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Posted by josef on 12/11/2009, 8:15 am, in reply to "Just Dropped in to See What Condition My Condition was in!"
24.32.223.x
--Previous Message--
: Greetings Butcho
:
: "So, how you doin'?"
:
: A funny thing happened on the way to
: enlightenment. First "I" sat down
: and practiced quiet mind and forgetting.
: That seemed to help rid this non-thing that
: i make into a thing and call it gar, of its
: ego. Well as far as gar can tell what is
: left is a sensory mass that receives stimuli
: but has lost its source of motivation. It
: seems without ego there's nothing to respond
: to the stimulus other than to eat, sleep and
: defecate. Well, Perhaps the stand alone
: "ID" is what's left.
:
: Well, if this is enlightenment I'd rather be
: a rock. Help I'm a rock! Gee, i think Frank
: Zappa told me that in 1966. But as you can
: read, the rock isn't typing these words, gar
: is. And that seems fine.
:
: So, what's changed?
:
: What's on the other side of no-self? Perhaps
: a sense of self that embraces this sense of
: existence with "Eyes on the road and
: hands on the wheel I'm going to the
: roadhouse and get myself a beer." Wait
: a minute, That's not the right
: "Doors". Instead, maybe I'll find
: contentment in all things and all no-things.
:
: Always nice to talk to a fellow traveler
: along the path, brother Butcho. Now where
: was i, oh yeah, one step at a time.
:
: in peace,
: gar
Gar, you've voiced the most common objection to egolessness...the presumption that ego is the only self that can be responsive, lively and human. Talk here before of true self and false, illusory self. It's a good distinction, imo. The smallest child, well before ego-formation (not enough thought/memory to build one yet), will respond to pleasure and pain, choose applesauce over spinach, reach for a toy, feel and respond with full attention to what's going on and to others, learns, is curious, interested, engaged in life, completely present in Now. Nothing remotely like a rock.
To have ego quiescent doesn't mean becoming inhuman, a rock. More of an uncarved block. :-) A fully human being who isn't tied to a personal history, but can be new to each moment. Alive, not deadened by habituation, automatism and compulsivity. Aware, not perpetually lost in the "traffic jam of discursive thought".
Simple memory, retaining the facts of one's identity, where you live, your relationships, etc., doesn't require the psychological baggage of ego at all. Coming fresh and anew to it all every day is possible without dragging the ego's baggage along as a constant referrent.
The experience of this speaks volumes. Words, not so much. :-)
josef
368
"The Tao is basically utterly open. Utter openeness has no substance. It ends in endlessness, begins in beginninglessnes".
-Li Daoqun
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