Mike John D:
Some questions I have though: on one level thought is necessary, without a doubt, but is thought ultimately necessarly in the arisings of the other senses? Or to take it a step further, is thought even present in the combination of arrisings that seem to accumulate in our actions?
Daniel cuts right to the chase in
his post in the
Self, Mind, Consciousness and Awareness thread:
“No, just the reverse: that there is ... The universe happens causally by itself, and is known by nothing separate from that manifestation.”
The only thing that I would add to that is that this includes time and space and to point out that the last statement 'The universe....' leaves a gap big enough to drive through a bus full of Tibetan Lamas - if you catch my meaning [edit: it occurs to me that my meaning may not at all be clear so what I mean is that I have great respect for the Vajrayana teachings and view them as pointing to a deeper truth of our experience - end edit]. The first step is to disentangle awareness (illusory or not) from its identification with phenomena as constituting a separate self.
Try as you will – the mind is not going to wrap itself around this one. You have to see through this experientially to get it – thus the importance of practice. There are many effective practices out there for doing this. The noting practice is just one of them.
“I find that the state is entirely born from letting go rather than striving.”
Absolutely. You might find
this talk very helpful for you in pursuing that avenue of investigation - it can take you all the way.
-Chuck