What can one expect from meditation? Why meditate? That is the subject of this little essay. We shall discuss this important topic in three parts: Overcoming the Wizard; From Space to Infinity, and Who Am I?
Overcoming the Wizard
There are Buddhist lessons to be learned everywhere, including, perhaps especially, in the 1939 iconic film, The Wizard of Oz. In the film, Dorothy realizes she isn't in Kansas anymore, having been transported to the magical, technicolor land of Oz. Yet something is wrong even in this fairy-tale land: all the main characters of the film are dissatisfied with their lives. Dorothy is unhappy because she is far from home and doesn't know how to get back. On the yellow-brick road, off to see the Wizard who supposedly will solve her problem, she encounters a scarecrow, who is dissatisfied because he has no brain. He joins her on the journey to Oz. After they walk along the road to Oz for some time, they encounter a tin man, who is dissatisfied because he has no heart. Next they encounter a lion who is dissatisfied because he lacks courage. They all journey to Oz together to obtain, they hope, what they need. When they reach the Wizard's inner chamber, they encounter an angry head on a screen berating them with a god-like voice. How dare these mortals approach the great Wizard?
Dorothy and her companions are terrified while they are dressed down and severely criticized as presumptuous mortals pleading their case before an angry, omnipotent, immortal god. The Wizard gives them a near-impossible task; if they bring the broomstick of the Wicked Witch of the West, he just might grant their wish. They run out from the chamber in terror.
They actually do accomplish this task, and happily return to the Wizard, expecting their wishes to be granted. The Wizard, in a frightening display of fire and brimstone, hedges. At this point, Toto, Dorothy's dog, pulls back the curtain and reveals that the Wizard is a fake, a mountebank; the Wizard of Oz does not exist.
Next comes my favorite quote from the movie, spoken by the fierce wizard on the screen, actually the manifestation of a fake manipulating a system of roaring bells and piercing whistles: "Don't pay any attention to the man behind the screen!"
(Dorothy scolds the wizard, whereupon the wizard presents her companions with trinkets, convincing them that they actually possess what they imagined they lacked. Dorothy eventually returns home when she realizes that she has in a deep sense never left it.)
"Don't pay attention to the man behind the screen," i.e. "Don't pay attention to the critic inside your skull," because he is a fake; he doesn't exist. This is a good illustration of the Buddhist truth of anatta, namely, that there is no personhood underlying reality. The Ego is an illusion! A powerful illusion, but an illusion nevertheless.
"Don't pay attention to the guy inside your skull, because he doesn't exist!," could be used as a mantra; once again, it is a perfect statement of the Buddhist truth of anatta, one of the three main characteristics of existence.
Science is in accord with this view, although, admittedly it contravenes common sense. No area of the brain has been found to be the source of the ego. There are visual areas, auditory areas, etc. but no area that says, "This is me!" The illusory concept of a separate self is produced when the symphony of nerves imagine they are being led by a conductor; or, to keep to the Wizard metaphor, the sense of the ego is produced on the screen of consciousness by all those billions of neurons acting in concert. The Wizard, however, isn't there!
Once the truth of anatta is realized, a sense of joy and liberation occurs. The ego, however, is a necessary-for-survival byproduct of evolution; understanding reality as it is is part of wisdom, liberating one from petty behavior. If one is to live in the world, which is produced by thought and is at its base an illusion as well, the illusion of ego has its place. Without this illusion, humans would not be able to survive. (This will become clearer in future essays).
Realizing the truth of anatta, not just accepting it abstractly, is one of the main purposes of insight meditation.
From Space to Infinity
In the first instance, we discussed meditation as overcoming a negative: the illusion of the ego, which in its most negative aspect consists of an inner critical voice, yelling at the meditator with the fury of the Wizard. Realizing that his "person" is non-existent is an important part of meditation; it is a difficult task that can take years to complete. In this section, however, we will discuss a positive aspect: the passage from duality to non-duality. We will dispense with the fairy tale of Oz and use as our metaphor Einstein's Theory of Special Relativity.
Einstein's theory, which has been proven scientifically, establishes the dynamic relationship between space and time. Everyone can visualize the three dimensions of space: length, width, and height:
It's much harder to imagine how time applies to this graph, but it does. (We often indicate time with an arrow.) Since the Big Bang, the interrelationship among these, as far as I know, have remained fixed. The time aspect asserts that everything changes; there is no permanence anywhere. (This is the Buddhist doctrine of anicca, impermanence, one of the three aspects of reality according to Buddhism, along with anatta and dukka).
We discover the dynamic relationship between space dimensions and the dimension of time (spacetime) when acceleration occurs. As the speed of light is approached, space elements contract while time dilates. In other words, space is converted into time. (The speed of light remains fixed).When the speed of light is attained, a singularity occurs: all space has been converted into time, which has dilated so much that it has stopped: infinity characterizes this state. (It is impossible for us to accelerate matter to the speed of light, since it would take infinite energy). It seems to me that travel at the speed of light should be an impossibility, yet light has accomplished it! The unit of light, the photon, has no mass, since mass cannot travel at the speed of light. For photons, reality has no space; everything is touching.
It is not surprising that culture has used light as a symbol of divine creation. In Genesis, God creates the world by proclaiming, Fiat Lux, Let There be Light. Milton addressed this creation with a wonderful passage that begins with "Hail, Holy Light." Infinity, absent from our world, is the Other, and, therefore, Holy. And yet these messengers of the infinite, photons, arrive at our retina innumerable times every day!
For the unenlightened, there is something frightening here. Precipitates of cold, snowflakes, are unique; everyone is different--yet every photon is absolutely alike. They seem to represent an anxiety-provoking depersonalization, anatta, one of the three characteristics of existence. A Buddhist would respond with joy: Precisely! The Wizard as we have seen, is a hindrance to happiness.
Applying this to meditation, we thus interpret Special Relativity metaphorically as the conversion of duality (spacetime) into non-duality (infinity). One can describe this transformation in many ways: the passage of bodily dimensions to pure spirit; the passage from the relative to the absolute; the passage from limitation to the limitless; the passage from samsara to nirvana; the transformation from the "I" of the individual to the "I" of the cosmos.
In meditation, one coverts, as it were, units of length, width and height into units of expanding time; units of mundane consciousness into units of cosmic consciousness; units of duality into units of non-duality. Beginning meditators should not expect, should not demand, that these moments of cosmic consciousness last a long time. They might begin merely as occasional flashes; these flashes, however, illuminate the path. Keep walking while doing your best to silence demands from the Wizard, and you cannot help but get closer to the goal, that is, seeing reality as it is.
Anyone who meditates seriously and familiarizes oneself with Buddhist principles becomes aware of the path one is on. If you are worried about losing individual identity, don't: reaching nirvana is just about as difficult as reaching the speed of light. As we accelerate toward that goal, however, increasing joy arises; hindrances are left behind like spent fuel from a rocket.
Nan Yar, Who Am I?
Ramana Maharshi, (1879-1950), was a great sage of the past century. He reached enlightenment, (the Hindu terminology for which is moksha), as a young man, and remained in that state for the rest of his life. Another term for the limitless state he reached is called cosmic consciousness. Most of us have experienced this state whenever we completely forget ourselves--during a period of selfless work for instance; the difference between Maharshi and the rest of us is that he never left that state.
The term for this state in Hinduism is advaita, non-duality. In Buddhism, the "I" in all its connotations is left behind when one experiences moksha or nirvana. Hinduism differentiates between two "I's," the cosmic "I" and the worldly "I"--both systems, using different terminology, indicate the same thing.
Viewing the material world from a cosmic-consciousness perspective is a bit like viewing the Earth from a great distance. Here is a view of Earth from Saturn:
Yes, all your concerns and obsessions occur on this little dot at the lower right of this Nasa photo.
At this distance, all worldly concerns and suffering are nothing to be concerned about; they are so small.
When Maharshi used the pronoun "I" he referred to the cosmic eye that sees everything. It is an ecstatic view, the nature of which is bliss. Maharshi used the "Nan Yar" ("Who am I") method to get to the nature of reality. We can adapt this method to meditation.
For instance, toward the end of this morning's meditation, I became restless. "Is that Who I am?, I asked myself. If I ever feel jealousy, I ask myself, "Who is jealous?" Similarly, who is angry, etc. The Wizard, who doesn't exist!
This is a gentle way to bring one's attention from an earthly outlook to a cosmic one. It keeps us on the path of converting the dimensions of space into infinity, as outlined in the second method. It is a variation of bringing one back from discursive thought to the impersonal awareness of breathing.
Summary
The task of meditation is to see things as they really are. (Wisdom obtained through meditation is worthless unless it spills over into one's daily life).The goal of meditation is extremely difficult to achieve; some progress on this path, however, is available to all who decide to walk upon it. Meditation has been successfully used for centuries to ease the burdens of the self and to experience the wonders of wisdom.
You are welcome to join me on this quest. Comments welcome. To be continued.
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