Most people seek happiness. It’s taken for granted this is what one would naturally seek. Obviously, only in the existence of mind can one be happy or unhappy. - Trees are not happy, stones are not happy, computers are not happy. Neither are they sad.
Why do we have consciousness? - Why does self awareness exist? In a perfect state we are free of it. Clear mind is no mind. Pure mind is no mind. So why isn’t the situation like that for us all the time?
- The ultimate reality is of course free of it. Not in need of it. So why?
- Double checking is sometimes necessary. We know that in our life. It does not take great wisdom to tell. - Our mind, our self consciousness, seems to enable some sort of double checking. If we compare our selves to a computer it may be like a procedure within the software having to do with continually examining the main conduct of the program running. It is necessary to have some sort or some amount of lack of confidence in order for this mind to manifest. Or at least to have some grounds, some real grounds, for such insecurity, - meaning for our mind to be faulted somehow so that such a double checking will be in place. That is, - when we end our debugging, - when we no longer need to take care to watch out every step in this manner, - there is no place for a mind, what we call mind.
Then, of course, - happiness and misery, - pain and pleasure, - joy and sorrow, - have no residence. It would be like a pattern on a fabric which doesn’t exist. It’s all gone. And obviously for the better, - if we would still see “better” as existing, - would good and bad not flee or evaporate as well. But this does not seem to be of this reason, - I mean it doesn’t belong in this text. It is not for the reason brought up here.
- Anyway, - fuck happiness, long live reality. Fuck joy and sorrow, - long live the ultimate clarity of no mind. The perfect conduct of the true reality, - never dimmed by the common unnecessary tracking of the second moon. It is simply unnecessary, - for it, then. Seeking happiness is pitiful, miserable, wrong. As Master Dogen says, - “to study the self is to forget the self”i, and quite soon just after that - “there is a state in which the traces of realization are lost; and it manifests the traces lost realization for a long, long time”ii, - to say the least. It is not easy for many and for most to see what they normally view as their closest phenomenon, - as their world in a way, - their mind, - as altogether unnecessary, - as a superficial and artificial skin or coat we ought to be happy to be free of when arriving at the state enabling it. We cherish shit. - Our mind does not exist for nothing, that which has brought it about is not a fool, - but the situation of letting go of it and moving on without any need for a self consciousness or self pity or extra recognition of the fact we do exist, - is the best, and I am not saying “the best we can think of”, - since we can not think of that. But we’ll get there at last, no other way.
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- The title, - “following page”, - refers to this page following this post -
Why do we have consciousness? - Why does self awareness exist? In a perfect state we are free of it. Clear mind is no mind. Pure mind is no mind. So why isn’t the situation like that for us all the time?
- The ultimate reality is of course free of it. Not in need of it. So why?
- Double checking is sometimes necessary. We know that in our life. It does not take great wisdom to tell. - Our mind, our self consciousness, seems to enable some sort of double checking. If we compare our selves to a computer it may be like a procedure within the software having to do with continually examining the main conduct of the program running. It is necessary to have some sort or some amount of lack of confidence in order for this mind to manifest. Or at least to have some grounds, some real grounds, for such insecurity, - meaning for our mind to be faulted somehow so that such a double checking will be in place. That is, - when we end our debugging, - when we no longer need to take care to watch out every step in this manner, - there is no place for a mind, what we call mind.
Then, of course, - happiness and misery, - pain and pleasure, - joy and sorrow, - have no residence. It would be like a pattern on a fabric which doesn’t exist. It’s all gone. And obviously for the better, - if we would still see “better” as existing, - would good and bad not flee or evaporate as well. But this does not seem to be of this reason, - I mean it doesn’t belong in this text. It is not for the reason brought up here.
- Anyway, - fuck happiness, long live reality. Fuck joy and sorrow, - long live the ultimate clarity of no mind. The perfect conduct of the true reality, - never dimmed by the common unnecessary tracking of the second moon. It is simply unnecessary, - for it, then. Seeking happiness is pitiful, miserable, wrong. As Master Dogen says, - “to study the self is to forget the self”i, and quite soon just after that - “there is a state in which the traces of realization are lost; and it manifests the traces lost realization for a long, long time”ii, - to say the least. It is not easy for many and for most to see what they normally view as their closest phenomenon, - as their world in a way, - their mind, - as altogether unnecessary, - as a superficial and artificial skin or coat we ought to be happy to be free of when arriving at the state enabling it. We cherish shit. - Our mind does not exist for nothing, that which has brought it about is not a fool, - but the situation of letting go of it and moving on without any need for a self consciousness or self pity or extra recognition of the fact we do exist, - is the best, and I am not saying “the best we can think of”, - since we can not think of that. But we’ll get there at last, no other way.
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i I did not follow Nishijima’s translation exactly here.
ii I slightly altered the text as found in the [above] translation.
ii I slightly altered the text as found in the [above] translation.
- The title, - “following page”, - refers to this page following this post -
