A Zen-master illustrates "Oneness"

I am currently reading The New American Spirituality by Elizabeth Lesser. Her bio and a link to her work: eomega.org...

For 30 years, she has studied and worked with leading figures in the fields of emotional intelligence and healing—healing self and healing society. For much of that time, Lesser was a driving force at Omega, helping to lead the organization, create the curriculum, and spearhead many of its programs, including the Women and Power conferences, which offer a dialogue between women in leadership positions in a variety of areas—government, religion, media, the arts, and more. Today, she is an active board member and advisor to the organization.

I purchased it 10 years or so ago, (during my last spiritual seeking frenzy) but had not read it until now.

It is a wonderful look at how all the traditions of the world have something to offer, and an encouraging guide-book for those of us who remain "unaffiliated" but are nevertheless very tuned in to our spirituality and the mysteries we can never unravel in this body.

I highly recommend it to anyone still "shopping" for a spiritual foundation from which to continue to grow.

One of her teachers during her own journey is Thich Nhat Hanh, a supremely wise and gentle man. He operates Plum Village in France, a retreat and monastery of Zen Buddhism.

In the book, Ms Lesser shares one of his "lessons" he uses for those at his retreats, and I want to pay it forward here.
(I'm typing from the hardcover, but I'm going to ex-text it for ease of formatting. I know kindle versions can be sourced electronically, but I don't have that capability)
so...from her book:

Thich Nhat Hanh sits on the ground and holds a piece of paper in one hand and a match in the other. He asks us to imagine all of the elements that make up the piece of paper: the pulp from the tree; the soil, the water, and the sunshine that fed the tree; the glue and dye and chemicals that were used to make the paper.

He explains how the piece of paper is the tree; it was in the tree all along; it was in the seed of the tree all along. It was in the soil and the sunlight that nourished the tree. You would see it in the glue and dye and chemicals that were mixed with the pulp to make the paper.

Is the paper soil? Is it the tree? Is it glue, or dye?

No, but without any one of these parts of the paper -- stretching all the way back to the seed, the rain, the clouds, the sky, the sun -- we would not have this sheet of paper. Even the man who ran the machine that mixed the pulp with the glue is in the piece of paper, and his parents, and his family, and his thoughts and feelings.

Then Thich Nhat Hanh lights the match and holds it to the paper. We watch it burn. He asks, "Where is the paper now? Where is the tree? Where is the sunlight? Where is the man? Have they become the smoke? Are they these few ashes?" We sit quietly for a while, pondering these questions. Then he asks,

"And now, where is the smoke?" We look around. The air is clear. "Is the smoke in those clouds? Is the paper the blue sky? Is the tree the air we are breathing?"

Thich Nhat Hanh calls this "inter-being". I really like this analogy, and wanted to share it here with you all.

We are all connected -- we are all part of the same Essence. Be kind to one another. Appreciate all that you are connected to from the soil to the stars to the animals and plants...understand that everything matters, and is precious and inextricably linked.

Namaste!

Considering there isn't much to add to this thread that any experienced ATSer hasn't seen or read already, I just want to say...

Thank you for this message.

reply to post by wildtimes


Ok, lets twist an angle into this.

How would the above read, if we add to it the fact, the world is a hologram, your brain and thoughts as well.

This means, ideas, thoughts, anything sensory - is not real, but a projection.

How would you approach then the reality?

Originally posted by deckdel
reply to post by wildtimes

 

Ok, lets twist an angle into this.

How would the above read, if we add to it the fact, the world is a hologram, your brain and thoughts as well.

This means, ideas, thoughts, anything sensory - is not real, but a projection.

How would you approach then the reality?

The reality is that we are experiencing this instant, and the things that seem to be around us...which are for physical reasons "material"....or "thoughts" or "feelings."
The instant we have now is all that we have. Woops! Gone. Now THIS-- woops!

Reality is that which we are -- and it is inextricable from anything else we see...we are a part of it at the same time it is "us". Whatever it is, I'm enjoying it. Holographic or not, it rocks my world every day. Literally...

and I revel in it.
It seems real to me, and to you, but we don't really know what 'it' is. It just is "is-ness"....for what it's worth.

The understanding we have now, that everything is vibrating energy...atoms, proton, neutrons, quarks, whatever...are they waves? Are they particles? Are they here?.. or there?.. Or both. In any case they individually just are, but what they form to our senses is not really what they "are"...it is a manifestation of our observation.

The sound of one hand clapping.
It passeth understanding; and that's just the way it is. No amount of trying to explain it IS it.
*brain cramping*
How would you approach then the reality?

reply to post by wildtimes


Lets play with the thought:

Oneness_1: if you take volume of one proton of vacuum energy, this energy is enough to create the whole visible universe (e = mc^2). The building block is the building.

Oneness_2: Consider two cameras pointed at an aquarium with a goldfish in. They are pointed in different angles, and the image is shown in a whole different room on two different screens. Basically, if you would not know the setup, you might believe you are watching two distinctively different gold fishes. Our reality is similar. Our atoms "think" they are separate entities, but actually they are just images of the same atom, residing outside our day-to-day reality. They are entangled. The entanglement traverses the whole universe, and it may even traverse time (from future to the past).

Oneness_3: You, yourself, experience this universe, in parallel with other beings doing the same. But in face, you are walking through a mesh of quantum foam, where you create your own version of the universe. Takes a volume of energy corresponding to one proton. Somebody else is doing the same, and takes another proton volume of vacuum energy. These are not two fully separate universes though. They are connected. They share information, and interact. But are distinctive to their "owners". Your universe obeys your thoughts as an observer. Trillions trillions trillions of beings do the same with their copy of the universe. The system is approx size of one cubic meter. You may talk and exchange ideas to other universes, but you still run and direct the path of your universe.

Oneness_4: The other universes have copies of you. Trillions trillions trillions of copies. You have an inherent feeling sometimes, you have experienced an event before, but cannot put a finger on it, where and when this was.

Oneness_5: You wonder "who you are". Are you sum of all these copies, or are you the one running your own universe. Which one of these trillions trillions trillions versions of you, you really are? OR, are you actually the one, who is right now, standing outside this cube of holograms, out of the sensory perception of the world and universe, out of the web of entangled copies. The true yourself.

Oneness_6: Standing outside the cube, you recognize, the concept of time and space does not matter - since those only exist inside the cube.

Oneness_7: You wonder again "who you are". Because, you realize, your body, and the persona, emotions, psyche... are actually inside the cube, and do not have a meaning when standing outside the cube. You just "are". There is nothing but "I am". And you realize, "I am" the way, the truth and the life.

Oneness_8: You realize "I am" for you may not be different from "I am" for somebody else. Since you are projections of somebody standing outside of another type of cube. But in "I am", it is still the "I" which "is". It is the gateway to being in wholeness. Like the "sitting Buddha" in a Mandelbrot fractal, which pops up how deep you would zoom into that fractal. It always appears, and shows the gateway to the original "sitting Buddha". It is one.

Oneness_9. I am.

reply to post by deckdel


Okay! I would like to play it out....
however, I need to wait until tomorrow...right now I'm occupied with laughing my butt off watching "Bob's Burgers"...with my husband.

Thanks for your participation, and I'll check your post tomorrow!!

(Happy Mother's Day....remember your mom! Without her you'd be.....not what you are, but something different.)

reply to post by deckdel

Ok, lets twist an angle into this.

How would the above read, if we add to it the fact, the world is a hologram, your brain and thoughts as well.

+1 for QP!