First was the word. A baby, just born, does not yet know language, does not yet distinguish objects. A baby sees undifferentiated light, but actually not even that, because it does not experience itself as a separate thing. Looking at something in a focused way is not yet there. The separation will take shape when the baby has learned to say mom and dad. As it learns more words, the child’s eyes become more inquisitive. Words fragment, and so the world seems to grow. In reality, the mind grows. The actual birth of a person is not the moment of physical birth, but when the child has learned to accept ‘I’ as the key word for its own interests and responsibilities. This is quite a shock, during which it will be ejected from the paradise unity. Life is now all about regaining that paradisiacal state of undividedness. The problem, however, is that an ‘I’, which by definition is already separate as a concept, is in stark contradiction to what it longs for. Therefore, spirituality speaks of the necessity of ego death. This sounds serious, but it is not, because the ego is mere illusion from the first moment of existence.
The world of name and form is by definition subjective. Place and time of birth determine your first perceptions and how these are then guided by the culture around you. There is nothing you can do about that, but you can put your conditioning into perspective by being open to all other cultures on the planet. This is called Love, and Love heals, sees through learned divisions, which makes them fall away. It won’t necessarily change your character and conditioning, -even though there are vivid examples of people who did experience this-, and it doesn’t need to. Once you realize the conditioning of your identity, you no longer need to act on that identity. You have realized the Witness, which precedes identity.
Within non-dual schools of philosophy it is in many cases argued and considered proven that free will does not exist, because the ego is an illusion. However, I think they are completely missing the point in this one. Free will indeed does not have the power to manipulate form according to ones wishes, but free will is essentially free because it no longer necessarily identifies with language and form. It knows Silence, the Origin, that precedes name and form.
When I discovered Zen Buddhism in my twenties, I was very captivated by the brush drawings of Zen masters; this has always been the case since then. Working with a brush dipped in black ink means that the contact with paper is irrevocable and must therefore be completely adequate. Those artists also understand the art of omission. And how do they do that? First they abide in Complete Silence is observed before brushing. Then the miracle can happen.
Karin said to me today that she doesn’t believe in personal enlightenment, in the sense that as an individual you can reach Nirvana, because either everyone goes into Nirvana, or no individual does. She tried on and looked in the mirror at a beautiful dress she had bought last afternoon when I gave my response. I told her about Hinayana Buddhism, also called the Small Vehicle, which believes in the option of Nirvana for an individual, but on the other hand there is Mahayana Buddhism, the Great Vehicle, which completely agrees with what Karin had just told me. Bodhidharma had declared that he would not enter Nirvana as long as even one unenlightened being was left in the universe.
All those selves competing against other selves in the world, it’s really good for nothing, unless it be to expose the arrogance of the illusory ghost spirits for all to see. Having seen it, a person is done with it.
The word fragments, Karin said today at the seaside. We don’t resolve our own mistakes by rethinking them, that only multiplies them. Silence, the foundation of language, form and sense of time, is wordless, formless, timeless. We don’t have to look for the solution to our problems, standing still is enough. Then the mind will no longer obtain the fuel of restless seeking, there is the possibility of the deeper awareness that sees how perception actually works. Think of the glass semi-circular object with liquid and fake snow in it: as long as you handle and move it, the snow is moving; when you put the object down and leave it alone, then the snow falls and the water becomes clear. It works the same way with the mind: when you give up your control over it, it becomes clear. In total clarity there appears to be no mind, or anyone who possesses a mind.
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