Again, my thoughts are with the Dalai Lama and those fighting to re-claim Tibet from China. Therefore, my spiritual theme for this weekend shall remain in Buddhism, The Tao, Zen, The Om, etc. I have taken the following message from the 1 1/2 minute video and the YouTube description:
Anytime we form concepts or beliefs about what the world "really is," we are already practicing negationism. We are negating the direct experience of reality by substituting a thought in its place. We are negating our own experience by confusing it with a concept of experience.
Whether we call it God, Brahman, Nature, The Void, Buddha, or Nothingness, reality is not affected by our concepts of it. Only we are affected. We become confused when reality contradicts our concepts of it. A great deal of conflict and suffering arises from this confusion.
If Nature is everything, then Nature is nothing, because everything is not a thing. All things depend on other things for their existence, because a thing that has no relation to other things is nothing at all. But if Nature is nothing, then it is everything, because nothingness is infinite.
Zenless Zen must say "neti neti," which means "not this, not this." Reality is not everything, it is not nothing, it is not both, and it is not neither. It simply is what it is. It has no need of a name. The Tao that can be told is not the true Tao. It is only a Tao of convenience.
Spiritual liberation is not about magic, super-powers, superior wisdom, or any other ego-based motivation. It is about waking up to the emptiness of all concepts, and the concept of a separate self in particular. We do not become "one" with the Infinite. We become none with it.
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