The wind blows, and Takuin might ask, Can you observe the wind as it is? Or what about the physical reactions of your body to the wind; how it may react to the heat or the cold of it? Do you feel it? Does this arise naturally within you?
This is not an exercise. It is not a test for you to somehow lose yourself during the observation of the wind. There is nothing for you to gain here.
It is all so simple, but do you have to be in-charge of even this? Can you feel the wind without your desire to feel it?
Your mind is taken with what you would like to have instead of what is. But this is your doom, isn’t it? If you hope to observe the wind in order to free yourself, you will only observe your thoughts of freely observing the wind. It is your translation of a thing that needs absolutely no interpretation.
You observe when you think it is a good thing to observe. And it is a good thing to you because of the goodness you hope to receive from it. Stillness, goodness, oneness, liberation; are these merely the result of greedy actions or deliberate activity?
Why can’t you just be still and observe? Not observe because ‘Observation will set you free,’ or some other glorious thing you hope to coerce out of your attempt to freely observe. Can you just be still, even for one minute?
It may be a fact that never once in your life have you felt the wind touch your skin. At least, not without your interference.
The wind blows, but is it really there at all?
{ 16 comments }
“Why can’t you just be still and observe?”
I feel like you’re asking me that question personally. My answer? I don’t know. There is this incessant interpretation filter, always there, always judging, never quiet. Me, the mind, telling lies. It never stops.
You’re right; the wind has never touched my skin without my interference. I want to ask how to get rid of the interference, but I know it’s pointless. No “how” is there. Great post… few words, but so deep.
Thanks Mike.
DON’T ASK!
You say you know the how is pointless. But is your knowing also a HOW?
Yes. Yes it is. Nevermind then. One day I’ll say, “Takuin, I’m done.” Thank you.
On that day, I’ll stick you with a fork. Haha…
Thank you, Mike.
“If you hope to observe the wind in order to free yourself, you will only observe your thoughts of freely observing the wind.”
So I must desire to free myself from desire. Another koan. Sigh…………..
Eric,
Go to the beach. Go to a forest. Go to the mountains. No matter where you go, there you aren’t.
It seems that without my being in the present moment, I’m limited by my expectations of how the wind should feel and memories of how I remember it. Being present for the wind without attachment is the key.
“Why can’t you just be still and observe? ”
Stillness is Presence?
Thanks Dan.
Let’s not translate this into another description. It may turn out to be true in the end, but don’t start with a conclusion in mind.
Stillness may be Presence. We could probably end up with those words after a long discussion. But your next move, after the discussion, will be all important. Will you try to be still? Try to be present? Will you waste your life trying to be something you think is better? (I do not mean YOU personally, Dan.)
It is not that you shouldn’t try; otherwise you’ll just be taking my word for it. If you do try, look to whatever arises within you, and don’t let it hide or escape into a safe corner. The only thing you can really do is be aware of how you are functioning, so it isn’t necessarily a matter of finding anything new, if that is the right word.
Very beautiful picture and post. The ego mind takes pleasure in labeling and categorizing everything. So the fact that many of us have never felt the wind without any mental filter is very possible. It is kind of sad and this is written without judgment for life is to be experienced without “you” getting in your own way.
Thanks, Nadia. I am finally learning to use my old film camera, and I got lucky with that photo.
It must seem so difficult. The self cannot reduce itself in the sense we are speaking of here. It is still self-centered activity strengthening itself in a slightly different way. But the seeker still tries in order to achieve.
Curiosity may be helpful. If one goes into this with no outcome or conclusion in mind, it may be beneficial. It is like seeing a rabbit in the woods; you might follow it just to see where it goes, but you don’t expect to get anything from it in the end.
If one follows the mind in the way they follow that rabbit, something vital might arise.
I see others struggle with this needlessly. Even if one says, “It is all so simple,” many times the seeker will try to be simple. Or if one says, “There is nothing to do; nowhere to go,” the seeker tries to do nothing and go nowhere.
I think many people know this goes on within themselves. But why does it remain? Even in the face of this absurdity, why does one stick with it?
I think I see the point you are making but I find it curious.
It’s like the idea – ‘if a tree falls in the forest and no one is there to hear it, does it make a sound?’ Of course it does. Thinking it does not is rather human-centric, like I am the only one here. The world is full of astonishing life, including the wind itself.
So of course the wind plays. But I fully agree. There is much advantage to just experiencing the play as it is. Not making a story about it or reacting. Just being with life, as it is.
The profundity of it is astonishing.
I was referring to our interference in these things. The wind does play, or it does whatever it does with or without us. Just like the tree falling, the waves rolling in, or whatever. Ah, I think we are saying the same thing now that I re-read your comment. I didn’t go deep enough in the post, it seems.
It is interesting because this freedom cannot really be explained as solidly as building an engine or putting together some physical object. There is nothing to capture it. A listener might try to put it together to understand it, which I suppose is fine, but once they hold tight to it, and set it up as the right way to be, it is more trouble than it is worth.
Although I have probably written, or tried to write, some physical understanding of liberation, it is certainly nothing to be believed. And to be absolutely honest, I have no ideas or beliefs about it. But it seems the seeker starts with belief and can never quite shake it. This may arise out of their natural understanding of the physical world; how things are put together, how to interact with the physical, and so on; and they try to use that understanding to break through to their solid depiction of liberation, which is in no way a physical structure.
For example, a seeker might have the idea that enlightenment is a kind of detached looking. Just a watching of events unfolding with no rhyme or reason. Now, if this is their belief about it, they’ll try to find those same moments in their own life to gauge how well they are doing. So based on what they know to be true – the ideal enlightenment – they can compare the old me to the new one.
I suppose that activity is easy to see within. And it is easy to talk about because the movement and actions of the self are physical, structured, solid, and with a definite end. It is in reference to the person that wants more of one thing and less of another.
But the liberated being, that is something we cannot really even begin to explain. We can point and say this or that, trying to caress our words as carefully as possible, but we may be causing even more trouble for others.
But we keep writing and speaking. Who knows why? Haha…
(laughs)
“But we keep writing and speaking. Who knows why? ”
yes, well put.
Very nice post–to the point and brief (something I have to learn to do).
Another pointer is when there is no time delay between feeling and sensing the wind on skin, that is it.
Thanks, Kaushik.
I’ve been working on writing with less, these days.
Yes, that is right. That time delay is thought, of course. It is very important to see this – perhaps the ‘most important’ thing – but we’ll leave that for another post.
Thanks again…
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