The title of this talk is a rip-off of the celebrated Indian teacher Ramana Maharshi,
Who once said,
I didn't eat,
They said I was fasting.
This is a statement about interpretation.
The Master,
Having realised the equal sacredness of all activities,
Is simply not eating.
The disciples,
On the other hand,
Who still play the game of comparison,
Interpret that the Master must be doing something holy.
This example is most absurd when presented as,
I sat quietly,
They said I was meditating.
I define meditation as the dedication of distraction-free time to the practice of mindfulness.
Mindfulness is the practice of seeing things as they really are.
So,
How are things,
Really?
They're like this.
They're like this.
Even our most deluded,
Ignorant states are marvellous displays of human being.
When we simply recognise this,
We're immediately free of delusion and ignorance.
When we recognise this,
We see things as they really are.
When we see things as they really are,
There's no need to meditate.
Delusion and or ignorance may arise again in the next moment,
So let's recognise again.
That delusion and ignorance are exactly as they are.
Mere appearances coming and going like clouds in the sky.
From the perspective of conditioned ignorance,
We perceive the clouds to be distinct from the sky.
We do not usually appreciate that the clouds depend upon the sky.
Without the sky,
There could be no clouds.
Thus,
They are not separate.
This is a perfect analogy for awareness and phenomena.
Awareness being like the sky,
Phenomena or stuff being like the clouds.
And even on the greyest of days,
When it seems like all that can be seen is cloud,
The sky is still present.
The sky in fact subsumes the clouds.
Eventually,
The clouds always clear,
Revealing the sky that was present all along.
All experiences,
Whether of people,
Places,
Things,
Events,
Thoughts,
Feelings,
Or any other category we might think of,
Come and go.
But how do we know that they come and go?
How do we experience them at all?
We experience them because we are aware.
Furthermore,
We humans have a very special ability.
We can be aware of being aware.
In being aware of being aware,
We dispel the illusion of phenomena.
Unlike the wolf,
Who is forever enchanted by its prey,
The human being,
Aware of being aware,
Has the opportunity to see that appearances are fabricated,
Contrived.
Made up.
The human being can choose not to eat.
When we stop making things up,
When we stop telling stories about things,
They are as they are.
When things are seen to be as they are,
When they're not resisted,
Natural meditative stability is perfected.
We see that stuff does not exist as independent entities with predefined characteristics.
May we all see things as they are.
