

*a link; see a note on notes and links; see also a disclaimer / … and maybe browse or search the post archive*

the ever-changing present

2021-01-25T17:26:31Z

image credit: Raychel Sanner*

this moment is the ever-changing present, a present any conscious being is aware of – like it or not

no one need be unaware of being so choicelessly aware

choiceless awareness is being aware of being, accepting the present here and now, just as it is,
with not one thought about it, “for there is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so”

no one need do more than need be done to be and let be with choiceless awareness in this moment, quietly appreciating the miracle of being aware of being

no one need want more than that none want more, that all may live and let live with love, compassion, joy, and equanimity

with choiceless awareness, being aware of being – in this moment, the ever-changing present – the observer is the observed … and in light of this, no longer under the spell of stories

“… choiceless awareness – at every moment and in all the circumstances of life – is the only effective meditation” / Aldous Huxley … in his foreword to Jiddu Krishnamurti’s The First and Last Freedom

“Do you want to know what my secret is? … I don’t mind what happens.” —Jiddu Krishnamurti

minding is dukkha; not minding, equanimity

dukkha arises and ceases with consciousness; equanimity, with meditation

effective meditation balances “dukkha with equanimity” – and arises and ceases with appamāda

dukkha with equanimity – the miracle of being aware of being in this moment, the ever-changing present

20210125T0926−08*

*a link; see a note on notes and links; see also a disclaimer / … and maybe browse or search the post archive*

phrases shown with links:

the miracle of being aware of being

2020-12-29T16:08:56Z

image credit: Sandy Millar*

other than in the mind,
there are no entities:
nothing depends on nothing,
and nothing doesn’t change;
there is only what is, this being,
this eternal, interdependent flux

nothing is other than this,
no one is

no one is unaware of being,
and no one need do more than need be done
to be and let be in choiceless awareness* *
“at every moment and in all the circumstances of life,”
as being aware of being, as the observer and the observed,

… and so to live with the miracle of being aware of being

20201229T0808−08*

*a link; see a note on notes and links; see also a disclaimer / … and maybe browse or search the post archive*

being aware of being: seeing, hearing, and feeling; sensing smells, tastes, and thoughts*

reflecting on being: the observer as the observed

2020-11-03T23:18:10Z

image credit: Kelen Loewen*

nothing depends on nothing, and nothing doesn’t change

nothing is other than this being; no one is

everyone is aware of being, aware of form, feeling, perception, and thought*

being aware of being is the observer as the observed, is choiceless awareness,

is direct experience of that transcending mystery and wonder, affirmed in all cultures … (!?)

and direct experience is the key:

The observer and the observed are a joint phenomenon; and when you experience that directly, then you will find that the thing which you have dreaded as emptiness – which makes you seek escape into various forms of sensation, including religion – ceases, and you are able to face it and be it.*

no one need do more than need be done
to be and let be, to live and let live
in this and every moment
without comparing or judging,
in choiceless awareness* *

an awe-filled agnosticism is perhaps the better part of wisdom, (!?)

leaving space to appreciate the miracle of choiceless awareness

given that

appreciation of the miracle of one’s own awareness, which is always present, requiring no conjuring up, has been scribbled over with false images pushed upon us by others*

and that

we are all choicelessly aware of whatever arises in each moment, be it pain, pleasure, fear, attraction, or anything else* – even a thought – aware of it as it arises, before even beginning to think about it,

then simply be as you are – choicelessly aware – “at every moment and in all the circumstances of life” *

*a link; see a note on notes and links; see also a disclaimer

being: a living flame – and every form of being a burning candle

2020-09-28T18:07:17Z

image credit: Jimmy Chang*

being is a living flame,
and every form of being,
a candle burning*

living flame (!gb)

a light* … no external refuge (!?) / words of the Buddha in his last days

Stephen Batchelor, on the last word spoken by the Buddha:

clearly appamāda, both for the Buddha and for the tradition that immediately followed him, … somehow synthesizes everything he taught (!?)

appamāda, this kind of careful, conscious awareness, is the very opposite of that loss of attention that allows us to be forgetful, carried away, or lost

one interpretation:

appamāda is being awake to what is or seems to be, carefully observing
without evaluating or judging as good or bad, in choiceless awareness* *

and, backing up to see how this “somehow synthesizes everything he taught,”

nothing is unchanging, nothing depends on nothing,
and nothing can explain this – no one can

believe no one, not even Buddhas*

keep on keeping on with appamāda

*a link; see a note on notes and links; see also a disclaimer

believing in nothing, in choiceless awareness

2020-09-12T23:57:19Z

image credit: art by Ray Fenwick for helpful Lion’s Roar staff article “What are the three marks of existence?”*

nothing is as it seems:

nothing doesn’t change

nothing isn’t dukkha

nothing depends on nothing

“things are not as they are seen, nor are they otherwise” / Lankavatara Sutra (!gb)*

“it is necessary, absolutely necessary, to believe in nothing” (!gb)

to believe in nothing is to believe in being that is
empty of everything but the potential for anything

unless you are asleep, unconscious, or dead,
you are aware of being

you are aware of being, like it or not,
if you are alive, conscious, and awake

Aldous Huxley, in his foreword to The First and Last Freedom by Jiddu Krishnamurti:

Ama et fac quod vis. If you love, you may do what you will. But if you start by doing what you will, or by doing what you don't will in obedience to some traditional system or notions, ideals and prohibitions, you will never love. The liberating process must begin with the choiceless awareness of what you will and of your reactions to the symbol-system which tells you that you ought, or ought not, to will it. Through this choiceless awareness, as it penetrates the successive layers of the ego and its associated subconscious, will come love and understanding, but of another order than that with which we are ordinarily familiar. This choiceless awareness – at every moment and in all the circumstances of life – is the only effective meditation.*

if you are alive, conscious, and awake,
you need do no more than need be done
to be and let be, to live and let live
in this and every moment
with love, compassion, joy, and equanimity,
without comparing or judging,
in choiceless awareness**

“awareness of form, feelings, perceptions, and thoughts” (!?)

appreciation of the miracle of one’s own awareness – always present, requiring no conjuring up – has been “scribbled over with false images” (!?) / Robert Saltzman* 2020-09-01 17:40 (citing Q and A from February, 2018)*

choiceless awareness at every moment and in all circumstances is the only effective meditation (!?)

enjoy what you may, endure what you must (!?)

choiceless awareness is key to experiencing “dukkha with equanimity” (!?)

love, compassion, joy, and equanimity (!?)

*a link – see a note on notes and links

being: implicate and explicate

2020-08-28T03:35:37Z

image credit: NIAID on Flickr*

being is all that is,
implicate and explicate (!?)

whatever is thought of as something
cannot be as it is
without being thought of as not that*

whoever is thought of as someone
cannot be as they are
without being thought of as not them*

and so it is for any being

no being is not this being

implicate and explicate,
this being is all that is

*a link – see a note on notes and links

Jacob Needleman: I Am Not I

2020-08-13T23:27:08Z

a 2016 book by Jacob Needleman*

“This idea in its fullness stunned me and brought me to the all-absorbing question of who or what I was, who or what was the being …” (!gb)

the “indestructible question”: Who am I? (Nan Yar)*

*a link – see a note on notes and links as well as the post Who am I? (Nan Yar)

all we know is stories

2020-08-13T23:23:34Z

“You can have the feeling that you totally know what’s true or you can have a humble devotion to trying to learn the truth as best you can from moment to moment. You can’t have both.” —Caitlin Johnstone*

you either think you know the truth
or see that it’s beyond the mind*

relative truth is what is thought to be
and depends on what else is thought

absolute truth is simply what is
and depends on nothing else*

* * *

absolute truth is eternal, timeless, imperishable – and so is being;
in some sense they “are ultimately two names for the same thing” (!gb)

screenshot from a result of that search on Google Books

*a link – see a note on notes and links

on the one hand, nothing, on the other, all that is – or seems to be

2020-07-02T23:44:47Z

NGC 4605, located around 16 million light-years away in the constellation of Ursa Major (The Great Bear)*

nothing doesn’t change, and nothing depends on nothing

believing in nothing is believing in what is empty of everything but the potential for anything

Shunryu Suzuki: “I discovered that it is necessary, absolutely necessary, to believe in nothing.”

A foreword by Aldous Huxley to The First and Last Freedom, a 1954 book by Jiddu Krishnamurti, ends with this:

Choiceless self-awareness will bring us to the creative Reality which underlies all our destructive make-believes, to the tranquil wisdom which is always there, in spite of ignorance, in spite of the knowledge which is merely ignorance in another form. Knowledge is an affair of symbols and is, all too often, a hindrance to wisdom, to the uncovering of the self from moment to moment. A mind that has come to the stillness of wisdom “shall know being, shall know what it is to love. Love is neither personal nor impersonal. Love is love, not to be defined or described by the mind as exclusive or inclusive. Love is its own eternity; it is the real, the supreme, the immeasurable.”*

*a link – see a note on notes and links

seeing, believing, and the two truths

2020-07-02T23:37:14Z

relative truth and absolute truth are two sides of the same coin*

to see the two truths as what is and what is thought to be
is to believe in nothing as the absolute truth of what is

to see ‘I am’ as the first thought, the source of all others,
is to believe in being as the relative truth of what is

nothing depends on nothing, and believing in being is no exception

nothing doesn’t change

be aware of being with choiceless awareness – not wanting the sense of ‘I am’
to be or not to be other than it is – simply see it as nothing other than what is

Judgment and comparison commit us irrevocably to duality. Only choiceless awareness can lead to nonduality, to the reconciliation of opposites in a total understanding and a total love. … Through this choiceless awareness, as it penetrates the successive layers of the ego and its associated subconscious, will come love and understanding, but of another order than that with which we are ordinarily familiar. This choiceless awareness – at every moment and in all the circumstances of life – is the only effective meditation.

—Aldous Huxley*

enlightened being is believing in nothing and delighting in being,
in feeling, and in doing well no more than need be done to be and let be,
to live and let live with nonjudgmental, choiceless awareness
in boundless love, compassion, joy, and equanimity

enlightened being is seeing deep and dreamless sleep
as consciousness returning to its origin, the eternal void:

empty of everything but the potential for anything

*a link – see a note on notes and links as well as notes and links below

dharma transmission

2020-06-28T03:39:00Z

The monk Bodhidharma took the Lankavatara Sutra from India to China in the seventh century. In China, it took root as a foundational text of Chan Buddhism. And in Japan – four centuries later – of Zen Buddhism

“… things are not as they are seen, nor are they otherwise.” —Lankavatara Sutra*

things are not as they seem; and yet they are – in the mind

people are not as they seem; and yet they are – in the mind

nothing is only as it is thought to be

no one is only as they are thought to be

nothing depends on nothing, and nothing doesn’t change

no one depends on no one, and no one doesn’t change

nothing is other than what is

no one is

*a link – see a note on notes and links as well as notes and links below

may all be well

2020-01-02T00:48:19Z

nothing depends on nothing
and nothing doesn’t change

no being is a being
apart from the whole

except in the mind

and there is no mind
apart from the whole

being well is being whole, being aware of being,
and doing no more than need be done
to be and let be

may all be well

notes and links

consider the lilies …

2019-04-01T06:03:40Z

Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin: And yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.

consider the lilies …

consider any being:
no being need do more
than need be done
to be and let be

no one need do more
than need be done
to live and let live
with love …

love is being delighted
with the present,
just as it is,
flawed as it may seem

love is being delighted
with all things,
not as they are seen,
nor otherwise

love is being delighted
with being as a whole,
as direct experience,
as mystery and wonder

consider being as a whole:
nothing depends on nothing,
and nothing doesn’t change

only in the mind is anyone or anything an entity,
and to imagine otherwise is to be deluded,
is to be where we are today

whatever may be thought,
nothing is, other than the whole,
and imagining otherwise is delusion

nothing is other than the whole

no one is

if all that is thought of as you
cannot exist as it is without
all that is thought of as not you,
how are you not that too?

no one exists apart from
the interdependent web
of all existence

nothing exists apart from
the interdependent web
of all existence

consider any being

consider the lilies …

notes and links

the two truths

2019-04-01T06:02:57Z

relative truth and absolute truth are two sides of the same coin

relative truth is what is thought to be

and depends on what else is thought

absolute truth is simply what is

and depends on nothing else

to see the relative as relative is to see the absolute;

to see the absolute is to see the relative as relative

relative truth and absolute truth are two sides of the same coin

notes and links

waste not, want not, be well

2018-12-17T22:13:26Z

New research shows there are at least two trillion galaxies. This image is a closeup of one of them. Until Edwin Hubble published his work in the 1920s it was thought to be the only one. Specks of light are other galaxies.

living is wasted on getting and spending

waste no moment, want nothing, be well

* * *

in the paradigm shift following Galileo, our culture let go of the medieval picture of the solar system, but “surprisingly little hung on the matter,” says Daniel Quinn in The New Renaissance (archived) – a passionate call for another paradigm shift, one where we let go of the medieval view of humanity that we cling to in spite of the threat to so many species, including our own

after reading The New Renaissance – the prepared text of a 2002 talk that Daniel Quinn called a concise expression of the basic message of all his books – please take a look at the related notes and links under the horizontal rule below

* * *

live and let live
with love, compassion, joy, and equanimity,
wasting not a moment of being aware of being
and wanting nothing, not even this

be well

notes and links / see a note on notes and links

being and doing … and not doing

2018-10-05T03:06:34Z

there is no higher purpose
than being in the here and now
with love, compassion, joy, and equanimity

no one need do more
than need be done to be and let be,
but people do – it’s the culture we live in

notes and links:

in the mind and beyond

2018-09-12T00:22:29Z

entities are in the mind;
beyond the mind nothing is an entity – no one is

independence is in the mind;
beyond the mind nothing depends on nothing

permanence is in the mind;
beyond the mind nothing is unchanging

beyond the mind nothing exists as an entity,
nothing depends on nothing, and nothing doesn’t change

being beyond the mind is being beyond words,
so no one can say what is beyond the mind

words can only point the way to what is;
just let the mind be still and simply be

anything believed is also thought;
it’s in the mind

this may be hard to see at first

The four stages of acceptance:

1) This is worthless nonsense
2) This is an interesting, but perverse, point of view
3) This is true, but quite unimportant
4) I always said so

—J.B.S. Haldane (Journal of Genetics 1963, Vol. 58, p.464) https://t.co/pzDLqpisB6 via @goodreads pic.twitter.com/uuljs3rz6W
— George Atherton (@notrehta) September 1, 2018

* * *

being well is being whole, being as in the mind
and beyond – as all that is – wanting nothing

being well is

being aware of being as what is – as all that is – wanting nothing
doing no more than need be done to be and let be
living with love, compassion, joy, and equanimity

may all be aware of being as what is – as all that is – wanting nothing

may all do no more than need be done to be and let be

may all live with love, compassion, joy, and equanimity

may all be well, in the mind and beyond

may all be well

notes and links:

beyond purpose and meaning

2018-07-14T22:37:57Z

to be wholly aware of being – doing no more than need be done to be and let be with love, compassion, joy, and equanimity – is to be in the realm of the brahmaviharas, beyond wanting purpose or meaning

to be wholly aware of being is to want no more

to want anything is to suffer

cures new and old promise to end the suffering

the purpose of life is to be wholly aware of being and – in light of this awareness – to harm no being: doing no more than need be done to be and let be

the work of life is to cultivate this awareness

and the meaning of life is to live with love, compassion, joy, and equanimity
— George Atherton (@notrehta) July 13, 2018

being well is being aware – being wholly aware of being – wanting nothing

be well, want nothing

want nothing, be well

notes and links:

cited 2018-01-30

2018-01-30T23:33:49Z

2017-09-30

2017-10-01T00:18:27Z

2017-08-29

2017-08-30T01:12:04Z

reality, dukkha, and being well

2017-06-24T00:21:29Z

things are not as they seem,
“nor are they otherwise” / Lankavatara Sutra

nothing is other than arising and ceasing;
nothing is as it seems, nor is it otherwise

when reality is what it seems to us to be,
dukkha is our wanting it to be otherwise

reality is not as it seems,
nor is it otherwise

wanting anything is dukkha,
and being well is wanting nothing,
letting go of wanting anything

pic.twitter.com/Q7jL9NfGJU
— Jack Kornfield (@JackKornfield) June 12, 2017

being well is being on the eightfold path,
doing no more than need be done
to simply be and let be,
wanting nothing

being well is a fourfold process:

seeing dukkha as wanting anything
sensing it as it arises and letting it be
noticing that it ceases when it is let be
being on the path where it can be let be

be well

* * *

be well, want nothing

want nothing, be well

May all be well, “pervading the world with a mind imbued with
loving-kindness, compassion, sympathetic joy, and equanimity.”

# # # #

notes

n2017a

2017-06-23T00:00:25Z

notes on ***reality, dukkha, and being well*** follow credits and links below