From: PhaedrusWolf@aol.com
Date: Fri Nov 26 2004 - 15:18:35 GMT
In a message dated 11/26/04 6:44:48 AM Eastern Standard Time,
marshalz@i-2000.com writes:
Is there a "true self"? I think my true self is like an unself. I
experience it in moments during meditation. Sometimes I experience it when
painting, or when taking a walk. Such a moment is always a gift. It is
total awareness. It's when I'm connected to everything and beyond identity
and beyond self.
Hi MarshaV,
I think you just described it as well as anyone can. The 'True Self' you
speak of (remembering that all I offer is thoughts; not fact or even theory) is
when you are connected_aware_of what Pirsig has described as the 'Big Self'.
When Michael Jordan states his 'Game on', maybe he has gotten in touch with
the 'True Self'. He has become 'One' with the ball, with the team, and with
the game. Thinking of Thanksgiving, when the Native American gave thanks, it
was to the turkey, to Mother Earth, and to the Creator. When he was in the hunt
for the turkey, he was aware of this 'Big Self'. He became one with the bow,
the arrow, the wind, the turkey, Mother Earth, and the Creator. When you
paint, and you get this feeling of 'Total awareness', you have become one with
the brush, the canvas, the subject, and the Creator (whatever you want to name
the Creator).
Taken on a bit larger scale, the astrologer, philosopher, or scientist
trying to get in touch with the Cosmos are trying to do the same as what you are
when you paint. Isidore, Socrates, and Einstein may not have been 'geniuses'
in their field as much as simply in a state of awreness through their
contemplation. They became One with the Cosmos. When you focus on one thing hard
enough, you reach this level of Qualtiy; the level of Quality that reaches this
awareness of 'Self'.
On a smaller scale, you might think of the corporate practice of meetings.
This 'Brain storming' is not only an idea that the different ideas lend
something, but that the different minds focused together create a 'Master Mind' of
its own. You might think in terms that the different minds do not actually
create a 'Master Mind', but lend themselves to a Master Mind that already
exists. They just become in touch with a Master Mind, or the 'Masterful Mind at
the centre of the universe'.
Just as your painting is 'Art', so is astrology, philosophy, and science; so
would be meditation, as well as the meditative state you might get into when
walking, or what is described by runners as a 'Runner's High'.
The idea of no-self in Buhdda would be that the 'True Self' would not lend
its 'Self' to disease. The body nor the mind could be this 'Self', since if
they were 'Self', they would not lend their 'Self' to Self-destructive disease.
You think?
Chin
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