Karma Builder: Today's Karmic Workout – Hold The Center Of The Universe In Your Hand
Karmic Muscle Group: Awareness & Destruction Of Superstition
Today's Exercise: Hold Center Of The Universe In Your Hand
Sit comfortably in a quiet place. Get your breathing under control. Take long inhales and equally long exhales. Get your body fully aerated.
Pick up your object in your hand and look at it. Notice that it is separate from the rest of the universe. Or is it?
While looking at the object consider these questions:
Why does you mind consider the cup and its contents to be two separate things when it does not do the same for other similar objects. A watermelon holds water but we see it as a single thing. Consider that the cup and its contents are one thing and only your mind distinguishes them, quite arbitrarily as two.
If the contents can be part of the cup, then why not all that is around the cup? Is not your hand part of the cup? It is physically attached to it. Many things like your body, for instance, are composites of many substances and yet we consider them to be one thing. How a thing is attached does not make it separate, does it? It is only our mind that separates. Separation in not inherent in the nature of the universe.
Is not the air, too, part of the cup? It is touching it. Why does it matter that ceramic is not air. Molecules are molecules. All matter is really just a single matrix of physical existence. Do the atoms in the air know that they are not part of the cup? Or does our mind simply distinguish one set of atoms as "this" and another set as "that" as a way of dividing up a atomic sand pile?
If all the atoms are linked together, then the cup is the center of the world and stands in relationship to other planets and celestial bodies. Are they not, too, part of the cup? An atom is mostly empty space. Surely, empty space is part of the atom and, hence, empty space is part of the matrix, a single matrix, of atoms. Only our mind carves out of this matrix the Earth, the Sun and the Moon. Hence, the cup is the center of the universe. Does it matter where it is positioned in the matrix? Core is core.
Sit in contemplation of the cup as the center of the universe for five minutes. Study its connections to all things. Notice that your eyes, at first, see distinction, but as you think about it, those distinctions start to disappear. Notice you mind chewing on what you see trying to divide it into separate things. The entire universe is fluid, a single mass of atoms and space. And what is an atom? Energy and space. And what is energy? There is not much in your hand, is there?
Training Note:
Our consciousness plays tricks on us. It makes us think that we are objects separate from the rest of the universe, but this perception is arbitrary. Distinguishing things from one an other is purely a function of cognition, but has no fundamental necessity as far as physics is concerned. We might say that a group of atoms that are arranged in a particular pattern in close proximity to one another is a "thing", but the fact of the matter is, that it is just a grouping of energy and space and the pattern is strictly in our mind. How we slice and dice our environment from a point of perception is purely a function of choice and those choices are not always in our best interest.
"Me" versus "you" is divisive. "We", on the other hand, is a start at more accurate description of our natural state. This slicing and dicing of reality is the the foundation of delusion and the bedrock of all human suffering. Understanding that form is purely fictional is difficult to do because we have such a long habit of mentally fabricating form. Step outside of this habit and your mind is truly free.
Karmic Benefits:
Understanding Fundamental Sameness: when you get mad at somebody, the joke is on you. It is like the left hand thinking that the right hand is bad. The truth is that we are all part of a single phenomenon and spend most of our time trying to encapsulate and insulate a notion of self thinking it will make us feel better. It usually makes us feel worse. It justifies our disdain for "other" when there really is no "other" except in our minds.
Freeing Your Mind From "Self" and "Other": ego is the root of suffering in human consciousness. Every single thing that has ever caused you to feel bad can be traced back to the "me". When you think that you have been treated unjustly, the "me" is insulted. When you have been cruel to others, the "me" separates from the "other" to justify cruelty. Your ego has turned you into a victim and a jerk simultaneously. Step outside of self and you step outside of suffering.
Getting To Know The True Power Of A Mind Not Limited By Appearances: the world of appearances, distinctions and separation is a trap. You may think that you are not part of the universe that kills, smells bad or beats its children, but when you separate yourself from these phenomenon, you isolate your ego from the whole. You lose your ability to impact the whole and become at odds with it. Consciousness is far more flexible than that. It can move about the matrix at will because it is one with all of it. For now, it is enough to understand that there is no "you". In the first place, where would a "you" live? What gland secrets your "you-ness"? Maybe you just carved out a chunk of the matrix and stuck a name on it.
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Today's Exercise: Hold Center Of The Universe In Your Hand
Estimated time: 10 minutes.
Tools: a tea cup or glass that you can hold in your hand.
Location: any quiet place. No phones or devices present.
Sit comfortably in a quiet place. Get your breathing under control. Take long inhales and equally long exhales. Get your body fully aerated.
Pick up your object in your hand and look at it. Notice that it is separate from the rest of the universe. Or is it?
While looking at the object consider these questions:
Why does you mind consider the cup and its contents to be two separate things when it does not do the same for other similar objects. A watermelon holds water but we see it as a single thing. Consider that the cup and its contents are one thing and only your mind distinguishes them, quite arbitrarily as two.
If the contents can be part of the cup, then why not all that is around the cup? Is not your hand part of the cup? It is physically attached to it. Many things like your body, for instance, are composites of many substances and yet we consider them to be one thing. How a thing is attached does not make it separate, does it? It is only our mind that separates. Separation in not inherent in the nature of the universe.
Is not the air, too, part of the cup? It is touching it. Why does it matter that ceramic is not air. Molecules are molecules. All matter is really just a single matrix of physical existence. Do the atoms in the air know that they are not part of the cup? Or does our mind simply distinguish one set of atoms as "this" and another set as "that" as a way of dividing up a atomic sand pile?
If all the atoms are linked together, then the cup is the center of the world and stands in relationship to other planets and celestial bodies. Are they not, too, part of the cup? An atom is mostly empty space. Surely, empty space is part of the atom and, hence, empty space is part of the matrix, a single matrix, of atoms. Only our mind carves out of this matrix the Earth, the Sun and the Moon. Hence, the cup is the center of the universe. Does it matter where it is positioned in the matrix? Core is core.
Sit in contemplation of the cup as the center of the universe for five minutes. Study its connections to all things. Notice that your eyes, at first, see distinction, but as you think about it, those distinctions start to disappear. Notice you mind chewing on what you see trying to divide it into separate things. The entire universe is fluid, a single mass of atoms and space. And what is an atom? Energy and space. And what is energy? There is not much in your hand, is there?
Training Note:
Our consciousness plays tricks on us. It makes us think that we are objects separate from the rest of the universe, but this perception is arbitrary. Distinguishing things from one an other is purely a function of cognition, but has no fundamental necessity as far as physics is concerned. We might say that a group of atoms that are arranged in a particular pattern in close proximity to one another is a "thing", but the fact of the matter is, that it is just a grouping of energy and space and the pattern is strictly in our mind. How we slice and dice our environment from a point of perception is purely a function of choice and those choices are not always in our best interest.
"Me" versus "you" is divisive. "We", on the other hand, is a start at more accurate description of our natural state. This slicing and dicing of reality is the the foundation of delusion and the bedrock of all human suffering. Understanding that form is purely fictional is difficult to do because we have such a long habit of mentally fabricating form. Step outside of this habit and your mind is truly free.
Karmic Benefits:
Understanding Fundamental Sameness: when you get mad at somebody, the joke is on you. It is like the left hand thinking that the right hand is bad. The truth is that we are all part of a single phenomenon and spend most of our time trying to encapsulate and insulate a notion of self thinking it will make us feel better. It usually makes us feel worse. It justifies our disdain for "other" when there really is no "other" except in our minds.
Freeing Your Mind From "Self" and "Other": ego is the root of suffering in human consciousness. Every single thing that has ever caused you to feel bad can be traced back to the "me". When you think that you have been treated unjustly, the "me" is insulted. When you have been cruel to others, the "me" separates from the "other" to justify cruelty. Your ego has turned you into a victim and a jerk simultaneously. Step outside of self and you step outside of suffering.
Getting To Know The True Power Of A Mind Not Limited By Appearances: the world of appearances, distinctions and separation is a trap. You may think that you are not part of the universe that kills, smells bad or beats its children, but when you separate yourself from these phenomenon, you isolate your ego from the whole. You lose your ability to impact the whole and become at odds with it. Consciousness is far more flexible than that. It can move about the matrix at will because it is one with all of it. For now, it is enough to understand that there is no "you". In the first place, where would a "you" live? What gland secrets your "you-ness"? Maybe you just carved out a chunk of the matrix and stuck a name on it.
Share Your Experience:
Leave a comment when you have completed the exercise.
Enter your email address to subscribe to TLB's Daily Karmic Workout:
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