Being alone with nature

Nature wants us to be alone with her when we decide to go on a spiritual quest.  I know it sounds rather odd to be saying this, but it is true.  Something in your heart changes, so as to open up, when you are finally able to be alone in some small cabin or a run down old house, that is miles away from the nearest human other than yourself.  Only then does nature find you.  At this point magic begins to happen, magic in the sense of understanding things you never thought possible.  Maybe it is because there is little if any interference to block the natural spiritual aether.  I don’t really know—but a difference is felt.

I found myself sometimes walking several miles during the day, or cutting firewood and hauling water from the well.  Sometimes I picked a bunch of wild watercress from the stream. I did many other things.   I did all this with a frame of mind that was stilled by the trees, the wind blowing through the dry grass, the smell of wild sage, and the occasional sound of a meadowlark.

In the evening I might study some Zen literature or read from the Lankavatara Sutra.  I would usually sit in zazen; many times in an old abandoned copper mine.  It eventually came to the point when sitting was no different than following the stream, or hiking up some hill.  When I sawed firewood it was a pleasure to work the saw and hold the rough oakwood steady as I cut off a section.  When I dropped the bucket down the well to get water, the smell of the well, the weight of the full bucket made me mindful.  All these things I did conspired together to settle my mind.

All the time my concentration was increasing.  As I paid more and more attention to the smallest of things such as putting my saw back in the right place or trimming the wick on the kerosene lamp, or lighting incense, in seemed that I was starting to step into another world.  All the while this was happening I was deeply engaged in trying to see where this pure Mind was in my own head.  I never gave up looking for it.  All the Zen literature I read shouted at me that this pure Mind is totally invisible, yet very real.  I had learned to accept that bit of information as fact although, at the time, I hadn’t engaged with such a mind.

This was all back in 1969, a time before portable computers, the Internet, iPhones  and all the countless other diversions.  Sometime later, I got lucky.  You can read about it here.

Comments

[The Zennist]

Electric Black:

In Buddhism people are divided into those who are worldly, the prithagjana, and those who are arya or spiritual (ones who have entered the stream to nirvana). There are also icchantika who deny the awakened nature or Buddha-nature. Buddhism's main demon is Mara the Evil One who is our psycho-physical body. These demons do not like the light or even talk of it and above all they don't like the idea that our true nature is undying (that which animates our mortal body is undying). What they hate most is that meditation is a means to this light which is an eternal essence. A person of light can easily sense another of light.

[Electric Black]

In Jewish philosophy there is a word for people who do not have a self, because they deny the True Self. It is Klippoth, which means rind or husk, as in something empty. It is a word that is used to refer to DEMONS. I have often thought the modern denial of the existence of demons was because, people nowadays are turning into them! Demons can be humans, meaning a very, very evil person. If this is what controls religion and society, then it explains why there is so much suffering in the world. We are being taught by a bunch of evil, formless non-souls who want to make us just as deficit as they are.

[The Zennist]

Electric Black:

I guess you might call it ironic, but the very principle of animation, the âtman, is denied by these people. It's somewhat like a radio denying the radio signal because it is not like its transistors, etc.

[Electric Black]

I apologize for posing so much. Your meditation is working out 20 years of study for me and I have to share it somewhere. I think that soon I will not need technical knowledge to understand these things. I am already starting to achieve them! Allright, what is wrong with people? Why won't they even TRY this meditation? It is the only true shortcut to enlightenment I have found, and I am VERY hard to please... I guess I can only say to the people who will not try this... you are seriously going to Buddhist hell for many millions of years, because you have rejected everything you professed to believe. I am not inclined to sympathize, either. You realize you will suffer excruciating torment for your deliberate attempts to prevent others from knowing the truth. You will suffer. You are guilty of trying to destroy the Rainbow Bridge to Enlightenment! I will be surprised if there is any restitution for this action! There probably is none!

[Electric Black]

After further study I believe I have identified the misinformation which was confusing me. I see the Buddha taught that the illusion of self (the false concept of self, not the Atman) and the illusion of reality are both identical and therefore both are samsara. It is unfortunate some schools teach that consciousness IS the absolute, when it is only a factor thereof. What I did not understand before is that the concept of consciousness is also an illusion, for all things are simply One in the absolute. This is more in line with what the experience of the absolute has actually been for me. Something which is BEYOND anything we know of in the earthly realm.

It seems that Buddhism, Hinduism and Qabalism are one in their goal, but they divide the absolute differently and describe the process in different ways. While Buddhism sees all Atman as One, Hinduism identifies Atman as the local manifestation of Brahman, which is absolute. Therefore Atman is absolute. Qabalism separates three further qualities of the absolute or Kether, which are before Kether, and these are Ain, Ain-Soph, and Ain-Soph-Aur. They are the part of the absolute which is actually totally unexpressible except to say 'non-being created being'. So in Buddhist terms I am seeing the Atman, in Hindu terms my Atman is merging with Brahman, and in Qaballistic terms I am seeing the Ain through unity with Kether.