Question
Thank you for your answer. I agree with all your perceptions. You told me this:
“Time is linked to space.
We can return here, but we cannot return now.
Wanting to hold on to the moment already means losing it.
There is a now that does not disappear, but we cannot find it in time, only in space. There is a path to reach it, a path in our own brain. We must clear this path, take it again and again until it becomes familiar and we no longer lose it. Once we know it, we are no longer afraid of getting lost.” — Kosen!
This path you mention, according to my own perception, is not located in the brain but in consciousness. And consciousness, again in my view, is space, whether inside or outside us. If there is no consciousness, there is no space, since it is our consciousness that determines space and therefore the phenomenal world. When I speak of this consciousness, I do not mean what the ego, believing itself separate, sees, but consciousness seeing itself. This consciousness is common to us all, because without it nothing would exist, or at least there would be no awareness of existing space or matter. And this consciousness I am speaking of has a lamp that lights it, otherwise we would see nothing. We would be conscious without seeing anything, a bit like in a movie theater where there is a screen and a film playing, but a light behind the screen allows us to see the film. Without light, the film could be projected and we would see nothing :-) I remember Sogyal Rinpoche giving an example like this, of the light behind the screen that allows us to see the film being projected. To me, this light is in consciousness, not in the brain. It is this light that allows us to realize we exist, along with the phenomenal world. Again, in my perception, this light of consciousness does not disappear after death; it may simply be darkened or veiled by the shock of death. The light of this consciousness is the mystery, as is life itself, because to me this light is life. Time is only relative to our world and ourselves. This light in itself has no time. This luminous consciousness simply is and is unaffected by anything. Our body, mind, or brain can be affected, but not the fact of being or perceiving without thought. Personally, when I look at the phenomenal world, I have moments of perception like this, and then I think: “All this is a miracle. How is such a miracle possible? How is the miracle of being conscious possible? Where is the one who turns on the lamp so we can see?” :-)) A self-aware energy or an unknowable God. That is the mystery. And for my part, I am convinced there are things we cannot access while alive; we can simply perceive, but not draw conclusions.
What is your opinion of all this?
Stéphane Guery (!) :-))
Anonymous
Answer from Master Kosen
I do not at all endorse this kind of philosophy that tries to separate the brain from consciousness, where the brain is supposedly limited to cognitive consciousness and constitutes an obstacle on the Way, while consciousness is pure and detached from the body. The same applies to body and mind, and to ego and atman.
The Buddha himself challenged this dualistic idea in the Prajnaparamita.
It is a classic known as the Senika heresy.
To understand authentic Buddhism, we must understand “matter as mind.”
Kosen