AboutJoe McSorley Expertise I can answer questions dealing with Taoist philosophy and Zen and not the historicity and religion of Buddhism and its different schools. I studied under Dr. Richard DeMartino and Masao Abe of the Kyoto School of Zen.
Question Hello Mr. McSorley, I was lying in bed and a thought came to me. At what moment is consciousness active in the body? Does it even enter into the body or is it there already? I came to a theory. AS the body is forming it is forming within the realm of existence(consciousness)thats eternal. Example: If you have two halves of a sphere in each hand, and then bring them together, now there is air inside that sphere. The act of bringing the two halves together did not make the air (consciousness). It was already there existent of itself. So when a body is being formed its not a matter of the organs forming that create consciousness or a matter of consciousness entering in, but a matter of the body forming within consciousness which is eternally there.My question is: How does this theory sound to you?
Answer Hello Christopher,
One of my favorite quotes of all times comes from Chuang Tzu , “using anything other than a hand to represent a hand is useless”. Of course to communicate we need to do such things but all metaphors will fall short. Your idea is ok, it reminds me of the Indian idea of light being reflected on a drop. The light was previously there but took form on the drop when it got reflected. The drop does not restrict or contain it but if the light is unaware that its root is not the drop there is the illusion of life and death but in fact the light is not effected by the form at all. This is not unlike your consciousness trapped in a sphere though sphere or no sphere it is fundamentally unchanged.
Another metaphor is that of D.T.Suzuki that I have written many times on here. A wave arises on the ocean and looks down and sees the ocean all around. It says, “ I am know that I am because I am not the ocean nor am I all the other individual waves, I exist separate from them”. It has separated itself from the ocean to know itself as an individual wave. This separation actually creates the ‘self’, it is both an act and a fact of this separation. Now it makes all its judgments as a separated self. In this act it is also separated from itself, it knows that it is but not who it really is. Now it tries to go outward to find itself but it cannot. When it goes inward it is also problematic, why? Because the act of going inward is still the act of separating from the ocean to be able to go inward. So this wave is alienated from itself, it’s surroundings and the ocean. But the fact of the matter is, who is the wave fundamentally? Is it the individual wave? No, there’s really no such thing. So who is looking for this awakening? The fact is that the wave is really just a manifestation of the ocean, it never was separated in reality but only knew itself as separated. It has to stop the ego process, the act of separating, in the hope that the ocean can rise up to see itself as both the wave and the ocean. It is one hundred percent wave and one hundred percent ocean, not at any point ever separated. The wave seeking the ocean/enlightenment/nirvana is the ocean seeking the wave. When the breakthrough occurs it is not new or just starting but a realization of what always really was. This is a non-dual duality. Both itself as wave and ocean. Pure non-dualism would have just been the ocean with a wave never arising. We rise out of nature and now ourselves as separate from it but in fact we are nature in search of itself. The wave’s true nature was never born and won’t die for it is the entirety of the ocean.
These things might help you understand the nature of the self and what to strive for but ultimately it is everyday practice that will overcome it, not understanding.
Take care,
Joe
