From the Osho Zen Tarot, No-thingness (Hierophant); from the A'HA Oracle, Place of Power:
And when we cling—to our firmly held ideas, beliefs, roles, and identities—we freeze-frame reality, turning flowing water into frozen ice, and then we find ourselves pinched and bound, locked into tiny cells. Our cold, sharp edges become a prison.
~Pamela Weiss
Draw a circle and most Westerners would call it a zero - nothing. But Buddhist cultures consider the circle a symbol of wholeness and totality. It is related to the idea of interdependence: all things are in a dynamic relationship, arising and passing away. So this 'wholeness' (or emptiness) is full of potency and unlimited possibilities, not one concrete, unchanging thing. As Haemin Sunim explained, "This reality is like a huge and all-encompassing ocean. There may be different kinds of fish and seaweed and rocks, but they’re all contained inside one ocean." Humans like what is solid and separate (especially ideas and beliefs) because they give the illusion of certainty and control. It's no wonder our religious ideas of God fit in a well-defined box that has no room for boundlessness, only limitation. The Place of Power card indicates a physical, sacred spot. Where do you go to remember your interconnection, that you are a part of something greater than can be imagined?
I am meditating to find my connection to pure consciousness. I get there momentarily and then the mind chatter over-takes. I wonder how The Dalahi Lama can sit and meditate daily for 5 hours?
ReplyDeleteHe doesn't try to get rid of thoughts, he just lets them flow by like sitting on a river bank. :)
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