THINGNESSMIND

We live in a self-created world of things. Not real things but consciousness that overlays reality like a fog. This seems normal and natural to most people. Why think about such things, one might ask. But there are very important insights we can have into how the mind creates problems if we do look into this process that goes without questioning by most people.

In Buddhism, they often speak about nothingness, no-thing-ness. For the thing-ness mind, this seems to say that there in nothing. So for many people, they come up with many cosmic ideas of what it means. To the thing-ness mind, the only thing that makes sense of this is to see that there must not be any objects, things, and therefore what we see must be an illusion. From that conclusion, all sorts of other notions come to mind that have nothing to do with the reality pointed at in no-thing-ness. The process is an illusion, but not in the way people think it is. The illusion is the way we project our thing-ness onto reality.

The real meaning behind this no-thing-ness is that things are just mental labels of objects of perception. Labels are needed to communicate, etc., and are needed in our lives. But it goes deeper than that. We are thing-ness mind.

Rarely do we see anything objectively, as it is. We see everything as things. Last night I was talking with a friend beside a pond with ducks in it. We were talking about how the mind works. I pointed out that to the duck swimming by, there was no duck-ness. There was sensation of coolness, wetness, body movements and perception of what was there to eat. It was pure nameless duck essence. There was no time, no space, no distance, no past and no future, just pure wonderful duck, and nothing more.

Using language, which is a form of thing-ness mind and the cause of it, we called it duck. If we were just still and fully aware of the essence of this no-thing called duck, then we would see reality. It is not just a seeing but also a deep feeling. By not having any ideas about this thing called duck, we would see the suchness of what it truly is. There would be no time, no past, no future, no judgments at all, just pure simple seeing/being. We would realize we are of the same essence, as is all Life.

Thing-ness mind is a creation of the evolution of the memory/thinking mind of humans. We think we are seeing, but most of the time we are only covering over the real experience of life.

When I awakened, of course there is no me to awaken but we have to use words, there were many profound insights, but the most important one was the realization of true nothingness. To see that we have been lost in a process of thing consciousness is powerfully freeing. It is really the core of awakening. You hear about all kinds of experiences people have that they think is enlightenment that have nothing to do with enlightenment. The most common one seems to be that all is consciousness. If that insight does not clearly show us how we distort our perception of reality by the thing-ness mind, then it is meaningless. The experience just becomes another thing for the mind to play with and help project the dream of a separate self.

You often hear teachers saying we have to end all thought. If by that they mean we must end thought temporarily in order to see what is beyond thought, then they are close. But it seems that most are saying we have to end it for good. Even people like J. Krishnamurti said he does not think. Which was totally misleading and untrue. If he meant that there is thinking, but no me that thinks, then that would be more accurate, but I don’t think that is what he meant. Thinking is a part of our lives. We could not function in this world without thinking. But this does not stop one from going beyond thought and seeing reality as it is. Before awakening we are totally controlled by conditioned thing-ness mind. After awakening we see reality clearly but can still use the thinking process and understand what is going on.

When most people go for a walk in the forest or along a beautiful coastline by themselves, they can sense something that moves them deeply. In these moments they are ending the thing process and just seeing. In that “just seeing” there is a taste of freedom, of reality. It can move us to tears at times. Then we return to our so-called normal lives. At first we still feel the suchness of life, but gradually it dissipates and we find ourselves lost in the old mind traps, and our experience becomes another memory, a thing.

Moment by moment Life is open to us in Its fullness. We can be so aware of what is taking place that we can find that freedom almost anytime we quiet down. And in that quietness we can know what it really means to be timeless, ageless, oneness with all Life, and see beyond all things to Reality Itself. We cannot contain it, so It overflows as Joy, as Love, and as the Suchness of all Being.