Years ago I came across two sentences and they have never left me:
"The spiritual journey," says Thomas Keating, "is not a career or success story. It is a series of humiliations of the false self that becomes more and more profound."
The world stood on its head. For decades I had been seeking accumulation and self-enhancement when in fact all along the deeper longing was for the very opposite: diminution of that heavy burden of an imaginary ego-self .
This morning I was watching a video of Dr.Vijai Shankar in which he asks, "What is thought?"
I paused to consider this.
Thought is a word, he observes.
And what is a word?
Again, I stopped to wonder what a word actually is.
A word is a sound.
Thought is essentially a sound vibration, whether it is uttered out loud or not.
Mind is thought.
Thought is sound.
Mind is sound. It is a vibration, a pattern, an appearance.
There is sound (mind) and light (awareness).
There is sound and light, there is mind and awareness: these are the two indivisible dimensions or aspects of reality.
Sound is form, light is formless, and they are one.
There is sound and the light of consciousness that is aware of sound.
Sound and light occupy the same space and are inseparable.
For much of my life attention has been circumscribed to the thought-trance, hypnotized by the sound of the mind.
Yet the light bathes everything and it has always been free.
This light feels like home, and it does not make a sound. The light loves sound without needing to make a single sound itself.
~
Gratitude to Thomas Keating, quote is from his book
http://www.contemplativeoutreach.org/site/PageServer
Gratitude to Dr. Vijai Shankar
http://www.nevernothere.com/dr-vijai-shankar
Gratitude for photo: http://www.coosacreek.org/way/?m=200910
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