Death
Nothing new here either...
I see how doing inquiry on death has a widespread effect, simply because death is everywhere.
If I find peace with death, I find peace with death in its many forms.
In this eternal Present, the whole world continually dies as it is and is reborn as something else. It is always utterly fresh. The whole world of phenomena is flow - continuous death and rebirth. This human self dies. Everything I know and am familiar with in my life will die, every person, every animal, every city, every culture, every idea, every piece of music, this solar system, this universe, it will all die. And it already does, always.
And this includes my attachment to any idea. These attachments which all together builds up an imagined identity, as an "I", as awareness, as a human, as white, as male, as liberal, as someone liking cheese, as someone appreciating Stereolab, as someone doing inquiries, as someone married to a particular woman, and so on - endlessly. All these attachments to ideas which together define who "I" am as opposed to everything else. All of these, which naturally bring a sense of isolation and loneliness. Which makes the world appear as I and Other. Which create the whole familiar realm of human drama.
And as with everything else, every attachment to any idea will die - including to the idea of I - and if they do while this body is still around, it is experienced as peace and liberation
I see that even these attachments to ideas continuously die, along with everything else in the realm of phenomena. And they are typically continuously recreated as well. Until they are not. Until they are seen through. Until they are examined. Leaving just what is.
I did an inquiry on death a little while ago, received a phone call notifying me that a plan of mine would not be able to go through (it died), and I saw how the inquiry on the death of a person naturally transfered to the death of a plan. No surprise, since they both are really just attachments to ideas.
Labels: impermanence