This ’sight’ usually evolves, like awakening. Deepens, broadens, etc.

Depth is probably a good word for this. Going deeper is probably also a good phrase to use, as long as we understand we are not actually going to a ‘different’ place in order to find something.

We could imagine the awakened person as a painter, and the action of painting – using paint, brushes, and other tools – as the natural functioning of that organism (the painter).

Let’s say the painter has five colors on his palette. With those five colors, he can do almost anything; there is no lack of any kind, and great experimentation goes on with those five colors.

Then one day he discovers by mixing other colors together he can have far more than five. So there is this added depth, although nothing has actually changed. It does not necessarily ‘enhance’ the beauty of his work, but there is a new way of expressing what is already present. I don’t want to call it a new option, because the ‘new’ color was always there. But perhaps through this experimentation, something new can take place.

Perhaps that is what we do with these conversations; we mix our paints together to experiment with a new color. And although the color might be ‘different,’ it does not change the functioning of the painter.

Really, this more comes back to how can one know? Consciousness itself is embedded with what we might call senses. What becomes physical senses. From what I have understood, in the evolutionary journey of awakening, everyone gets the gift of “inner sight”. There are many names for this. It shows up much like awakening – it just happens. Sometimes with awakening, sometimes before or after.

This ’sight’ usually evolves, like awakening. Deepens, broadens, etc. It can become a trap as it’s thought to be “truth” in some way. And it can get in the way of awakening. We like to think experiences tell us what awakening is but awakening is beyond experiences.

Do I actually know that everyone gets this? No. But clearly some do or there would not be stories of it. The teaching tells me it happens due to refinement of the nervous system. While that is certainly related in terms of clarity and depth, it does not point to why one person and not another. Nor why one person sees certain aspects while another sees others. I can suggest explanations, but that is just concepts.

I have not thought about it this way before. Interesting.

But I can say it is possible for some to see ones history, before the apparent boundary of birth or death. It is possible to remember a prior death. Or not forget it. It is also possible to see that the physical universe is but a coating on a much larger, richer place. It is possible to literally see life and consciousness on the surface of things, lighting up the world. That under the “veil” our world is place of astonishing beauty, something many open a bit to here and there. It is possible to see the universe from the outside. To see the vast reaches of being beyond the universe. Consciousness, That Thou Art, is bigger than all these things. They are contained in that, thus it is looking within.

The life must still be lived. But the context changes considerably. Death is no longer feared when the continuity of life is experienced. We can be humbled by the vast richness and diversity of life. We can be awed by presence, right on the surface of mundane objects, trilling to our attention and touch.

Is it important to see all these things? No. Just something else to let go of. What is important is waking to who you are, underlying all of that. That which is without death. That which is everywhere present.

If these things are not seen, perhaps it is to avoid distraction from what needs to be seen. When it is seen, then perhaps the breadth of what is can arise. But I’m guessing. (laughs)

In that sense, one cannot look at deaths that may have occurred as a reference for what will happen then.

Certainly. After all, there are a million ways one might kick the bucket, if we are simply talking about the physical death of this organism. But that outward death is all we can see.

Someone dies and we can only look at it from the outside. We are not there with them, in the sense of physical death, so our seeing is very limited when we attribute ideas to what may come next for them.

It is the limitation of the idea, which is not the actual death or dying. We may say that the soul does this, or consciousness plays this or that role, but how can we know it? Certainly, others have told us, and for whatever reason (which we might get into later), we believe them without questioning the whole thing.

Takuin has changed his being and there is no longer something holding on…

We both mentioned above that nothing really carries over. So we might say that this is a kind of ‘living death,’ though not in any morbid sense. None of this has not stopped through will or force, or through a desire to change; it is just the capability (of holding on?) seems to be missing.

The most simple (and superficial) question might be, If it doesn’t carry over now, why should anything carry over at the point of death?

It is superficial because we cannot know the answer to that either. There is a tacit assumption that it will not carry over after death, and in these investigations we cannot assume even that.

The only thing we can sit with is this functional living death. It is clear and unmistakable. We could also look into the systems of thought created to protect us from the finality of death. If we go into that deeply and completely, we might find there is no real mystery about this beautiful thing we try to hide from.

If Takuin is changeless, will death have any meaning?

Death has the same meaning as life in that there can be no separation between the two. There may be a long stretch of years before one actually dies, but even so, death cannot be separated from life.

But I guess by meaning you are speaking more of the person that feels they are losing something. That death will strip them of all they are and all they have accumulated. It is meaningless in that sense because life is meaningless in that sense.

We spend our lives wanting to finally know we’ll be alright after death. We want to know everything about it. But we never ask anything about living. We are so concerned with our inevitable dying that we cannot live in any meaningful way.

But really, it seems Takuin is always changing, but at the same time, no-one is changing.

And as I write that, I wonder why this arose. But I’ve found that if it arises, it’s usually worth writing to be read…

I have not really thought about it, but that seems to be true. If there is any difficulty at all, it is in finding the ‘right’ colors to paint the landscape.

Some days are better than others

In that sense, one cannot look at deaths that may have occurred as a reference for what will happen then. (laughs) If Takuin is changeless, will death have any meaning?

while I agree that much of what we hear about death is a story (mainly due to that personalization thing ), I disagree that we cannot know death.

Well, it all depends on what you mean by know, consciousness, and so on. But that is too big for this little space at this moment. I may pose this topic as a question for the teachers next month. It will probably do well for everyone.