The Emptiness of Zero

Perhaps it might help if you realized that those “other people” are suffering just as much as you are. (Prejudice and intolerance are really just the outward faces of deep fear and insecurity.) Would you not offer them the same kindness, compassion, and understanding that you would want for yourself?

For me, the way of the Buddha is to follow the path of truth. And in the light of truth we see the emptiness of self. And in the emptiness of self, we see the emptiness of anger and fear (not that they don’t still grip you by the balls). But you go on one day at a time, and in practice (of the Buddha way) the ocean of emptiness washes over “you” again. And I find that in the Truth of the moment the way of understanding and compassion is realized.


Many years ago I did a bit of simple arithmetic. If I set out to “get even” with those who wronged me, then considering all the “wrongs” that modern society confronts us with, I would have to spend most of my life getting back at people. Since I could see little joy in a life filled with vindictiveness, I decided it would be better to just move on.

No Chance

You have a choice to make. You can either have your questions answered or you can practice meditation. One or the other. If you choose to practice meditation, then you shall have to dump all of these questions into the trashcan: watch them come and watch them go – boom.

Secondly, if you try to have your questions answered you will be throwing away one of the greatest opportunities you can have: to learn about the truth with a fresh, unprogrammed mind. You would be giving up the chance to see the Truth as it presents itself, just as it is, learning about it, discovering it like another “world” just found. And this is the best way of seeing it – in fact, really the only way of knowing it.

No one can describe this to you because they would only be telling you their version of what they experienced, in words far removed from the actual experience itself.

And then, should you find what they told you, you would not be realizing the truth, you would be seeing just what someone told you was the truth. How could you know it was really the actual Truth or just the tale you had been told?

Knowing the highest truth is not like being a tourist with a travel brochure – be sure to catch the aurora borealis as you enter the infinite. It is a path of discovering yourself, your true self, and no one can tell you what that is like. That is something you will just have to find out.

Have patients and compassion for your self in your practice. It’s worth it.

Family Matters

Early in the 70’s, after I had had some profound experiences while practicing Zen, I sought out compatriots with whom I might take up residence – to find a mutually supportive group to practice with.

While I learned of, and visited several Zen Centers, they were all founded upon the protocol of the residents being under the dominion of the teacher. But, upon interview with said teacher, frankly there were several gaps in their understanding that even I could see (I’m trying to put this politely). Thus, I found no refuge in these sanghas.

Finally, Suziki-Roshi’s collected lectures were published. And, after reading them I felt that this would be someone in whose Center I might find refuge. Eagerly, I turned to the back of the book to see where he was located, only to learn that he had died a couple of years earlier. Although, I have dropped into the SFZC from time to time, I have somehow never had that same feeling about the place. I do have a lot of respect, though, for the place and what they are trying to do.

I’ve learned a lot from my successes. But, I’ve learned just as much, if not more, from my numerous failures.

The dharma reveals itself just as much on the path of the common man as it does the saint. Your only job is to witness its unfoldment while you traverse that path. Loving kindness, compassion, these must include your own self.

The Buddha Way is not something that we attach ourselves to, like it was a rock. It’s really more like a way to remind ourselves of our true nature. And it’s in the truth of the self that Way is lived.

The Meaning of the Eternal

My journey with art began about 40 years ago when, as a child, I received my first drawing set. My deep interest in practicing art, however, has been subsumed by an even greater interest in the path of my spiritual practice, which is Zen. Thus my life has been a mixture of these two, sometimes coinciding, sometimes colliding. Sometimes I manage to do one or the other, sometimes both, and sometimes neither.

My greatest joy is in working with oils. However, given the demands on my time, my production of pieces over the decades has not been numerous. It’s been more of a slow steady work. I use traditional painting techniques, but shun formalist stylings.

Owing to the very spiritual nature of my work, I prefer to begin my practice of art with an invocation. It goes something like this:

Dear Gods and Goddesses,
Angels and Muses,
Of Art and of Painting.
Please bless this work today.
Please bless this studio,
Please bless these tools and materials,
Please bless these pieces,
Please bless this Artist and this activity,
And please bless this website.
Bless us with talent and ability,
Bless us with strength and courage,
Bless us with wisdom and knowledge,
And all the other wonderful things that you so generously give.
Thank you for all that you have given in the past,
And for all that you will give in the future.
It is very appreciated.

Can Do

I would just like to say that as we grow up we find that there are some things we can do and that there are some things that we are just not cut out to do.

Sometimes we are not cut out to do exceptional things like being a pro athlete, and while we might harbor a lingering dream throughout life about how great it would have been to be/do such and such, quietly within ourselves we know that it just wasn’t going to be and we learn to be ok with that, we’ve learned to accept ourselves as we are.

But, sometimes the thing that we are not cut out to do is something that almost everyone else does, something so commonplace that most people take it for granted as being a normal part of life. And yet, for whatever reason it’s something that we cannot do. And the sooner we face the reality of our situation, the better off we will be, because then we can get on to dealing with the parts of life that we are able to work with.

Happily for most people, they can have a few drinks and then say that’s enough. A few might frequently get shit faced, perhaps out of boredom or because they are disgusted with life or themselves. Let’s face it, facing the challenges and disappointments of life is not easy.

A Dozen Less One

Well I’m glad you got your priorities in order the message I hear is: Buy, buy, buy.
So much of today’s pop music reminds me of the backdrop for commercials, I don’t know if I’m hearing a song or a commercial.

Do you get to read Drogzen poetry on the air? Do you get to play your favorite Tibetan chants?

Yeah I know, entertainment: This is the entertained generation. I would bet that the only sensibilities that the artists you listed have, are no sensibilities.

There is no deeper guiding light in their lives that illuminates their direction in life. Thus they have no other recourse but to echo the same business line: Buy, buy, buy; have fun; don’t worry if your life seems empty and void of meaning; you can always get more stuff.

I just don’t see much difference in government (whether its Republicrate or Demorican) and big business. And frankly, I don’t get this “eco<-->dialog” thing (nor the “capitalist<-->commie” thing, for that matter). Do you sincerely believe that the majority of the media do not put out the basic message that business wants us to hear?

For me it’s about deep listening. Listening with compassion, hearing the pain that another may be in. Listening with patience, knowing that we cannot solve their problems for them. Listening with encouragement, that their greater reality will shine forth in their life in the way that they understand, in the way that they need.

I guess for some people religion is their path to the Highest Truth. For others, religion is the path that Highest Truth takes to enter our hearts, our lives.

As a younger man, I admit, I had dreams of saving people, helping the world. And I thought: if only people lived The (Buddha) Way, how much happier they would be. How foolish I was.

Now, not necessarily any wiser, I just try to treasure each person and their vision of life that they have for themselves. Prajna is a greater wisdom that I shall ever possess, but perhaps it’s in the beauty of our foibles that we are lead through its grace.

The Transformation

A big part of your problem here is that you seem to be working with a number of people who have quite a few prejudices, about both life and people. Apparently, they have this idealized vision of what life and people are suppose to be like, and whatever doesn’t fit in with that vision is wrong.

Such people believe that we are all suppose to have a body that works a certain way, that we are all suppose to have productive lives – preferably with jobs, I imagine – and that we are all suppose to live to be a certain age. And whatever doesn’t meet their model of what life and people are “suppose” to be like is viewed as being less than normal.

Perhaps some think that not being normal is just a tough break, while others see it as being bad, or a punishment from God (because of sin) or from Karma (because of evil done in a past life). But, they all have the same vision in mind: this is not how a person is suppose to be. And, as I say, such a view is prejudiced, short sighted, and narrow-minded.

There are several different situations that I would like to talk about briefly. Some mention people born with handicaps and jump on the “punishment” bandwagon right away. Whereas I can think of many good reasons why someone might be born with a handicap. For instance, someone who is just embarking upon a series of human lives might be frightened of such a momentous undertaking, so they might prefer to watch life from the sidelines just to get the feel of it and to see how its done. They might choose to be just cared for, feeling that they are not ready yet to leap into action.

Or, another person in the similar disabled situation might have led a former life that was very active – perhaps having done many beneficial things – and may need to take a break and lead a much less active life. They might still want to be around but unable to do much – a sort of forced vacation.

Another person in the same situation may have spent a good part of a former life caring for others and may want a life where they are the one being cared for, for a change.

Another might have so much energy, ambition and drive that they need a handicap to slow them up.

I don’t see any of these situations involving punishments from a previous life. I see them as showing that people have free will to lead the lives that are important and meaningful for them. And unless you hold up an arbitrary ruler to them that says they must be this way or that, they seem like very acceptable, valid, worthwhile lives to me.

You see, when you have the option of having more than one life, you can choose to devote a life to a great and challenging learning experience because in the next life you can do something completely different.

Some inevitably mention the case of the little boy who died too young. Please understand that not everyone wants to grow up or grow old. Again, this may have been someone who is just getting the feel of what physical life is about. They may have just wanted to test the waters and then get out and evaluate things before going for a longer life.

This may have been someone who came to deliver a message, perhaps to the parents. Message having been delivered, the child may not have wanted to stay around, with all the great work that life requires. Who knows, it may have been a very important message for all that it involved.

This is my own story from when I was in a similar situation. (I have memories of several of my lives. A number of them were in the Far East.) After several lives in succession in which I was a samurai (really, little more than a poor gangster with a sword), I really wanted to have a life of wealth and position, so I arranged to be born to a rich nobleman.

My father dotted over me quite a bit, he loved me tremendously. While I had all the toys to play with that a child could want, as I went along I could see that I was being groomed to be in the position of a nobleman. I could see that I would be playing a role in life; in short I would have very little freedom, always having to curb my activities to conform to my position of nobility. True I would be wealthy, but I would not be free.

At about eleven years old I bailed, I couldn’t go through with it. My father had bought me a pony. I went out riding, got thrown, and my neck was broken, I died instantly. I did not consciously try to die; it was an accident that just happened. (Still, in this life I am uneasy about horses.) I was the heir and my father was utterly heartbroken to have lost me. I felt very bad about the whole thing, but I just couldn’t go through with it. I am truly sorry for the grief I caused him. But, so you see, there may be many reason why the young shall die when they do.

If you believe that we are only these egos that inhabit fleshy containers, then I don’t think you will able to appreciate a deeper truth. But, if you can allow that we are more than these little egos whose identity we assume temporally as we take on physical life, then you must allow that this greater personality may have greater purpose for its human life than just making its ego happy.

And this greater overall purpose might include accepting challenges that are difficult, unpleasant and undesirable. Situations that no ego would want to choose, but would grow from, to become a greater person through the experience. Rather than think we are being punished when bad things happen to us, I think that it is a call to look deeper into our lives.

Sometimes we are just stopped from going further on a particular life course because we may have lost the thread of what is important for us learn in our life. Sometimes we have drawn situations and events to us that cause us grief, and we need to reflect upon our actions to understand how we are causing our own misery. But we have to allow for pain that a greater good might flourish. Some us have to go through the winter in our life in order to find the spring. I think that if we would have faith, it would be that we can and will rise to the challenges that we face.

Some of us are working with superheroes. Those people who have taken on some of the most difficult challenges that one can take on in human life. And not only must they battle with the limitations of their physical condition. They must also battle with fear, regret, self-loathing and rejection. The realm of the mind. And this is where the true battleground is laid, because their own ideas are the ones they must face and win over.

This is the heart of Buddhist practice: to realize your karma, those ideals that you cling to, and to realize the truth of freedom that transcends your little ideas. And so, for your clients, the karma that they need to transcend is not their physical limitations, but the limitations in their minds. Those ideas of selfworthlessness that they are clinging to are what bring them so much pain.

I don’t means to explain all of the horrific situations that we find on this planet. I have just been trying to give you a few examples of the greater dimensions of reality that might contribute to a few particular situations. To show you that you mustn’t presume that someone’s past or future is due to any blind payback mechanism churning out punishment.

I would say from my own experience, that when you realize the Highest Truth, you don’t experience something menacing vengeful or cruelly /coldly metering out merit and demerit. Rather, if you are open, you realize that which is profoundly beautiful, wise, and supportive. Beyond comprehension as love is beyond comprehension. Nurturing in its outlook, and understanding in its grace. Our penchant to explore every aspect of our rightful freedom, and its loving acceptance of our choice to do so, does not test it, but only bestows greater wisdom and compassion to its beauty.

The Five Reappear

I find the aspirations expressed by some authors congruent with the tradition of Theravada Buddhism view of anatta to be quite to the point as a response to the continual repetition of the “there is no self” message.

However, it has been my experience that what some are discovering is the phenomena of emptiness. And believe me, this is very powerful ju ju.

I would like to explain it this way, if you would indulge me. There is really no solid, tangible, physical world. What we perceive are atoms and molecules dancing around. Indeed are physical bodies are made of this stuff.

But really, atoms and molecules are made of even less tangible stuff, little sparks of electricity, if you will, with lots of empty space in between these little charges. In short, we are perceiving a physical reality which is really no more that a show of energy dancing on a stage of emptiness.

When, through meditation practices, the mind has been calmed sufficiently, and you let the dialog of thoughts drop away, to not rise again, then one begins to experience the physical realm as it really is. That is, you become aware of all this empty space within which the dance of the electricity of atoms occurs. The awareness of this emptiness is quite palpable. And you can be aware of it within your body as well as outside of it. One has the distinct awareness that their body is empty.

The other thing that occurs when the mind is this calm is a bit more like a psychological trick. As human beings we are very used to seeing ourselves, perceiving ourselves, as solid physical forms, not as emptiness. So when suddenly one is aware that their physical form is empty, then their ordinary view of their self is interrupted. In fact it seems as if there is nobody there.

That is, the body is perceived as being empty, as if there is nothing there at all. And the perception is then, that there is no self there. (This psychological trick is helped immensely by the mind being calmed. Because the normal flow of thoughts is interrupted, there is no longer an I/me dialog going on that one can relate to as being the self either.)

In Zen we talk about no-self and no-mind. And what we are doing in these instances is affirming this phenomenon, that there is this perception of no self and mind. And this is a very beautiful, free and wonderful way of living.

But then, we also talk about big self and big mind to affirm that there is more than meets the eye, as it were. And that is the other side of the story. Because the awareness of no-self doesn’t mean that there is no self, it just means that the self is not what you thought it was. And realizing this true self; ah!, there’s the rub.

Nine Protections

“Are we discussing Buddhism or is this just a game of one-upmanship?”

I give this a 3 out of 10, but your enthusiasm is good. Please keep trying.

When you “know” Reality, it is no longer “knowing”. It becomes something else. It is, then, becoming.


“abstinence is one of the truest forms of sexual morality”

Buddhism is not a do-it-yourself kind of thing.

This is the Jack-in-Box of Buddhism. May I have your Koan please? Life reveals itself in due course, me’ bucko.


“based upon and mired in duality is a samsaric being trapped in samsara.”

Interesting, but how do you know all this. How can you be so certain that your not Buddha, and what you see are your projections upon him?


I do have a very simple type of temple bell hanging out in front of my little cottage. (I got it at a clearance sale for a great price.)

But, I can only think of how the neighbors would feel if I was out there ringing away, at midnight, one hundred and eight times. I don’t think that I would be on their best-friends list for awhile after that.

Awakening together would be an apt phrase.

I would like to add that yes, it is very important to my own practice to make uncertainty a byword with what I learn. That is, in the sense that: Yes I have experienced this, but perhaps there is more to learn about it, more to know, perhaps I am just seeing my own baggage. Thus I practice to know it. Open to whatever is revealed to me, yet thinking that it’s not the answer, but that which, for the moment, I realize.

Undifferentiated Terrain

I guess our experience is a little bit different from one another. You are saying that your experience of true-self is that it is everything, and everything is it. This is frankly, not my experience. While I would not say that true-self is something separate from everything, I would not say that it is everything either.

In the emptiness of this no-self that you have found, what is there? Is it just awareness? Is it the everything that you mention?

In the midst of this nothing, is all that you find merely the awareness that is undifferentiated in its ceaseless knowing? In the precious moment of all, is there nothing that survives, and if something does what is it? You are a gifted, but is your vision only of the emptiness of concepts and the blackness of conception-less?

The true self that I write about is neither the self that is no-self, nor is it the self that seems to be that which is everything. Nor is it the self that comes with the knowing of pure awareness, nor is it other.

My gift to you then, is merely that which you may be aware of within the emptiness of the moment, the truth is not other, nor the same, nor is it hidden. That is the most I can say. And if this is already “apparent” to you, please then, excuse my presumption into the pristine-ness of your knowing.

When there is that which, known as true-self, is realized, the way floods forth into one’s life. And the emptiness of conception-less is illuminated by the light which appears with the knowledge of the unseeable. That which we know every day and every moment that manifests in this that we call life.

Nexus Point

I heard the pain in his voice and gave him a venue to express it. This, to me, is what practice is about: Witnessing “objectively” what arises in our lives, letting it speak without judgment, but with compassion. And in the light of the present moment, that which we fear is seen anew.

I seem to have touched a nerve with the unintended keyword “beliefs.” It was not meant to be a reference to any Seth ideology – merely my trying to put into the words that others can relate to, my own first hand experience. I was trying to say that what you love, what is meaningful and important to you, brings to you the situations in your life that you find yourself in.

The credo “your beliefs create your reality” is a very volatile issue for many, I realize. And I am not inclined with the energy to parse its meaning here and now, for it is so complicated. I prefer to use my time urging others to realize That which is “beyond” their beliefs.


"For some strange reason people imagine that there is a self and Buddhism will help them get rid of it. The truth is the opposite. Buddhism teaches that there IS NO SELF (Annata) and therefore no need to get rid of it."

While you might find the experience of no-self an interesting one, alas that is just a part of the story, as it were. When you discover the other bit of the truth – the true-self – you will find more than just an interesting experience.

Knowing true-self is not only recognizing the “no-self,” but also realizing that of the self that, in it’s great transcendental wonder, sees beyond the momentarily appearances, into the depth of reality (all the while, knowing the physical world in all it’s wonder). Then, in this moment of revelation, All is known as it is, and the true self is known, as it is, as well.

When there is no-self, what is there? When there is no-mind, what knows?

It is a way to live. The way is to realize Truth as you live your life. And to practice the Buddha way is to realize Truth.

Nine Stanzas

Back when I was a young artist (I paint), I had enough talent to do what I was trying to do, but my work didn’t always turn out well because I did not know the science of painting. In fact, I didn’t know there was a science behind a the art of painting

To my great fortune, however, the Muses had sympathy for me and led me to the knowledge I was lacking. It turns out that there is an ancient science to painting, which is all but lost. Brief glimmers of it sometimes surface in the art schools, where otherwise it is barely understood.

However in several old art technique books, I found some clues to this lost science. And then, tucked away on a few pages in one book, I found laid out the simple rules of how a painting is constructed. And with my deepest gratitude to the “Fifty Secrets of Magicraftsmanship” by Salvador Dali, I would like to mention them here.

I know because of your great interest in music, and your plans to take up a career in the industry that I thought I would share these with you, for whatever benefit they might have for you.

To begin with you must have a background that is extremely luminous, but not too glary. The paint is placed upon the canvas in layers and this background will shine through the layers, illuminating them from within.

Then as we build up the layers, we must follow a certain order: you go from lean to fat, from the insubstantial to the highly defined, from large shapes to the smallest details, from the dark to the light. And each of these layers must compliment that which comes before and that which comes after. Never repeat the exact same color from one layer to the next, always choose another (usually similar) color that brings out the life of the previous layer’s color.

I really hope that you won’t be offended if I take a few liberties with your rap and use it as an example to illustrate the application of these ideas. (Obviously, however, I am no musician so I’m sure that you could do much better.)

Just going casually through your rap, I would say that the background idea that shines forth is “metta”.

The metta is real (could be the luminous ground)

Next come the big, vague, raw concepts:

A misguided youth
A decrepit school system
Everything destructive in this world
Scared of what u might find,

Then come more concise ideas.

Help my mates
Feeds his illusion of self
See round is violence and drugees from cocaine to speed,
Quit before it's too late
In a terrible state, fueled by their inner anger and hate,

Then come the details:

Chains of a self-made hell
Fueled by anger, regret and hate

Truth times Nine

Samadhis, Savikalpa with Nirvikalpa. Savikalpa is Awareness through the senses (sensory perception) minus the "I" / "Other" duality, whereas Nirvikalpa is Awareness pure and simple.


It has been my experience that this is a continuum.

It appears that I have a much more broad categorization of what thinking is than you seem to. While I certainly don’t want to put words in anyone’s mouth, it seems to me that perhaps one’s understanding of what a thought is has mainly to do with what I would call the internal dialog.

I do not limit my categorization of what thinking is to just that mental phenomenon. This is because I found that after I discontinued the internal dialog, and went further and discontinued holding onto attitudes, I realized not just no-mind and no-self, but also the emptiness of the environment in which I dwelt (as well as the emptiness within this body). For instance, I would hear the emptiness in the space around this body, and sounds coming from other objects echoing through this emptiness and enlivened in these ears.

But I also found that one could go further. I found that there are thoughts even more subtle than those previously mentioned ones, thoughts “of the world” you might say. To be fair, some might call these kinds of thoughts beliefs. And I need to qualify here that I am not referring to either philosophies, or those intellectual affiliations that some would call their beliefs.

Instead, these were much more general: like a thought, or belief, that there is a world, that there is this which we relate to as life. These were not thoughts that were verbal; they were very hard to pin down as being in a location. But, I sat one evening and began to discontinue holding these thoughts as well. -- Talk about the space between thoughts -- The whole world “disappeared” with the emptiness that then I had only begun to realize and explore.

I guess one could refer to This (emptiness) as awareness, but that amounts to saying that the ocean is wet. It conveys very little of the great dimension of wisdom, light, effervescent knowing, and greatly profound respect and love for all, whether they realize “this which is” or not.

(By the way, these “subtle” thoughts that I am referring to here are not what were writing about earlier. I agree that I would not use the term “subtle thoughts” to describe that phenomenon which some prefer to call “knowing”, and I have termed “transcendental thinking.”)

Forecast

Although I was able to live 24/7 for several months – some of the most beautifully memorable months of my life, so far -- I have been unable (or reluctant is probably more the right word) to again return permanently to that way of life.

The reason is a bit complex: I feel that if I were I to live that way 24/7 again, my life would feel so complete, in a sense, that I would have little interest in going on any further with this life. But, since I still have unfinished business to take care of in this lifetime, I choose to stay here to complete my work (and I believe that it is important to do). And as yet, I don’t have a way through this conundrum. But, who knows what life has in store for me next?

So you see, I have had both sides of the coin: the easy side and the inattainable side.

Therefore, I have had a choice to make: live the Way 24/7 and then, that’s when I get that feeling of: “So what (I’ve done this), and I don’t really care to go on with this “game” very much anymore”; Or, I can continue playing the game that I’ve got going here, keeping myself amused with my just-so interests (and not thinking about, or remembering, that I would just as well like to be going on with whatever it is that follows after one realizes the Way. Ha ha.)

And it seems that I am doing this out of trust. Trust in something greater that keeps me going here, and a trust because of what I’ve learned in past experiences. Because in the past, I have found that when things aren’t going the way I think they should be (as in, I should live the way 24/7), and even though they might be bleak, difficult and not what I want at all, it turns out, frequently, that those were the situations that, in fact, were appropriate to have been in. And this is also where I learned some of the best and most important stuff that I could learn. This is where the rubble turns into gold, as it were.

I’ve come to the, at least, temporary conclusion that it was never intended that I come here and live the life of what we think of as a Buddha. But instead, I came here (among other reasons) with the goal of helping other people with their challenges in living the way. And, to not do this from the perspective of someone who has all of the answers, or by being some kind of teacher. But just as someone who can testify, from their own personal experience, that yes there really is a Way, yes you can live it, yes there really is a doorway through which you can go. And at least that little bit might be enough to help someone to go on.

Day and Night

Even when there is nothing worth living for, you will find something worth doing.

To try to fathom the true meaning of any aspect of the Buddha’s teaching is going to be difficult without full realization of the transcendent truth. These teachings then, remain signposts to help us along the way, as I suspect they were meant to. With the revelation of transcendent knowing and the wisdom that abides with it, then these matters suddenly fall into place. Without this we are just probing in the dark hoping to strike virtue.

When this most intimate knowing of the basic truth is realized, then in that moment this teaching suddenly becomes clear (clear as a shining bright light). And in that illumination the way is clear to fully grasp the teachings while “holding onto” emptiness.

I have been through the same experience myself. And fortunately, I was able to go 24/7 at the time. (This was some time ago.) Currently though, I have been exploring “deeper terrain,” as it were, and not 24/7.

Back then, I didn’t use quite the same methodology that some describe. Although I must admit that for several years prior to “awakening”, as part of my training in the field of the graphic arts, I did routinely stop “thinking” and just look at what I was drawing or painting in order to see the thing as it really was.

However, when I started practicing Zen, I just stopped holding onto the tensions that some describe as preceding a thought. (And I did this continuously, till I was doing it 24/7, as it were. (I did take time to sleep.))

The nice thing about the 24/7 is that once you are there, your whole perspective about reality changes, so that you see life from the standpoint of emptiness. And all things become not just the appearance of themselves, but are seen more in their fundamental nature.

And yes, it can be very easy.

By the way, once you are 24/7, you can still read, reflect, and think. But, the experience of thinking becomes one that, when you have a thought, (but before you (your body) takes the time to think it,) you have already let it go.

It becomes then, more like you “knew” what the thought was (just like you know what a car is, although you don’t name it) about whatever idea was before you. Thinking, then, happens on a transcendental level. It is a very interesting experience. (I just wanted to mention this so some don’t worry that they must give up all intellectualizations in order to do 24/7. Though it may seem, temporarily, that you are doing so, until you get settled in with it, as it were.)

Alas, over the decades I have found it frustrating to try to communicate ideas, similar to these, to an unreceptive audience. After a roundly rejected manuscript, and articles rejected by Tricycle Magazine (The incredible thing is that the editor wrote in the rejection notice that my article was passed around the office and read with great interest by everyone -- but they did not want to publish it.), thankfully we at last have the internet where these topics can be discussed more freely.