![\"the-paper-and-the-tree\"](\"http:\/\/www.coolkarma.com\/dharma\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/04\/the-paper-and-the-tree.jpg\" "\\"the-paper-and-the-tree\\"")
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Egoic Mind:<\/em> Lots of bad flairs.\u00a0 I feel like I have to begin an enquiry with some version of the evening news…<\/p>\n In local body news today … there was a flash flair in the inland valley.\u00a0 An advisory alert has been put in place until later tonight.\u00a0 Stay tuned for more details.<\/em><\/p>\n Conditioned behavior I suppose.\u00a0 Behind that is an image that all of these “thoughts” are just floating around us, all of the time. And occasionally for some reason unknown in the visual story of my mind, some of the thoughts just “stick” and become manifest in the mind.\u00a0 It’s like a piece of paper floating in the wind that gets caught in the branches of a tree. No reason, it just got stuck there as it was circling around in the air current.\u00a0 And the tree then takes “ownership” of the paper as if it was its paper, not realizing the impersonal nature of the paper or the wind that carried the paper into the tree.<\/p>\n GNANI<\/strong>:\u00a0 Yes, there is no ownership of thoughts.\u00a0 They just happen.\u00a0 You can say it is like objects moving freely in the wind if you like.\u00a0 Or perhaps what only appears to be random chaos in the debris is actually a plotted course of movements and stickiness that is moving precisely as it was intended by Source.<\/p>\n Egoic Mind:<\/em> Either way, the TREE as an independent object had no control over the paper sticking to its leaves.\u00a0 And these “thoughts” are not really “my own” in the same sense. Though I understand that Source may not be as haphazard as I made it sound.\u00a0 But yet, the egoic mind wants to still “use” this information.\u00a0 How can I USE the idea that thoughts are not mine, to eliminate my own suffering, so much of which is encased in the ownership of thoughts?<\/p>\n Darn.\u00a0 My body is beginning to tense and contract again.\u00a0 Stiffness, pain and burning sensations.\u00a0 I know, I am back to the local news reporting.\u00a0 But really I don’t see any way to transcend the drama of this body\/mind container.<\/p>\n GNANI:<\/strong> Looking to transcend the body would be as pointless as the tree trying to discover how to change the currents in the air as to attract or repel more papers to or from its branches.\u00a0 No matter how enlightened the tree becomes, it will not achieve authorship of the paper trail.<\/p>\n Egoic Mind:<\/em> There is a deep chill running through my arms and goose bumps on the surface of my skin. The laptop on my legs feels hot and comforting contrasted against the cold front moving through my body.\u00a0 It feels like I can see the place I want to be on the other side of the shore.\u00a0 A place where thoughts do not stick, but rather pass through like clouds leaving no residue behind.\u00a0 But while I can see this place there appears to be no bridge or ferry to take me across the river to the other shore. So here I sit on the banks of mind-mud seeing that life on the other side of the bay is without the noise and static of the ego, and yet there seems no ability for me to sail across to the other side.<\/p>\n GNANI:<\/strong> What is it that is looking across the watery abyss?\u00a0 And which side of the ocean does that which apperceives dwell?<\/p>\n Egoic Mind:<\/em> For the most part it is the egoic mind cloaked in illusion of separation that is looking.<\/p>\n GNANI:<\/strong> Even so, what IS this illusory egoic mind at its essence?<\/p>\n Egoic Mind:<\/em> At its molecular essence it is the same as the mud, the water and the air.\u00a0 It claims the paper-thoughts as its own.\u00a0 When really muddy water cannot author a thought.<\/p>\n GNANI:<\/strong> So then that which is looking must not be the muddy water.<\/p>\n Egoic Mind:<\/em> Yes.\u00a0 That would be impossible.\u00a0 But it still feels like duality from where I sit.\u00a0 This feels good.\u00a0 That feels bad.\u00a0 I am suffering over there …. in Nirvana … thoughts do not stick and if I was over there I would have peace.<\/p>\n GNANI:<\/strong> And the I in reference is what?<\/p>\n Egoic Mind:<\/em> The embodiment of spirit that animates this body.\u00a0 As long as there is perceived duality — God and self — then there are two pieces and no peace.<\/p>\n GNANI:<\/strong> The paper that sticks to the branches of the tree after being flown by the wind.\u00a0 What was the paper before it took on its present form?<\/p>\n Egoic Mind:<\/em> It was TREE!<\/p>\n GNANI:<\/strong> Precisely.\u00a0 Yet the tree as an illusory separate self cannot recognize the “tree-nature” of the paper in the current manifestation.<\/p>\n Egoic Mind:<\/em> If it is true that as it is above so is it below … then thoughts which are perceived falsely as having come from this mind are actually identical (of the same formless substance) as the mind?\u00a0 As paper is to tree, so are thoughts to mind?\u00a0 Without authorship or ownership.\u00a0 The tree did not make the paper, nor did the paper adhere itself to the tree.\u00a0 But the tree and the paper, whether attached or detached are still the same essence.<\/p>\n GNANI:<\/strong> Keep going.\u00a0 You don’t have it yet.<\/p>\n Egoic Mind:<\/em> The thoughts that float around like debris in the wind, are one in the same as the mind that they stick to.\u00a0 The mind did not create the thoughts, nor did the thoughts have any momentum to aggregate towards the mind.\u00a0 Not two.\u00a0 But one.\u00a0 Thoughts and mind.\u00a0 Paper and tree.\u00a0 All paper is tree.\u00a0 But trees are not all paper.\u00a0 Something is missing.<\/p>\n GNANI:<\/strong> Paper is but one manifestation of tree, there are others but that does not make them any more separate than the paper from the tree.\u00a0 Regardless of their appearance.<\/p>\n Egoic Mind:<\/em> Ok, fabric can be tree, string, tables, maple syrup, all of these things are tree in one form or another.\u00a0 They come from tree without any volition on behalf of the tree.\u00a0 I am getting confused now.<\/p>\n GNANI:<\/strong> Is that so?\u00a0 Or is a confused thought getting caught in your branches?<\/p>\n Egoic Mind:<\/em> Yes! There was a sticky quality to the confused thought and I immediately took ownership of it!\u00a0 I notice the chill in my arms has also vanished and my body has rebalanced somewhat again.\u00a0 Ok, so there are thoughts (papers) and there are body sensations like chills (maple syrup) and emotions (wooden tables) and more I suspect … but yet their nature is all Source (Tree).<\/p>\n GNANI:<\/strong> Now from where you sit on the bank of the river …<\/p>\n Egoic Mind:<\/em> From where I sit in the mind’s eye there appears to be a mirage on the horizon across the surface of the water.\u00a0 This land of milk and maple syrup only appears to be far away and separate from the place I seem to have my roots.\u00a0 But really it is all One and the same.\u00a0 Nowhere to go.\u00a0 No place to get.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Egoic Mind: Lots of bad flairs.\u00a0 I feel like I have to begin an enquiry<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-480","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-gnani"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.karmabytes.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/480","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.karmabytes.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.karmabytes.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.karmabytes.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.karmabytes.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=480"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.karmabytes.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/480\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":585,"href":"https:\/\/www.karmabytes.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/480\/revisions\/585"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.karmabytes.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=480"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.karmabytes.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=480"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.karmabytes.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=480"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}