Mystery of Existence

Topics/Categories: Buddhism, books, reflections, dreams, quieting the mind, self inquiry, dreams
Something that touched me: With as much good "spiritual" stuff as there is on this site, I'm going to, alas, reference a political post. This particular post, Visual Insight into Candidates, is nothing but videos by a political caricaturist on Obama, Clinton and McCain. What I find fascinating about this is the insight needed to really draw these sketches. In the Obama video we hear, "What someone shows about themselves I find much more informative and trustworthy than what they Say about themselves..."

Beyond the politics--If someone were to draw a caricature of you, what would they emphasize? What are the unspoken words that you say about yourself? Would you be aloof, smiling, furrowed brow or calm. How closely aligned are your thoughts about yourself with your "presentation"? Doesn't the saying go, "as above, so below, as within, so without"? I think it is so interesting that the creation of "image" for so many people involves smoothing out the ripples that may reveal emotion, or sub-surface worries, doubts, joys, fears without necessarily addressing the ripples themselves.

Really, this makes me want to go find someone to draw me so I can get a bit of visual insight into myself.

Review: This blog has perhaps the coolest layout I've seen in a long time...there's nothing canned in this one. Well, no wonder, the author, moe, is a CSS (cascading style sheet) expert, which essentially means...website designer. It's worth checking out for the neat little "Pull" tag on the top of the screen.

Going with the theme of the pull tag, it seems that this blog could metaphorically be about "pulling." Pulling down the walls, limitations, self-constructed beliefs, dogma, etc. Going to the source of it, the I, is prevalent and you get a great synopsis from this essay (note this is also the URL of the site), Absent of i.

A comment left some days ago made me explore in what ways there is an absence of I in awakening. One, and the most obvious one, is that there is an absence of I in content. When we look of content of awareness, we find sights, sounds, smells, tastes, sensations and thoughts. This human self and its surroundings is arising.
And we often take a portion of this content as who we are. I am this human being, or maybe even really some portions of this human being, the ones that correspond with an identity I have made for myself. I am this human being, and I am also smart more than stupid, nice more than obnoxious, right more than wrong, and so on.

If you're finding this blog for the first time, you'll find over 60 some pages full of self-inquiry just like this. Probably the easiest way to navigate the site is through the Tag Cloud. You'll see a predominant current of Buddhism here with little spurts of website design commentary. Two things I loved, other than the marvelous philosophical nature of this blog:

1) On Books--The author performs mini book reviews like this one on Buddhism for Dummies. Or this reference to Alice in Wonderland entitled Believe Six Impossible Things Before Breakfast:
Alice laughed. ‘There’s no use trying,’ she said: ‘one can’t believe impossible things.’

‘I daresay you haven’t had much practice,’ said the Queen. ‘When I was your age, I always did it for half-an-hour a day. Why, sometimes I’ve believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.

- From chapter five of Through the Looking Glass by Lewis Carrol.

Only six? Why, I’ve believed far more than six impossible things before breakfast. And so have we all. We’ve all had plenty of practice.

In reality, any belief is an attachment to something impossible. We attach to a thought, make an impossibility appear as true and real, and then act and react as if it is.

It is every bit as astonishing as anything Alice encountered.

2) On Dreams--I think we lucky readers get to see a glimpse of the author's astounding dream journal.

This blog reflects the author's personal travel into simple landscapes; there is virtually zero "clutter" on these pages. No typical blogside directories, blogrolls, quotes or pictures. Again, access everything from the pull tag above. If you have a philosophical bent, and self-inquiry is part of your process, you will find questions here, and thoughts that may help you zero in a bit more.

Just about any form of self-inquiry, and many forms of mediation, gives a taste of it: this human self lives its own life.

In shikantaza meditation, I allow anything arising to live its own life. Thoughts come and go. Sensations come and go. Sights come and go. Tastes and smells come and go. Movements come and go.

From Human Self Living it's Own Life

Feed: Yes

URL: http://www.absentofi.org/