Someone asked about self-enquiry. I answered this:
When you meditate by asking "who am I", you will draw a blank. Ask the question intently and that blankness will drive out all illusions and you will see things as they really are. When the mind is still, it is not producing illusions. Illusions of liking and disliking. Illusions of wanting and not wanting. Notice that attachments and aversions depend on thought for their existence - they do not have any independent existence without thought - they are illusions.When asked for clarification, I wrote:
When you ask "who am I", look intently into the emptiness of no answer, and experience reality without illusions. In that instant, are you suffering?
If there is no one home when you ask "who am I", then who wants? Who doesn't want? Who likes? Who dislikes? No one wants. No one doesn't want. No one likes. No one dislikes. Then why should anything ever upset you?
To make this second nature, you have to practice, practice, practice. Practice when you are sitting, lying down, standing up, walking (watch where you are going), washing the dishes doing laundry. Repetition will set you free.
You ask the question and then since you don't know the answer, notice the feeling of not knowing. Focus your attention on that, the quiet emptiness in your mind of not having an answer. Then repeat the question to refresh the experience.If you are mindful, you can work with this technique anytime in daily life you experience an unpleasant emotion. For example, if something annoys you, ask yourself, "Who is annoyed?", then focus your attention on the feeling of not having an answer. Notice how you feel before and after. Does the technique displace annoyance with something neutral? If the annoyance comes back right away or at a later time, use the technique again.
Like if someone asked you how many monkeys you have in your upper left molar (or what is the sound of one hand clapping, or what is your face before your parents were born), you would be speechless. Your mind would be speechless, your mind would be empty because you are stumped. Look into that emptiness in your mind, focus your attention on the feeling of being stumped, of being struck speechless, of not having an answer. Practice having that clear (empty of illusions) mind.
It works best when the question is meaningful to you. If "who am I" doesn't grab you, you could try a different question. If you have a problem that is annoying you, you could ask "who is annoyed". You'll see there is no one there to be annoyed. If there is a situation that is troubling you, and if displacing the troubled state of mind with the clearness of not knowing would be a relief, use that situation. Who is angry? Who wants xyz? Who is worried? When you feel the relief of a clear mind in contrast to a troubled mind for that second of introspection, it will show you the power of this method and it will motivate you to prolong it, and become proficient at it.
I make it sound like it is an intense practice, but you have to do it in a relaxed way. You don't want to drive away thoughts and feelings in a way that would cause them to be suppressed or repressed. The way to avoid that is to only be relaxed as you do it. If you feel yourself getting tense or irritable, don't continue in that way try a relaxing form of meditation instead.
And if you really practice as much as I say, you might feel a little muddle headed or numb. If you don't like that, practice less.
If you do this in a relaxed way you can train yourself to respond to stress (unpleasant situations) by relaxing. What would it be like to have the ability to be relaxed in any situation? Working mindfully in daily life can help you to make progress much faster than if you just do sitting meditation alone.
The following quotation is from Dropping Ashes on the Buddha The teaching of Zen Master Seung Sahn.
Sitting is only a small part of practicing Zen. The true meaning of sitting Zen is to cut off all thinking and to keep not-moving mind. So I ask you: What are you? You don't know; there is only "I don't know." Always keep this don't-know mind. When this don't-know mind becomes clear, then you will understand. So if you keep don't-know mind when you are driving, this is driving Zen. If you keep it when you are talking, this is talking Zen. If you keep it when you are watching television, this is television Zen. You must keep don't-know mind always and everywhere. This is the true practice of Zen.I wrote about this quotation on another forum:
The Great Way is not difficult
if you do not make distinctions.
Only throw away likes and dislikes,
and everything will be perfectly clear.
So throw away all opinions, all likes and dislikes, and only keep the mind that doesn't know. This is very important. Don't-know mind is the mind that cuts off all thinking. When all thinking has been cut off, you become empty mind.
My understanding of this view is that thinking causes suffering. When the mind is quiet, it does not react with unpleasant emotions. When I feel an emotion begin to arise, if I remember that thinking causes suffering, the emotion does not come into being. At first it is possible to experience this for a brief time but it can be developed as a skill.Further Reading
Try it yourself, it is extremely powerful. It is a bit tricky to get this right, it is not suppressing (refusing to look at) thoughts and feelings by forcing yourself to ignore them or by focusing intently on something else (which it is possible to do by mistake and results in feeling tense and irritable). The way to do it is to (practice samatha and insight together). Quiet the mind with meditation and then notice when an unpleasant emotions arises it is first noticeable as faint tensions arising in the body. Relax those tensions when you notice them. Also notice the thought that caused the emotion (sometimes thoughts that produce unpleasant emotions are very faint) and move the mind to a neutral thought and a neutral feeling such as the thought "What am I?" and the feeling of "I don't know.", or awareness of breathing and the feeling of relaxation. With practice, over time you begin rewire your nervous system not to react so strongly.
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