intellect

the unborn flower of nothing

 

if you want to know
the Unknowable start by
throwing out the absolute
and the relative and
everything between

and should you be blessed
with the capacity to survive
the free-fall
of your o-so-precious
intellectual infrastructure
into roaring silence
into spaciousness
into stillness

then you’ll know that Knowingness as
“the unborn flower of nothing”
and you’ll be its own soft echo
as it sings its eternal song
to itself

 

Echoes from Emptiness - the unborn flower of nothing

 

Who would dare to go nameless in so secure a universe?
Yet, to tell the truth, only the nameless are at home in it.

They bear with them in the center of nowhere the unborn flower of nothing: 
This is the paradise tree.
It must remain unseen until words end
and arguments are silent.

– Thomas Merton

 

Wishing you all a very Happy New Year. May your life blossom on the paradise tree, fulfilled and at peace in every way. You are so loved!

Image source unknown – if it’s one of yours please let me know so that I can give proper credit.

the flowering of creativity

318

  • intellect

Tends to answer a query or describe a condition with statements – usually absolutes and conclusions.

  • intelligence

Tends to respond to a query with further questions and describe conditions with metaphors, always probing, open, non-conclusive.

  • questions

Seem to be crucial to creative living.  They indicate the presence of beginner’s mind, mind that’s open to new possibilities, willing to explore, experiment, extrapolate in fresh ways, while taking nothing too seriously.

Perhaps the essential requirement of the active dynamic of noumenon – that which seeds its manifestation into phenomena – is a kind of innocent, playful questioning …

Wouldn’t that indicate the necessity of keeping the questions alive and the mind uncluttered with conclusions in order for genuine, unconditioned creativity to flower?

~

simplicity surfaces when thinking knows its place

307

Simplicity isn’t a result, an outcome of effort or aspiration.  You can’t cultivate it by de-cluttering or embracing the ‘zen’ aesthetic.

Like wild wideawakeness simplicity is a reflection of original innocence – uncomplicated, unadorned, naked.

It flowers naturally when there’s no longer anyone who needs to impress their apparent world with aggrandizement of body or belongings – including the intellect and the movie of personal experience.

Simplicity surfaces when thinking knows its place.

~

clarity comes effortlessly

182

Looking for clarity?
Try turning off the thought machine.
Clarity comes effortlessly when mind
stops its default dot-connecting.

It’s like a rio abajo rio – 
a field of intelligence that flows
beneath the river of intellect
and the streams of space and time.

Stop thinking; it bubbles up.

Trouble is, ‘you’ can’t stop thinking
for ‘you’ are the thinking process!

What to do?

Nothing, there’s no way out.
The discovery of this stops thought in its tracks.

Like Grace, all that’s needed for clarity
is space.

~

omega-mind, original-mind

153

Self-inquiry, for she-who scribbles, is pretty straight forward.  There’s no agenda involved and conclusions are avoided.  I simply sit (or whatever – it happens as often as remembering does) and watch the arising of thoughts.  There’s now no inclination to consider that thoughts are ‘mine’ or that they have significance.  Nevertheless they ebb and flow, as is their nature, and I’m curious by nature so I watch them like a researcher.

In my ‘thinking’ research, I find two distinct types of ‘knowing’ seem to occur.  For ease of reference, and without being esoteric, I’ll call them alpha and omega.

So-called alpha thinking is linear (think alpha-bet/language) with all lines of thought moving out from and returning to me.  The lines form ruts with habitual use, ruts of conditioned reflexes.  My alpha thinking corresponds with intellect.

Omega ‘knowing’ is different and calling it thinking is inaccurate for it’s beyond language, beyond all that can be conceived.  I’ll call it Omega-mind.  It’s unconditioned, has no centre, is ubiquitous.  It probably corresponds to impersonal intelligence.

When creative learning or action is occurring, omega-mind is in action, and when that learning needs to be recalled and written-up, alpha thinking comes into play.

Alpha thinking’s arena is the past and the future:  it’s the inventor of the persona that plays in the field of time.

But omega-mind is always present as the background unknowable knowingness that alpha thinking arises within.  There’s no persona involved, and time and space aren’t relevant.  I wonder if my omega-mind might correspond to the original-mind of Zen?

~

luxuriously abiding as what-is

119

this morning the warming winter world is whitewashed with mist
the earth is now cool – for the tropics – but the lengthening day-span,
always sun-drenched,
is heating up the atmosphere –
when warm meets cool, the mix brings mist

likewise; when the cool crisp intellect meets the warm embracing intuition of the heart
a fog of confusion is inevitable

luxuriously abiding as what-is
this naked clear knowingness knows no such confusion

~

the unarguable logic of non-duality

100

“Advaita adherents are mushrooming everywhere, because it is largely an intellectual philosophy that one can embrace without changing one’s life.”
(quote probably taken from internet … too long ago to remember)

understanding of the first word renders the remainder of the statement meaningless:
Advaita means non-duality

it contends that pure Awareness is all there is – a claim that’s easily verified for oneself

and once verified, one’s left in head-shaking bemusement –
where are all these ‘adherents’ to be found?
exactly who does all this ’embracing?’
and who could exist independently, to change ‘their’ life?

it might be more accurate to say that Advaita appeals to intelligence rather than the intellect
perhaps … but idle speculation nonetheless

for

what ‘appears’ to happen is that even one wideawake peek into the unarguable logic of non-duality changes everything

forever

without ‘you’ doing diddlysquat

~