Jolt Country

Enlightenment is the constant, recurring realization that there is only what is, and nothing else.

But what does that mean?

Let's all get our Matrix(R)-brand spoons out.

Hold your spoon in front of you, and look at it. If I ask you "what is?", you will answer, "I'm holding a spoon."

Some teachers will say "look deeper", but that's confusing to me. I would say something more along the lines of, "don't look at all". Don't try to find anything. Just tell me what is.

All you can find is the indescribable experience of sight -- a long, perhaps shiny silverness (or whiteness, if it's a plastic spoon), oblong at one end. A sense of smoothness, a sense of hardness in your fingers.

The breath, moving in and out.

The sound of a truck on the street outside. (There is also no truck, only the sound.)

There is only the pure experience, appearing in, and as, consciousness -- boundless, unbroken, infinite awareness.

And not a single spoon to be found.

Go ahead. Try it.

That bitch was right.

I'll meet you halfway on this one.

I once read of a study in which two groups of children were asked to solve some sort of tactile problem. Each group was given a box full of items with which to solve the problem. Each group was shown all the items. With the first group they said, "this is a pen, this is an eraser, this is a spoon," and so on. With the second group they said "this could be a pen, this could be an eraser, this could be a spoon," etc. The second group repeatedly came up with more creative, outside-the-box solutions to solving the problem.

So if you want to say there are no spoons and only pieces of metal or wood or plastic shaped like spoons, I'll go there.

If you want to convince me of anything more than that you'll have to throw away all the spoon-shaped objects in your kitchen and post a video of you eating a bowl of hot soup.

Nobody needs convincing of anything.

What else is there, other than the sight, the feeling, and the thought "this is a spoon"?

Well, there's the part where it transports soup to your mouth.

When standing in front of one, the important part is not convincing oneself that there is no truck; the important part is convincing the truck.

Flack wrote:Well, there's the part where it transports soup to your mouth.

That's a mind-made story of "what transpired in time". Look right now, there is only what is. The story about the soup being placed into your mouth is a story, and a convincing one, but it is never part of what is, other than as a thought, arising in timeless presence.

As all stories of past and future are.

I think we can all agree on one thing that never was -- RetroRomper's Christmas cookies.

Flack wrote:I think we can all agree on one thing that never was -- RetroRomper's Christmas cookies.

BEST OF.

pinback wrote:Nobody needs convincing of anything.

Yeah, and they often fail to establish reasonable standards of verifiability where less important things are not always taken at face value. As the story goes, tell some child there is some supernatural power watching them and will punish them for misconduct, and they can't see, hear, feel or have any proof of same, and they'll swallow this whole and believe it. Put up a wet paint sign on a wall and the same child will want to touch the wall and confirm it's wet before they'll believe it.