Different, Same, Same
This is another realization that seems to come up over and over when I do inquiry...
When believe in thoughts, different
When I believe in thoughts - in any thought, it creates a sense of an "I" set apart from something else. There is an I different from Other, in myriad of ways.
I get it, as opposed to those people who don't get it. I don't get it, as opposed to those people who seem to get it. I am human, not a rock, not a bird, not a star, not the lake, not the computer. I am alive, not dead or inanimate. I am a man, not woman. I am European, not Asian or African or anything else. I am adult, not child. I am progressive, not conservative or libertarian. I am on the side of the underdogs, not the powerful. I am smart, not stupid. I am stupid, not smart. I am deluded, not awake. I am awake, not deluded. And so on.
Question no. 3 in The Work allows me to explore the ways I (mentally) set myself apart when I believe in a thought. How I alienate myself from others, myself, life.
More precisely, it allows an exploration of how the story of I creates a sense of a separate I, and the drama that unfolds from there.
As one believing in thoughts, same
I also see that in believing in thoughts, the same happens here as seem to happen whenever thoughts are believed in. There is no difference. Believe in a thought, or a set of thoughts, and there are certain inevitable consequences. None of us is any different here. In believing in thoughts, I am the same as anyone else believing in thoughts.
Question no. 3 in brings this also to the surface. I get to see what happens when I believe in a specific thought, and how this is similar to what happens for others when they believe in similar thoughts. We are not so different there.
Again, more precisely, there is the seeing of the drama created from believing in thoughts, and how this appears universal. If there are creatures other places in the universe, and they have a biology that allows for abstractions, the same dynamics may well play themselves out there as well.
Without the beliefs, same
And without the beliefs, there is also no difference. A belief sets up the experience of a boundary, and without the boundaries we just are. There may be differentiation, but even here no difference. The difference falls away.
Question no. 4 brings this to the surface.
Labels: the work