Balanced Existence

I think we tend to mistake the clouds for the sky. That is, I think we mistake our thoughts, our emotions, feelings and behavioral patterns as being “I”. As I see it (ha!) such things are not “I”. They are dependent upon external causal factors beyond any one person’s control. Thoughts, emotions and even behavioral patterns come and they just as quickly go. These things are to what I fundamentally am as clouds are to the sky.

Call what I metaphorically describe as the sky consciousness. Call it whatever you like. Words are just limited symbolic labels and not the thing itself. Whatever it is it feels like my irreducible fundamental being. Trying to describe it is like trying to describe the sky. We describe the sky by talking about the things in the sky like clouds and stars.

A body bound consciousness senses the world with just 5 highly limited apparatus, which send signals to the brain. The brain then interprets those signals and presents you with your world. You have a body and across some “space” (which happens in reality to be teeming) other people have bodies. There you are, an individual, and there they are. Distinct separations. However you’ve been fooled. There is no separation and the only reason you think you are you is because you have experienced a persistent feeling of I-ness. You also experience this “I” as distinct. As separate. As continuous. But you only began to experience your “I” once you had a body. So your “I” is dependent upon you having a body. It’s connected and in reality dependent.

Your imaginary boundaries are the reasons why you feel hate, greed and jealousy. Why you think everyone is stupid as if you were perfectly incapable of your own special brand of stupidity. Why all you see is bits of straw in everyone else’s eyes while you are blinded by the rafter in your own eye.