March 2019 Final Layout

THE OPEN VISTA OF ORIGINAL MIND
ZEN PHILOSOPHY WITH BILL WALZ
Look, and it can’t be seen. Listen, and it can’t
be heard. Reach, and it can’t be grasped.
Above, it isn’t bright. Below, it isn’t dark.
Seamless, unnamable, it returns to the realm
of nothing. Form that includes all forms,
image without an image, subtle, beyond
all conception. Approach it and there is no
beginning; follow it and there is no end. You
can’t know it, but you can be it, at ease in your
own life. Just realize where you come from:
this is the essence of wisdom.
— #14 – The Tao Te Ching (Mitchell)
We are a society and culture mesmerized by
the objects of the world. We find value in and
through objects like our possessions, and one of
our strongest myths tells us that material wealth
will lead to happiness and well-being when evidence
proves this is not so. Likewise, we look to
belonging to identity groups like our nationality, religion,
race, political and interest group affiliations
as well as our social status to give placement
and meaning to our life. We accumulate things
and affiliations, seeking to allay a haunting feeling
of not being enough, and ultimately no matter
how many things and affiliations we acquire, this
feeling continues. We need to fill our lives in order
to feel OK, and there just doesn’t ever seem to be
enough, and we are seldom unequivocally OK.
On a much subtler level, this is true with our
relationship to mind itself. In Buddhism, thoughts,
emotions and sensations are referred to as
“mental forms” and we tend to define mind and
our subjective sense of self through our thoughts
and emotions. We seek pleasurable sensory
experiences to enhance desirable emotions, as if
this gives life special meaning. We look for ideas
in the world that conform to, confirm and expand
the ideas we already have so as to buttress our
sense of self. Unfortunately all this seeking and
accumulating of ideas and emotions can also entangle
us in the contradictions of the contents of
our mind and this can make life most uncomfortable,
if not at times crazy. The mind can become
like a rat’s nest of entangled ideas and emotions
that plagues us. When all is done, we find that
none of the forms, material or mental, can give us
lasting happiness, peace and well-being.
So, as “mental forms,” sensations, thoughts
and emotions, are the stuff, the objects of the
mind, just as material objects are the stuff of our
lives, we tend to fixate on these mental objects
and confuse them for the totality of mind when
they are no more the totality of the mind then
material objects are the totality of the world. In
both cases, the space in which the objects occur
is quite neglected, and this neglect causes us to
miss the true value and meaning of existence. A
world made only of objects is impossible, there
must be space in which they occur, and too
many objects in a limited space is rightly called
cramped. A compulsive hoarder’s home is an
assault on the senses and we usually feel uncomfortable
in cramped and cluttered places. In the
opposite direction, we are drawn to the experience
of open space, and it is why we climb to
mountain tops and seek out places of vista, and
why deserts have a mystical quality to them. So
too, our cramped and cluttered minds are quite
uncomfortable, particularly when it feels like the
runaway contents of our minds are closing in on
us and there is no escaping their suffocation.
We have no cultural tradition for recognizing
the spacious mind as the real source of comfort,
peace, and well-being, and despite all evidence
of how crazy and dangerous so many of our
thoughts and emotions are, we invest the realm
of thought with intelligence and our emotions with
much of our sense of self. We neglect all our
experience that shows us that it is the spacious
silent mind that is the true source of intelligence
and wisdom. We fail to give proper notice to how
it is that when we are caught in swirling circles
of thought and emotion, we might take a walk or
a shower or bath, or play with the dog, or wash
the dishes, and out of the silence the insight that
had been eluding us emerges. But nothing in
our culture validates this, so few give this insight
the affirmation deserved. Even our psychologies,
philosophies, and religions are filled with complicated
ideas that seem to bring us no closer to
peace and wisdom.
That real happiness and well-being most often
occur when NOTHING is happening, as during
the quiet space of the moment in an experience
in nature, with a treasured person, or when just
sitting alone, gets completely overlooked. An
equally valuable insight is that just as we seek
open physical vistas for comfort and inspiration,
so too it is wise to look to a spacious and quiet
mind for happiness, insight, and well-being.
Yet, since this is not an object in the mind - you
cannot seek it, as many a frustrated seeker
experiences - you can only allow it. As many an
intellectual or spiritual seeker experiences, they
may fill their mind with many esoteric ideas and
engage in many elaborate spiritual practices, but
it brings them no closer to peace.
Just as space is the natural environment of a
room before it is filled with objects, space is the
natural quality of mind before it is filled with the
objects of thoughts, emotions and sensations.
This you can only relax into, breathe into, allow its
natural presence. It is always there, for it is truly
who we are, not the clutter with which that we
compulsively fill it. This space of pure consciousness
is what Buddhism refers to as “original
mind” - mind before the clutter - and it is what all
of Buddhism and its practices of meditation and
mindfulness are meant to awaken.
Mystic traditions of all cultures, including Judaism
and Christianity, recognize the contemplative
and meditative mind, the quiet mind that is not
seeking, but rather sitting in receptive reflection,
as essential for higher levels of inspiration,
understanding and spiritual realization. Even
higher levels of scientific inquiry as well as artistic
inspiration depend on quiet, intuitive receptivity
for breakthroughs. Instead of focusing on
the contracted mental energy of thoughts, this
receptivity requires expanded openness of the
energy of consciousness. “It returns to the realm
of nothing.”
An open outdoor vista is a good place to encourage
and support this allowing, yet it is important
to realize that your own true nature already IS
the infinitely vast open vista of pure uncluttered
consciousness. As this spacious consciousness
is what makes experiences in the world meaningful,
when space is experienced as a connecting
energetic force rather than a source of separation,
so too, it is this spacious consciousness energy
prior to thoughts, sensations and emotions that
is what creates the sense of connection within
us. When we train ourselves to abide in this quiet
stillness, this openness, even amidst the clutter
and noise of the world, this intuitive connection
and sense of well-being remain. In the mystical
language of Taoism and Zen, rather than striving
to be somebody looking for something, we
become nobody abiding in the realm of nothing
while everything swirls around us. The open vista
of original mind is felt as our source and stability.
I encourage you into this allowing and finding of
that which is not objects in the mind, but rather
the vastness of Being, the space of consciousness
prior to its energy contracting into objects
of sensation, thought and emotion. Just relax,
breathe, allow, and expand into the space that is
within and all around - and then - the objects that
arise within and out of the space will be imbued
with the beauty and wisdom of Reality. You will no
longer experience yourself as a separate object
looking to the accumulation of objects, whether
material or mental, to validate you. You will know
yourself as the consciousness energy that is the
space, which can value what is natural and true
without needing anything, and this is happiness,
peace and well-being. There is no need to seek it,
for you already are it. Just learn to relax into it.
Bill Walz has taught meditation and
mindfulness in university and public forums
and is a private-practice meditation teacher
and guide for individuals in mindfulness,
personal growth and consciousness.
Information on classes, talks, personal
growth and healing instruction, or phone consultations at
(828)258-3241, e-mail at healing@billwalz.com Learn
more, see past columns, video and audio programs at www.
billwalz.com
VOL. 22, NO. 07 — MARCH 2019 | RAPIDRIVERMAGAZINE.COM | RAPID RIVER’S ARTS & CULTURE | 21