quoting freya:
I would describe my baseline experience as emptiness which is 24/7. In non Buddhist language this means, mind as a mirror, walking around as the universe as open awareness. I see the fullness of emptiness.
I am having a challenging time finding a teacher who has the same experience and if they do seem to they say this perception is not permenant.
I do not understand how you can come to deeply understand emptiness without a permenant perception change...
If they do have the perception change (and I’ve only met one or two). They don’t seem to have any understanding of clear light... which is the aim of Highest Yoga Tantra, the subtlest level of mind.
Is this just a way of explaining experience is subjective subjective to the individual or can the awareness come and go?
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aloha freya,
Everyone’s “baseline experience” is emptiness 24/7. Thus it is not “my” experience. The eye with which you see god is the eye with which god sees you.
Why bother with a teacher? Why not teach your self?
Nothing is permanent, least of all consciousness. The permanence of consciousness is the great illusion, the wheel of fire. Consciousness creates the illusion of continuity because it is unaware of the gaps. No one ever says yes when asked iif they are asleep.
Understanding emptiness doesn’t change anything. The understanding is itself empty. Things are what they are even if you fall asleep.
Consciousness isi itself light. How does one stand under understanding?
Awareness comes and goes from the standpoint of an object thought of as possessing awareness. From the standpoint of awareness, it is constant. Thus it is relative, but not subjective.
Sentience is real, it is present in every existence, it is ubiquitous. Buddhism should include it as the fourth mark. And emptiness the fifth. Anicca, anatto, dukkha; form and emptiness. Or nama and rupa.
I suppose a teacher could help you not to go overboard with this stuff. One does not want to make a “buzzin’ bloomin’ confusion” of perception, form does nicely in most respects, thank you.
Understandings come and go but emptiness goes on forever. It underlies understanding. The primordial soup we share with all sentience.
Perceiving at these deep levels does not imply understanding them. Dualistic language can’t explain the non dual and thinking cannot grasp it.
You are on your own once language is left behind. Alone with the alone. Teachers and students are irrelevant. "An old man of seventy years does not hesitate to learn from the newvorn babe of seven days." (tao te ching)
Teachers are empty, students are empty, the teaching is empty.
Bottoms up!
