Inquiry: Brushing Teeth
I want to explore Ramesh Balsekar's recommended form of inquiry as well: can I find a doer?
So, last night I brushed my teeth. What lead up to this action?
Of course, anything that happens has literally infinite causes and effects (it is really one seamless whole, so it is beyond any particular number of connections), but here are some...
- The universe (its existence and characteristics)
- Having teeth (as a species and individual)
- Living in a culture promoting teeth cleaning (through science and commercially)
- Habit of brushing teeth established early on through support from parents and school
- Having access to a tooth brush
- Having time and opportunity to brush (leisure time and able bodied)
- Having the thought of brushing teeth
- Acting on the thought
- Not being interrupted
- Awareness for the activity of brushing teeth to unfold within
There are infinite causes, and the awareness it all unfolds within and as. But there is not really any "doer" in all of this, apart from the whole itself. There is really not need or room for a separate doer, a doer as a segment of all of what is.
Brushing the teeth appears to be the activity of the whole of what is - of the process of the world of phenomena and the stainless awareness it all unfolds within.