THE COLORS OF THE MIND

"The colors of the mind, excited by a flower or the moon should not be seen as self at all, but we think of them as our self."

- Dogen, from Shobogenzo chapter 91 (Yui Butsu Yo Butsu "Buddhas Alone Together With Buddhas")

Nice one, Dogen. Now Dogen was a Japanese monk who lived in a temple way out in the mountains of rural Gifu Prefecture in the 1200's. Looking at flowers and the moon were the kinds of things that turned him on. He was, shall we say, easily amused. We'd have a much better world if more people today were so easily amused. But we aren't. Zen dudes get all hung up on images of flowers and water and trees and all of that and it blinds them to any real understanding of their own situation which usually isn't all lotus blossoms and babbling brooks.

Today we could say, "The colors of the mind excited by a CNN report on the looting in Baghdad or the incredible lame-ness of the latest Madonna song should not be seen as self." Or even, "The colors of the mind excited by a noisy and belligerent web-page whose writer claims to be a 'Buddhist' should not be seen as self." Whatever it is that grinds your crankshaft, be careful you don't start looking upon it as your "self."

Human beings have amazingly highly developed brains and for that reason we get easily confused between thought and reality. Our biggest, most deepest, most astoundingly brilliantest thoughts are nothing more than thoughts. Just electrical activity, changes in the organic chemistry of the brain. Big fat hairy deal. It's easy to say this. But it's really really hard to actually come to grips with it.

We take the colors of mind to be much more than they are. But our thoughts are only thoughts. They go just so far and then stop. All of them, even the most urgent, the most violent, the most sexy, the most profound. They just go a little way and then peter out. Poof!

Your body reacts nearly the same way to vivid thoughts about imminent danger as it does to real danger. And it's not just thoughts of danger that work like this. It's all of our thoughts. Rather than just living your life moment by moment as it happens, you're stuck in all these twisting swirling loops of thought that have your body reacting in all kinds of ways it doesn't need to in response to situations which not only do not exist, but which never could possibly exist. No matter how much you think you can encompass the whole universe in your conscious mind, it'll never happen. Whatever future situation you're worried about right now -- no matter what it is -- will never come to pass. I guarantee this, no matter who you are or what you're facing. It can't happen the way you imagine it.

In your mind you have created this thing called "me" which you believe thinks and feels and experiences. You're terrified of the day that thing will come to an end. And you're petrified that this "me" might someday find itself in some horrendous situation. You make all sorts of efforts to protect this thing above all else. You buy it gifts. You show it off to the world and hope that others envy it. You want it to become rich and famous. To live in a beautiful house with a bodacious wife or a hunky husband. Every minute of every day you look for new reasons to make believe it exists and that it is important.

But it doesn't and it's not.

It's a phantom, an illusion. This thing you've elevated to God like stature does not even exist. It's just another thought. No bigger or realer than any of your thoughts.

You are not you because you are everything.

This isn't just a philosophical position I'm taking. It's the real truth of the matter. It's something any human being can become aware of, and once you become aware of it it's impossible to doubt. You won't suddenly learn the secret numbers to everyone in the world's bank cards. Yet you will come to understand in a very profound way that you and everyone else share exactly the same body and mind. Or, as Buddha said, "I, along with everything in the universe, have become awakened."

And yet you find you can't really express it to anyone. Even though anyone you might care to try and express it to is you and therefore sees it just as clearly as you do.

Ironical, ain't it?

You are everything because there is nothing else you can be. You are reading yourself. There's really nothing else that could possibly be happening. There is nowhere else to go.

And, just by the way here, when you see that everyone is you and you are everyone, you'll also come to understand that everyone in the world is just as dumb as you are. This will alleviate a lot of the stress you feel. It's hard to worry what other people might think when you realize their thoughts are just as dopey and meaningless as yours.

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