“Mind, why do you protect this body, appropriating it as your own? If it is really separate from you, what good is it to you? If you do not consider as your own a pure wooden statue, why are you guarding this foul machine composed of impurities?"
Okay so yeah so like ummmm guys . i think we can go ahead and sit back down with this quote and see the truth that is now staring us in the face, as if an old monk has materialized in front of us and said it straight to our faces. We see that the question is meant to be provocative. It’s provokikng a strong reaction, isn't it? A sort of… dualistic one, maybe? The… Descartes of it all, it’s coming through to me. Is it coming through to you? Here, let me show you.
Descartes said that, for example, the mind and body are two separate things, and used that concept of division to introduce that… uhhh…. There are differences between things in general. But obviously, nondualism is, like, the opposite, and stuff, and… but, there are no opposites possible within nondualism, because, er….. Because… yeah, it’s like… non…. dualism… you get the idea. holy shit.
But, no, no no no, I think my past reading of this was all wrong, because looky here. Isn’t it sort of like an edgy thing to ask? It’s edgy, isn’t it, to talk to the mind, to address the mind directly and ask it such a question as why it protects the body as if it is ‘its own”???? Like, it’s a very pointed question, so pointed for a buddhist, wouldn’t you say? So i almost feel like the old monk has used the terms “mind” and “body” as strawmen, which he then refuses to set on fire. He denies us the punchline, trusting us to come up with it ourselves. It operates, in this sense, as a koan: a single, little piece of text that provokes some kind of reaction in the receiver, that reaction perhaps providing some insight as to where the practitioner "is at” in terms of their training. Or maybe this is all bullshit and I should go kill myself to get a better rebirth so maybe i can finally figure this shit out. MY GOD!!!!! Fuck. okay. It’s fun though. I promise it’s fun. I’m having fun. I wouldn’t be doing it if it weren’t fun. Trust me. Ding!
drawing board