I initially started this site as a place for me to figure out how to talk about enlightenment, for lack of a better word; the space and expansion that ocurred in this body in December of 2006. I am getting by just fine, as far as expressing what is here. And now I have a regular vernacular of sorts that I use for my posts. It seems to be effective, and I do not receive many e-mails to further clarify what I have written.

But now that I have achieved, more or less, what I set out to do, I am thinking of new ways of presenting material on Takuin.com. I have received some nice suggestions, over the last few weeks, on what I might want to consider adding to this blog. For example, a beginner’s series of articles, and a static home page that lays out more of what this site is about, etc.

If someone finds there way here by accident, there is very little for them to latch onto at first. I just write, with no thought of how it is received. But if there is a beginner’s series, or at least a more comprehensive About page, it might make a first time visit more palatable.

So this post is to ask the advice of the readers of this site. Is there anything that you would like to see here? Is there some information that might help round out this site even further? Something more I should include, or perhaps, something I should consider removing? Just send a comment to let me know.

Any advice given will be accepted with gratitude. I appreciate the time that is spent here by all of you, and I look forward to writing more and more. I am excited to hear any suggestions you all might give.

I’ll be away from the blog until Sunday or so, and I’ll see you all when I return.

Takuin

If you must live in a world of thought, at least go about it in a way that is pleasant for everyone. Search for the best technology and most reputable resources, find out about the functioning of the mind, and live in a way that is beneficial for everyone in this world.

I talk about surrender and emptiness that comes from this “enlightenment,” for lack of a better word. But I also realize that most people are not interested in what is here. They are more involved in the day to day, petty activities of the self. They might say they are interested in emptiness, interested in some mystical state of being, but all they are really interested in is playing around with it.

And you know what? That is fine.

I have no idea that someone is right or wrong in what they do. All I can express on this site, is what is in this organism from moment to moment, nothing more. I know at times, I use language that might seem to be aimed at some person doing “wrong,” but that is not at all the case. Questions and answers arise in this organism, and that is what is being expressed. It is the fault of written text of any kind; you cannot always be sure of the tone, or intention, of the writer.

But if one must live in thought, it might as well be something that is beneficial to everyone. If it feels right for you to do, then go for it. Take some action that can allow the best fragments of yourself to surface and stay there. Smile as you enter every room, and leave when your presence is no longer needed. If asked, help anyone you can. Help them find their own worth, so that they might do the same for others.

Although your brilliance will be limited, shine as brightly as you can.

The world around us is a land of beauty. From the highest mountains down to the smallest speck of dirt on your shoe, it is all there for us to see. The greatest silence can be found in all of those things.

Enlightenment is everywhere in the world, but it is hidden in the most ingenious of places. Living in this freedom is like living in an unknown land. There are signposts, various locales, and endless faces, but you cannot know any of them. They come and go as you pass through the night. The physical body is there, but illusion is not.

Built in to the physical organism, is this enlightenment, this thing that brings to everything and nothing. It encompasses all, but captures nothing. It is already within.

But also, within the organism, is the search. The search for this enlightenment. But it is defective. It is like a cruel game played on us by our older sibling, used to lure us out, drawing our trust through our naivety, never showing the true source of what is sought. It is just a game, and we gladly waste out time, thinking we are spending it with our best friend.

What the searcher does not know is every thing it seeks is left at home. All the time we spend seeking, takes us further from what we seek. It is a cruel game that follows us to death, and we never realize how long we’ve played.

For a moment, just for a moment, imagine that there is nothing at all to seek. In fact, there is not even a searcher. You are just this organism that you are, with no idea to the contrary, Thoughts come, and thoughts go. There is never a need to hang on, or grab them for fear of losing them. They are what they are, and you have no desire to control or stop them.

You have your memories; you know your first grade teacher’s name, your current phone number, the date of your birth, and maybe even the starting line-up for the Boston Red Sox. This is all knowledge, and that is all it is. It comes and it goes.

There is also another kind of memory; your “soul-mate,” the man or woman of your dreams, has cheated on you. Your grandmother died suddenly before there was a chance to say anything. Your best friend killed himself when you were thirteen. These are all memories as well, but what part do they play? How are they used in the mind? These are the ones you like to think about, and they give the self some weight for its own continuity. These events seem to make your experience unique, and unparalleled. It is a way to separate yourself from others so that the self continues to dominate.

My girlfriend cheated, and now I can be pitied.

My grandmother died, and now I can be loved more by other relatives.

My best friend killed himself, and now I have a reason to suffer. I no longer have to invent anything.

We spend our time here. We find reason to be pitied, and to pity our own existence. My self needs attention, and if I have a crisis, I can get it. It is all about what can be acquired. But what if there is no self there? If there is no searcher, how are these thoughts received?

My girlfriend cheated. Now I know I am better off without her. How else could it have been shown to me so clearly?

My grandmother died suddenly, and it taught me to appreciate every interaction with other human beings. The next time is the last time.

My friend killed himself, and it teaches that logical conclusions cannot necessarily be expected to occur. The time spent together was grand, regardless of the ending.

These thoughts occur, they are seen, and they retreat on their own. I don’t have to run after them, because they are always in there somewhere. There is no need to attach to them.

Thought might tell you that something else should have happened, but please do not believe it. What happened was the only thing that could have occurred. The moment you want it to be different from what it is, the destruction begins. Humanity no longer needs to live in this way. Stab me, shoot me, throw me off a cliff, but don’t make me believe my thoughts. That is the only real pain in this universe.

Don’t ask the question “Why?” The fragments that appear through that question are monstrous. Your friends have left, or are dead, and you are gone or dead right along with them. You cannot express the light that is there within you. It is stifled through your thoughts of what should be. Let them go, and express what is left over. The world needs more like you, and you cannot be there if your time is taken up by all the ghosts in your thoughts.

Let go and live. Live for the expression of living, and live for those that can no longer do so.

Go until you are gone.

All events, all occurances, all things we perceive to be outside of the self, are a blessing. They bring to us the teaching we think we might find through the words of another. But reality is such that we will always be our own best teachers. No one can give us the freedom that happens at each moment.

It is a strange set of actions that we take through the course of our days. As an example, we have an argument with our significant other. We are filled with rage or sadness, or whatever. We ignore it, repress it, or bully the other person into agreeing with us. When our ego is satisfied, we let it go. Then, we go to the zen center, or the church, or on our own pillows to meditate, trying to free ourselves into liberation. But why is that separation there? Why do we argue and push it away?

The argument is the real event. It is better than any teacher walking the earth. Sit in the argument while it is there. See what is happening without any thought of good or bad. See reality when you are right in the middle of the violence of thought. Don’t wait until later, when your ego is placated and the self feels better. That is all so hypothetical.

Whenever you feel negative emotions, whenever the self is threatened, whenever your identity is challenged, that is when the teaching begins. Not when you are off somewhere sitting on a cushion.

There is also another separation in that problem. We feel that meditation is something that is done apart from regular living. But why? Meditation, meaning - this exploration, IS life. There is no separation there. If you think that meditation is something you do in addition to daily life, then you are just playing with it. It is a game, and the results will demonstrate that.

See that today, at every moment, is the entirety of life. You go to work, you talk on the phone, you have sex, you may or may not meditate, whatever the case may be. Whatever you do, at each moment, is all there is. There cannot possibly be anything more.

If one is capable of seeing, really observing, then all that is, IS, all that is. It is not a big mystery. Just take a look, and see it for yourself.

As I write this, I am sitting in a room that is filled with clocks. They are all ticking at different moments; precise moments. There is no space that is free from this sound. Does the mind work in the same way? The mind is filled with noise, and the slow death of psychological time.

Constantly, every moment in the mind is filled with something we think we need, or something we think we should become. Or perhaps, “This event happened, but it shouldn’t have.” It is within these projections, this ticking of time, that we spend our lives.

There is time that we can see by the calendar. There is yesterday, today, and tomorrow. We can make appointments, learn where it is we need to go, and make the necessary travel arrangements. All of this is necessary.

If I am going to fly to Boston, I need a plan to make it happen. I have to be at the airport in time for the check-in and for the flight. This is all very simple and easy to understand.

There is also something else we perceive as time; the space between where we are, and what we think we should be. “I am this, but it would be better if i were that.” It instantly causes a separation.

We cannot reconcile, for whatever reason, with what is real. So to give a sense of being better than we are, we project a future that is more to our liking. Instead of seeing the reality of what exists within, we run away and project something “better.” Reality is destroyed by thought in that process.

Being something “better” gives us false hope, because we think we are becoming something that is better than what we are. But really, we are always what we are. There is no becoming and nothing better. We fool ourselves into thinking that we are somehow transitory, and moving toward the better takes us away from what is now.

Again, I am not saying don’t make a plan. If someone is extremely over-weight, and they want to have a better chance of living a longer life, then make a plan and lose weight. Go to a doctor that specializes in these things, or go to a specialist in nutrition or a personal trainer. Whatever it is, see a solution and take action. But if you are extremely over-weight, why would you ever think you shouldn’t be that way.

“I am fat, but I should be thin.” Really? Are you thin? No? Then you shouldn’t be thin. Why shouldn’t you be? Because you are not.

Once you say that reality shouldn’t be the way it is, you shatter your mind. You create another fragment. Why do you think it should be any different from what it is? “So if I am fat, I should just tell myself I am fat, and live with it?” No. If you are fat, whatever that means for you, and if that is a fact, then that is all there is. If you could see it for what it is, you would not say one thing about it. Why should you?

If the sun is overhead, blazing in the sky, why should you think about it? It is there, and that is all. “But what if it is hot?” Then go inside. Make an adjustment. Why must we waste so much energy over these things? If something needs to be done, then proper action will be taken. But proper action can only come from seeing what is really there; not your projection of it.

It is only possible to be what we are, from moment to moment. And since the moment is all there is, there cannot possibly be a projection into the future.

I am not talking about visualization, or any other technique involved in goal-setting or physical performance. Those are valid methods of physical progression. I am talking about the idea of a projected future, covering up what is real. In the physical world, changes take time, but in the mental world, there is no time needed.

Have you experienced this within? Have you seen precisely what is there, without running away from it? Why do we have such a fear of what is there? We refuse to see the greed and the hate, the selfishness and the violence. We can point it out in others in a split second, but we cannot sit with it in ourselves for even a moment.

The only meaningful change in life, is change on an individual level. By “individual,” I mean from person to person. There is no change through becoming. Change requires no time, and “becoming” requires all of it.

It is like turning on a light; the change is instantaneous. But you might say, “I have a light that gradually becomes brighter. Every time you click the knob, it gets one level brighter.” There is no “gradually becoming”. True, every time you click the knob, it might change, but that change is the “now”. There is no level; there is only the brightness that is there. You cannot see it, because you only focus on an imaginary “maximum brightness” that is not there.

There are no levels of anything in the mind. It can only be as it is from moment to moment. If you want to learn something, attaining knowledge, then go out and learn it. Find a reliable resource, and take action. But if you want to learn to free your mind, or to be “enlightened,” then forget it. It is hopeless.

If you try to free your mind, what exactly are you freeing it from? Or you want to be enlightened? Enlightened to what? Enlightenment implies a state that is somehow different from others; the enlightened person has “it,” and the others don’t. The very term enlightenment is a separation. The moment you search for it, you have separated yourself from others.

You assume there is some other state to be had. But there is only the state you are in, and nothing more. There isn’t even a state, there is just being.

Why would you ever go anywhere else to have that?