Two gems from NDHighlights
It is not about getting or not getting anything. What is, is undeniable present awareness. Everything appears within that. It is all an expression within that. You are what you are. All ideas about what we are, are only more ideas. To attempt to pin anything down in the mind is futile. Your natural being is not contained or even known by the mind. Seeing this, you stop looking for the answer where it will not be found. You are present and aware. Pause thought and simply be. Notice there is nothing wrong. There are no problems or suffering unless you are thinking about them. So the mind is creating all problems. They are all imaginary.
- John Wheeler
You Were Never Born
Non-Duality Press, p.114
And…
Image of the Buddha
For 300 years after the Buddha’s death there were no Buddha images. The people’s practice was an image of the Budha, there was no need to externalize it. But in time, as the practice was lost, people began to place the Buddha outside of their own minds, back in time and space. As the concept was externalized and images were made, great teachers started to reemphasize the other meaning of Buddha. There is a saying, “If you see the Buddha, kill him.” Very shocking to people who offer incense and worship before an image. If you have a concept in the mind of a Buddha outside of yourself, kill it, let it go. . . . Gotama Buddha repeatedly reminded people that the experience of truth comes from one’s own mind.
–Joseph Goldstein, The Experience of Insight
