Welcome to the Joseph Goldstein Insight Hour. This podcast is an expression of our shared interest in self-discovery. Join Joseph as he shares his deep knowledge of the path of mind-fums. If you are interested in supporting this podcast, please go to beherenownetwork.com.
So many aspects of the Buddhist teachings about the nature of suffering and the possibilities of freedom resonate easily with our common sense understanding of ourselves and the world. For example, the importance of non-harming is the basic moral principle of living together in community, whether it's local communities or the global community. The understanding that all things in our lives are changing inside and outside and that if we are attached or grasp that, that which in its very nature changes, then we suffer. In some sense, this is very obvious if we are attached to youth, if we are attached just for the recording, I'm not in my head at that.
If we are attached to summer, we suffer in the winter. If we are attached to what's pleasant, then we suffer when things get unpleasant. So this is obvious. If we are attached to that, which in its nature changes, there's going to be difficulties.
So all of this really seems quite obvious, I think, to most of us, even if we're not always living that understanding, but it's not difficult to understand. There's one aspect of the Buddhist teaching, though, that offers a profoundly different perspective on things, a profoundly different view of ourselves and the world. And it's one that really challenges our entire worldview. And that is the deep understanding and realization of what impali is called anatta.
And that's translated sometimes as non-self or selflessness or emptiness, emptiness of self. And realizing anatta is in some ways the great liberating jewel of the Buddhist teaching. And over the years I've given a lot of talks and written a lot about how this view of self is created in the mind. How the mind constructs this idea of self and how it sustains it.
But tonight what I'd like to do is to offer something of a collage of just reflections and practices that might help us even briefly to actually touch into the realization of it so that we can experience a real taste of what selflessness means. So the first important understanding is that the self is not some existing thing that we need to get rid of. So our practice is not about getting rid of the self because it's not there. In the first place the whole notion of self is an idea.
It's a view. It's a perspective that we bring to our experience. It's not some thing that's residing within us. And of course the Buddha taught of this view of self as being wrong view.
So what if the great Tibetan meditation masters of the last century, his name was Bill Gokan Seivinpoche. And he was a teacher to His Holiness, the Balaglama, and just an amazing teacher. And his writings are just crystal clear. So this is what he said about this.
The idea of an enduring self has kept you wandering helplessly in the realms of samsara for countless past lifetimes. It is the very thing that now prevents you from liberating yourself and others. If you could simply let go of that one thought of high, you would find it easy to be free and to free others. So in some sense our whole practice is really geared towards the understanding or the means for letting go of this view of I, this view of self.
The Buddha offered a very brief, succinct, and clearer practice for doing this. This was advice that he gave to his son, Ruhula, after Ruhula had become a novice monk. He said, see everything with perfect wisdom. This is not mine.
This is not I. This is not myself. And maybe this one simple instruction would be enough if we could remind ourselves of it as we kind of ride the roller coaster of our life experience. Thoughts arise.
Not mine, not I, not myself. Difficult sensations arise. Not mine, not I, not myself. Different mind-dron, different emotions.
Not mine, not I, not myself. But as we know, although these instructions are so simple and clear, you know, it's not difficult to understand. But it's not easy to apply, as we know, when we're caught up in the forward momentum of our lives. In the midst of our daily lives, how often do we remember to apply that instruction?
Not mine, not I, not myself. Probably not that often. So one exercise that I found very helpful in beginning this experiential exploration of selflessness is what I call from am to is. So I first kind of played with this when I came across a teaching of Lady Saito, let's L-E-D-I, Lady Saito, who was one of the great Burmese meditation masters.
He lived at the end of the 1800s, beginning of 1900s, and very renowned. And in this teaching, he listed some of the variations of wrong view. So he had a whole list of wrong view. And the list startled me.
So this was what was on the list of wrong view. I'm happy, I'm sad, I'm angry, I'm excited, I'm afraid, I'm bored. What was startling to me when I read this was that all these phrases were simply the common expressions of how we live. It's just so common, you know, we're speaking of saying, oh, I'm angry today, or I'm happy today, or I'm going to say that.
And it's not the emotions on my states and selves that are the wrong view. It's the I am. The mind has co-opted these arising experiences and claims them as being I online. It was very striking to me to see that just our ordinary way of understanding ourselves and communicating what we're experiencing, wrong view is embedded right in that.
So the first step that I found to be helpful in this from Amto is was to really look at and watch out for the felt experience of I am. You know, just throughout the day, whether it's informal meditation or just moving about, it might be the felt sense of I am in walking. And we're just walking, even just going for a walk. And mostly there's that internalized feeling of I'm walking, or as we're having different emotions, focus the attention on what it feels like when we're experiencing it as I'm angry, I'm happy, I'm sad, I'm excited.
Or other mental activities I'm thinking I'm planning, I'm judging. You can make your own list of where the I am feeling is most predominant. Now what's interesting about this is since I am is really the default setting of our minds, almost any time we look, we can feel it. So it's not like you have to be on the watch for some rare esoteric arising.
It's how mostly we're just living and we're feeling it, but very rarely are we paying attention to what it feels like. It's just that's what we take ourselves to be. So the first step in this is just tuning in from time to time of what it feels like. And then make the move, once you're feeling, again, I'm thinking, I'm judging, I'm walking, I'm moving, I'm doing this, I'm doing that.
In whatever moment you tune into the I am, then just make a little mental shift to there is, there is walking, there is thinking, there is planning, there is judging, there is all of those same physical or mental activities. What I noticed, and it was very striking and in a way very obvious, in the I am in that mode, when I tuned into how it felt, there was a contraction. It was kind of like imprisoned in the I am. And as soon as my mind just made this simple shift to there is, from I'm walking to there is walking, right in that moment could feel a great auspiciousness, letting go of the contraction of I am.
So this is a very immediate feedback, and it's not hard to feel, we just have to look and pay attention to it. So one way that you might experiment with this, and it's something we've been talking about all the week, you know, given the instruction of in the sitting there is a body. I found that that phrase is very useful in the walking as well, especially kind of at a more normal speed. So just walking, so instead of I'm walking, just using the phrase there is a body.
So it makes the mind a little broader just from doing that, and then walking and seeing what is being experienced. And in the walking, within the framework that is a body, what's actually being felt are simply sensations in space. The notion of body actually disappears, even though we're using the phrase to ground those, there is a body. As soon as we do that and stop walking and feeling what's arising, it's just sensation in space without any form, without any bhantra, without any sense of a solid body.
And that again becomes a very easy doorway into feeling the selflessness of it all. It's just sensations being known. Although these are very simple exercises, you know, as a way of just stepping out of the contraction of I am, they have profound implications. So this is from the Buddha.
He said, by rightly understanding I am, one makes an end of suffering. The eradication of I am is the attainment of Nibana here and now. So this is not an insignificant move. But what's surprising is we're just not really paying attention to it.
And so this exercise from am to is, you might, if you're interested, just play with it in the course of a day. And notice the contraction of our usual way of being in the world, the I am. I am doing this, I am doing that, I am feeling this, I am feeling that. And in those moments when you feel that, then just shift to there is and notice the difference.
Okay, so that's one little exercise you could do in terms of exploring the experience of amatana. The second experience, or the second exercise is what I call dreaming oneself into existence. And this has to do with setting the intention to be aware of the quickly passing thoughts in the mind. It's also allowed demanding ones, not the problematic ones, not the big stories.
Just the almost endless dream. It's just these quick thoughts that mostly we, not aware that are happening. And we don't pay much attention to them because they don't seem very problematic. It's just like a sound arising passing.
So one time on a self retreat, I just started noticing some of these quickly passing thoughts. And it reminded me of an experience that I think is common to many of us. If you know that moment, sometimes when you first wake up in the morning and then if you don't just jump out of bed, you might just go back into a dream state for a minute or two and then wake up again. When I was watching these quickly passing thoughts, I realized that was the same experience.
It was like when these thoughts come and we are unaware of them and we're not aware that they're there, it's like we're going along mindful, mindful, mindful. And then one of these thoughts passes through, not aware of it. In the moments of that thought, it's like dropping into a dream state for those few months. And then it's like we wake up in a very mindful again.
So when I noticed this, then I began to just look a little more carefully at the content of those very seemingly innocuous thoughts. Again, these are not the big dramatic ones, these are just the quick ones, the light ones. But what I saw was that the content of these thoughts very often revolved around some sense of I am. Maybe it's just a quick thought of a plan or a judgment or a like or a dislike.
So I realized that by not paying attention to these many quick thoughts, to the many light thoughts, I was dreaming myself into existence. Because each of those moments of unaware, it was like settling back into the dream. And even though they were quick and light for each of those moments that the mind was lost in them, the mind was being reconditioned in one way or another. It was having an effect, but because it wasn't obvious, it was ignored.
So then it became, for me, it became a lot of fun. So just going through the whole day, I set the intention, okay, just keep an eye out for these. And it was just so interesting. Many times, because I set the intention, I actually could catch them and be aware that they were there.
And then of course, many times I missed it and just was aware as I came out. And then realized, I was just lost in a 30 second dream, in and out. So it was very engaging for the mind and very liberating because it was freeing the mind from a lot of these small moments of I am. And so again, there was that taste of the selflessness of freedom from that.
From am to is, dreaming oneself into existence. The next two reflections around selflessness really have to do with the relationship of craving and desire to the sense of self. And I think in one sense it's quite obvious, when we're caught up in craving or desire, there usually is a very strong sense of I'm wanting something. So that sense of self is usually very strong in moments of craving, which is why I've got the whole talk on craving and the end of craving and how to really touch that.
So two kind of reflections that in some of which were transforming in my practice, they arose in some of my self-retreats over these last couple of years. So in one trade, I was just sitting and one of the teachings of the Buddha, which I had read countless times and you're probably very familiar with it. It's just one line that arises, it appears a lot in the different suitors. It says, whatever has the nature to arise will also pass away.
And that's a statement that sometimes becomes the song of enlightenment. When people get enlightened in the suitors often they will say, and I realized that whatever has the nature to arise will also pass away. And it's sometimes that teaching prompts awakening. So people hear that and people try it once.
Just listen, take it in. Whatever has the nature to arise will also pass away. Okay, so I was just sitting, I was on retreat, sitting in the meditation. And that thought came to me.
But it came in a different way. You know, instead of my reading, that seems clear. Rather, that thought, whatever has the nature to arise will also pass away. Because it arose in my mind while sitting, it actually became part of the sitting.
And the implication of that understanding that whatever has the nature to arise will also pass away is that there is nothing to want. So whatever we want will also just pass away. And this was applied specifically in this context to the meditative process itself. You know, so the other night when I was talking about the craving for becoming and how that creeps into our meditation, we were kind of leaning into the next moment thinking that somehow we are here.
But as it becomes this somehow will be resolved, not realizing there's just another next moment that will also pass away. So to drop this right into the middle of your sitting, you're in the process. But in the flow of things arising and passing, you might call this phrase to mind, whatever has the nature to arise, right in our meditative experience, whatever has the nature to rise will also pass away. There's nothing to want.
And in that moment when my mind really groked the implication of that, because everything is going to arise and pass away, there's nothing to want. I could feel the mind drop back just for a few moments into not wanting, not wanting anything, not wanting the next moment, not wanting more concentration, not wanting to be more mindful, not just not wanting. And that was an amazing moment. That was really a taste even briefly of the third noble truth.
You know, the Buddha talked about suffering as a first noble truth of Dukkha, the cause of Dukkha which is craving, the end of Dukkha which is the end of craving. So before I had, I was undertaking my practice with the idea that yeah, maybe in 30 years or five lifetimes, I'll reach the end of craving. It was like a far of goal. And I could understand it, but it seemed quite distant.
And then at a certain point I realized, yes, the final eradication of craving might take a couple of weeks. But we can actually experience the end of craving for a moment at any time at all. We can actually taste it, we can touch it, we can feel it, we can experience it. And it's really profound.
There's nothing to want. And you can just feel the mind, it's like that, it just drops back. It drops back into peace. You can say it drops back into emptiness.
It drops back into selflessness. It drops back into openness. It drops back into not wanting. So for me, that was really, it was a moment that has stayed with me and I use it in my practice now.
And just from time to time, I remind myself that I feel that connection to the experience of not wanting. And in that not wanting anything, there is no I am at all. There's no sense of self at all. It's really a moment of peace.
It's a moment of completion. Even though it's just for a moment or two, it's real. And so I would really encourage you to play with that and to touch that. And it's not hard to do.
It's just remembering. So in the same vein of experiencing the selflessness of non-craving, of not wanting, I'm not leaning forward, I think it was mentioned either this morning or yesterday, I think it was Bart mentioning the lump of foam. So the Buddha gave five images for the different aggregates, which comprised the mental physical phenomena. So we called the bodies like a lump of foam.
There's not foam rubber, foam on water. And then as I mentioned, they had been feeling with bubbles in the stream. Perception is like a mirage. Mental, mental formations are like a plantain tree or a banana tree.
There's no core to the trunk. The trunk is just concentric leaves. So when you go to the center of it, there's not a wrap. The center is empty.
And then consciousness is a magic show. So again, I had read these images many, many times. But I always took them, in reading them, I would take them as just similes and the description rather than an instruction. One of them is one retreated.
It came to mind because I had read it so often. So I took it as an instruction as was suggested this morning because sometimes images are very powerful. And so I'd be sitting, feeling the body, just feeling the flow of sensations in the body. And all of the body is like a lump of foam.
And that was just what it felt like. Just the bubbling of different sensations, arising, passing. But again, there was a further implication. And that is that the body will never be anything else but a lump of foam.
So there's nothing to want. So often I've seen in my own practice and with many, many, so often we're feeling the sensations, feeling them so that they become this. We're feeling some tension, so the tension releases. We're feeling some tightness or unpleasantness so we can open it up or whatever.
Whether there's tension or not tension, it's still a lump of foam. And it will always be just a lump of foam. And when I realized that, just through this image, the whole system relax. There's nothing to become because it's not going to become anything different in that respect.
So in the same way as with, there's nothing to want because whatever eyes will pass away, the feeling of the body is just a lump of foam. And this is the nature of the experience of the body. We don't need for it to become anything different than it is. Because whatever we think, it should become, is still that same old lump of foam.
It had that same effect of just the mind dropping back into not wanting. The reason I'm emphasizing all of this so much is that I've just seen so clearly that craving for becoming right in the meditation practice is so strong. And it's just some wanting of something. But that just keeps us bound on the wheel of changing phenomena.
And the freedom is in not wanting. The third noble truth, the end of craving, even if it's four of your moments. But we can touch that, we can taste it and feel the peace of it from am to is dreaming oneself into existence. There's nothing to want.
Another place where the I am becomes very strong is in our attachments to our views and opinions about things. We have views and opinions about almost everything. And to a large extent, we have views and opinions about things we know nothing about. But it does not stop the mind.
So I'll just tell you one story of this. And it was so striking to me. And it was incredibly freeing when I realized the tendency towards this attachment and clinging to views and opinions. So this goes back to when I was teaching at that first summer institute of Naropa in 1974.
And that was like a Buddhist woodstock. It was like the first they were gatting of several thousand people. It came from all over the country and different parts of the world. And Ramdas was teaching and Trampol Mpichay was teaching so it was this big, spiritual happening.
It was quite amazing. And I was teaching meditation at that summer school. In fact, the whole, this whole Baphasana momentum started right there from teaching there. People then just invited us, oh, when you come to the teacher retreat in South Carolina in Wisconsin, just all over the country.
And it was a very kind of grassroots unfolding. So I was teaching at the moment and there was a visiting Tibetan lama, one of the great, great Tibetan teachers, Dujam Rinpichay. He was the head, he was the head of one of the great lineages and revered really as a great enlightened master. And I saw a poster for a talk that he was giving.
And somewhere on the poster, it said Dujam Rinpichay, and I'm not sure I'm quoting it exactly, but the basic message was in coronation of sauroputra. Now sauroputra was the chief disciple of the Buddha. And only to the Buddha is awakening and enlightenmenters from the terravada, Burmese understanding our hearts, enlightened beings, are not reborn. So I saw this poster and it's like my mind went on tilt.
Because on the one hand, this is a great enlightened being in coronation of sauroputra. And on the other hand, that's impossible. So sauroputra wasn't reborn. So then, in that state of how to hold this, I came to a startlingly clear understanding, which is, that I had no idea what he was, the incarnation of sauroputra or not.
I really didn't have a clue. All I knew was that Burmese think this is impossible, but the Vedans say, well, he is. So to realize, two things, to realize that I didn't know, and that I didn't have to have an opinion about it. And before that, I could easily have gotten into some big, dormant argument.
Oh no, that's a part he definitely said. How often do we do that? We get caught up in our views and our opinions and get into all kinds of conflicts. And sometimes it's about things we may know a little bit about, but very often it's about things we really don't deeply know.
We've just been conditioned to have a view, in opinion. It's so freeing to be able to say, I don't know. And that I don't have to have a view about what I don't know. Again, it's the loosening of this contraction of self, my view, is my opinions.
Kind of a corollary of this, which is a little different, but in the same vein. Strong sense of self can arise, especially in situations of some conflict where we're attached to being right. Right? And that's what's fueling our energy.
Well, in this situation, I'm right. We really pay attention to those moments, because even if one is right in some particular context, the attachment to that I'm right is a contraction. We really are narrowing ourselves and contracting ourselves, and it makes real communication impossible. So I would just pay attention to those situations and see if it's possible to let go of that sense, that attachment to being right, and I think of some expression which somewhat involved in spiritual circles, would you rather be right or be free?
And in those moments, if you pay attention to the difference, it's a no-brainer. Okay. So perhaps the subtlest hideout of the sense of self, the one that's the most difficult to see, is with our identification with consciousness itself, with awareness itself. Because with practice, and many of you have been practicing a while, and I think probably have a pretty good sense at least at times, that different sensations come and go, and thoughts come and go, and even big emotional dramas come and go.
We begin to get some sense of these are all impermanent in their flow and maybe get a sense of their impersonality, that they're arising out of conditions and passing away. But mostly, I think we have the sense, well I'm the one who's knowing it all. I'm the one who's observing it. And in that identification with knowing, we have created the witness, we have created the observer.
So it's challenging and interesting to begin to play with ways of cutting through the identification with knowing, with awareness, with consciousness. And there are a variety of ways of doing this. And the different techniques of methodologies for cutting through, you know, this subtle identification with the knowing. Different traditions have different techniques for it.
So one is just a framework of understanding, and this is really comes out of the past and the teachings. And I've talked about this in some of the groups, that in every moment of experience, just two things are happening. There's knowing an object, no one of the sight, no one of the sound, no one of the smell, it tells you the thought. And so life, and really what we're calling self, is just this pairwise progression moment after moment, knowing an object, knowing an object, knowing an object, knowing an object, breathing in, in breath, knowing the in breath, breathing out, there's this sensation of the breath, and then knowing of it, with a rise, the no, no, before, the no, in every moment, that's all that's happening.
There's the knowing, and the object of the knowing. And so when we settle back in that understanding, then we can settle into just this flow of knowing an object, knowing an object, knowing an object, realizing that there's no one behind it to whom it's happening, who we are is this pairwise progression. And in fact, this is what life is. Our whole life is this in the teachings of a past and this understanding, this insight, is not is not a it's not some deep esoteric truth.
This can be understood and experienced quite early on in one's practice. So it's very accessible. It's just having the understanding maybe to begin to frame your experience in this way. Notice how in each in each moment, whatever the experience is, a thought, a sound, a sensation, breath, that whatever it is, there's the knowing in the end, knowing an object, knowing an object, knowing an object.
That gives, this is called, this insight is called in this tradition, purification of view, because when we're eating that experience, we see that there is no self behind it. It's not happening to anyone. What we are is this process. So this is one very direct way of experiencing anata.
So there's another way also. And as you hear all of this, just to the extent that you can remember any of it, I really offer it as just, you know, exploring in your practice, whichever one of these or several of them, you know, resonates or feel interested in, really apply it, because the only value of this will be in your appliance. It's not just in hearing it. Okay, so another experiment which I really have enjoyed doing, is to be a thought experiment.
And I began to value the power of thought experiments when I read a recent biography of Einstein, by Walter Isaacson, and it was a great book. And he describes a lot of his amazing discoveries. He wasn't an experimental physicist, he was a theoretical. His insights all came as thought experiments, you know, and then the mathematics around it.
So I had my own little Einstein moment. And maybe a little book. But it was something. So in the teachings, in the Abhidhamma, it describes what the conditions, what conditions are necessary for the arising, for example, of sea and consciousness, for hearing consciousness.
And so it's a very clear description. These particular causes are there, conditions are there, then sea and consciousness will arise. So for that to happen, it's said we need four things. We need an eye that is in working order.
We need light. We need attention. And something has to come in our field of vision. So if those four conditions are there, sea and consciousness will arise.
We'll know the site. The eye, light, attention, and something. Of course. So I was just walking around the loop.
And I was just playing with my mind, as I like to do. So I just made the experiment. I was sitting as I was walking. I was just sitting.
So I had the little thought experiment. Well, would I be sitting if there was no light? I just took different conditions away, knowing in my mind. No, if there was no light, I couldn't see anything.
Or if there was no eye, I couldn't see anything. So right in my moment, and just for that moment, it was so clear the conditioned nature of consciousness, that consciousness is not something that's always there. Moment after moment, and very, very rapidly. You know, consciousness is a rising person.
A rising person depends on conditions. You take a conditional way, that particular consciousness is not going to arise. And so again, it cut through the identification with consciousness as being eyes, being self, as being mind. It's just the result of these conditions.
Take a conditional way. It's gone. You can try it. It's the same thing with the hearing consciousness.
It's the same with all the senses. Okay, now we're shifting gear to how this could be approached from another tradition. Just want to back up a little bit. In meditative experience and in different traditions, consciousness or awareness is described in different ways.
So in some traditions, it's really described as this momentary arising, passing, arising, passing as I described. In other traditions, awareness is described more as a field. And sometimes in the instructions, you know, you might be using that kind of language. Things are rising in awareness.
As if awareness is the field in which things are happening. So these are just different, you could say metaphysical descriptions of the experience of awareness. And it reminds me somewhat of how light can be described as either a wave or a particle, depending how it's observed. So rather than getting caught in one is right and one is wrong.
It's just sometimes we have the experience of awareness of being a field. Sometimes we have it really seeing the momentaryness of it. In both cases, and the reason that distinction is not that important. In both cases, the necessity is to find some way of not identifying with it.
So that becomes in some sense easier if we see the momentaryness, because that's clear. It's just a rising passing moment after a moment. It's a little more difficult to not identify with the field, but there are ways to do it. And there's one very famous Zen exchange where, you know, Bodhidarma was the great master who brought Buddhism from India to China.
And he was just living in his cave and facing the wolf for nine years. And then this guy, this pronunciation may be wrong. It's spelled H-U-I-K-E. So in Hweka, my Chinese is a little rusty.
But he became the great disciple, Bodhidarma. So Hweka comes and is tormented. He's just in a lot of suffering. And at first Bodhidarma just dismisses him, but Hweka's just really, please, please help me.
So this is the dialogue. First, it's just a few lines. The last line is a moment of realization, but often people hear it as a Zen witticism. And so it kind of exceeds it in a way, the humor or whatever.
Don't listen on that level, because it's saying something very profound. So try to listen to it on that level. So Hweka comes to Bodhidarma and says, you know, I'm in so much suffering, please pacify my mind. And Bodhidarma says, show me your mind and I'll pacify it.
And Hweka says, I've looked for it everywhere. I've looked for my mind everywhere and I can't find it. And Bodhidarma says, there, it's already pacified. So right there, and this is also in some of the Tibetan teachings, in the So Chen teachings, one of the exercises they have people do is to look for your mind, can you find your mind, you know, and you look for it, there's nothing to find.
And as one of the great Tibetan teachers said, the not finding is the finding. That's what's to be realized, that it can't be found. So sometimes having, you know, really use that little dialogue, a use that in my practice. So especially when I'm caught up in something, you know, and the mind is just upset in some way or other.
I'll just be mind myself of this. You know, can I find my book? There's nothing to find already pacified. And at this point, I just need to use that short phrase already pacified, because I'm so familiar with the dialogue already pacified.
It's amazing just by realizing the unfindable, selfless nature of the mind immediately in that moment, we can rest in peace. So there is a technique or exercise that I have found really helpful highlighting this aspect. And that is, in the course of our practice, usually, I'm only talking about a linguistic construction. Usually in our life and our experience, we language it to ourselves in the active voice.
Under this, I'm going there, whatever. There's a subject, a verb, object. At one point, I started reframing experience in the passive voice. And I did this particularly in the walking.
So I was just walking, you know, and instead of the sense of I'm walking, it just, I reframed the way I was experiencing it through this passive voice, sensations being known. Like this. So it's not I'm knowing the sensations, sensations being known. So there's a lot embedded in that.
First, that linguistic construction of the passive voice takes the subject out of the picture. It's not just being known as soon as we drop into that perspective. It's already the sense of self is gone. It's just all its various sensations being known.
And then I was doing this so much with revealed in that, in the course of a simple step. Just play. If you move your arm for a moment. And just with that frame, just feel the sensations being known.
It's effortless. It's completely effortless. There's no one doing anything. They're just being known.
And the different sensations of the movement are being known perfectly and exactly not a moment before, not a moment after. It's just being known. And so then going through the whole day within this framework became so useful. It was just throughout the whole day.
It was just different things being known, arising being known. No one's there doing anything. So if you like, for me, this completely changed, particularly the walking meditation because the movement is so clear and obvious. And, you know, so you're just walking in the sensations of the movement being known.
It's very easy to get into that framework. So if it interests you at all, you know, I would just experiment with that and play with it. And at whatever point, it just becomes natural and useful. You know, too.
There's nothing special here. You don't have to, there's nothing you have to kind of look for. It's just, it's just things are being known. It's so simple and so useful.
So if you do decide to play with it a little bit and you drop into that place of ease with it, then you could ask for the question. And once you're just in that rhythm. Okay. So there's just sensations of being known and then you drop in the question known by what?
And just known by what? There's nothing to find. So this is the great mystery of consciousness. There's nothing to find and yet the knowing is happening.
It's quite remarkable. You know, and just what's so interesting is that it's so easy to go through our whole life and never even be investigating just this very basic aspect of what it means to be alive and to have experience and what consciousness is. And our whole practice just opens these doors. So the Oistrian philosopher, Wittenstein, he had a great line about this, which is very relevant to our practice.
He said, the sense of a separate self is only a shadow cast by grammar. The sense of a separate self is only a shadow cast by grammar. Our language so conditions are understanding. And that's why just the simple little play, going from act to passive voice to grammar changes, the experience changes.
And it really is a doorway into understanding the empty selfless nature. Of our lives, everything, the experience. I can't let her retreat go by without mentioning my favorite story of the Big Dipper, which I've been talking about for the last 40 years. So you know, the Big Dipper is up in the sky.
I'm not a serious old story. Clearly, there's no big dipper in the sky. It's a concept. We see a certain pattern and we put concept on a Big Dipper.
Okay. When we realize that there's no Big Dipper, that is just our own mental construct, does anything change in the sky? Everything is exactly as it always was. You could think of the concept Big Dipper as being analogous to the concept of self.
The concept of self is a construct. There is a certain pattern of mental physical elements. We see the pattern just like we see the pattern of stars. We put a concept on itself.
I, this is me. But in realizing that it's just a concept, everything's exactly the same. It's just we're seeing it differently. We're seeing it more clearly.
And so then we operate in our lives from a much wiser place. So I'd like to close with two little teachings that both from Tibetan teachers. One highlights the importance of understanding that even though we say the depth of our practice or the deliberating power of it is to see and understand the selfless nature of it all, that experience is not happening to anyone, but rather what we call self is the process, this changing process. But it's also to understand that on a relative level, we can use the concept of self.
So it's not that the conventional way we understand things and the way we language things and where we talk to one another on that conventional level, it's fine to be using this notion. So this little teaching points to that. It's not that you're not real. We all think we're real and that's not wrong.
But you think you're really real. You exaggerated. So I like that because yeah, we're real in the conventional way that we all know. And that's fine.
But we have to get to that other place and realize we really feel in that way. Okay. And so this last piece is from Dokkansi Rinpoche and it points to the connection between the realization of selflessness and love and compassion because these two are intimately related. So he said, when you realize the true emptiness of phenomena, you will spontaneously feel an all embracing compassion for all beings who are immersed in some sorrows' ocean of suffering because they cling to the notion of an ego.
This troublesome ego, this sense of self, which is so concerned about itself, has in reality never begun to exist. It does not exist now. And so it cannot cease to exist. That's all thing.
It's not there in the first place. So it's not something we have to get rid of. Not the slightest trace of it can be found. When you recognize this empty nature, therefore any notion of there being an ego to dissolve vanishes.
So it's not that we have to get rid of it. And at the same time, and this is the line that just chew, and at the same time in realizing the selfless nature, the energy to bring about the good of others dawns, uncontrived, and effortless. And I find it's just such a powerful and resonant teaching. The more we let go of this self-centeredness on the most fundamental level, that sense of I am, the more we let go of that we'll see through it.
The energy to bring about the good of others dawns uncontrived and effortless. So this is our practice. This is what we're doing here.