There Is No Spoon? So There Is No Cube Either

The following is an extract from the movie "The Matrix"















Spoon boy: Do not try and bend the spoon. That's impossible. Instead... only try to realize the truth.
Neo: What truth?
Spoon boy: There is no spoon.
Neo: There is no spoon?
Spoon boy: Then you'll see, that it is not the spoon that bends, it is only yourself.

"The Matrix" trilogy is undoubtedly one of the richest movies in terms of philosophical contents. The scene above has everything to do with our recent contemplations.

When the Spoon Boy tells Neo that there is no spoon, he is saying the same thing that we have been contemplating in the Cube experience; that we co-emerge with the object. The object gains its meaning because of the observer and the observer only exists because of the objects. One is not independent from the other.

What is the spoon really? Are there spoon molecules? Perhaps, spoon atoms? Maybe spoon electrons and neutrons?

No, the spoon arises only because we recognize it as such. We, as observers, don't establish connections with its atoms, molecules and any other cognitive element, we don't think about those things when we hold a spoon. We establish a connection with the "form" which presents a meaning to us, a meaning that we add to it. And if we are adding meaning to it, we are co-emerging with the object.

Having said all that, we can conclude that "forms" come to exist based on the relationship we establish with them. We don't establish a relationship with the raw materials of the objects, but with their meanings, and these meanings are what we will call "forms".

More to come! Great contemplation everyone!

Cris

So? Why does the Cube matter?

As a result of the contemplation of the Cube Experience, we can see that the it appears because of an internal mental disposition. Object and observer co-emerge in the same experience, and that shows that we have an important role as creators of reality, opposed to being mere spectators of it. We tend to think there is a world out there governed by external rules, and we assume a passive role trying to adjust ourselves to this pre-existent reality.

This example shows us how we are creating the world we see, by adding meaning and dimensions according to our own internal world. Furthermore, our difficulty to switch between cubes voluntarily, shows how uncontrolled our minds can be, and how difficult it is to change between perspectives.

If we look to the vertex "A", we can see one cube, and if we look at the vertex "B" we can see another one. Though neither of them really exists, we can see two of them, and the switch between them can be in accord to our own will or simply involuntarily by the will of our uncontrolled mind. Therefore not only we create things, but we get stuck in what we created losing control of it.
















Following this line of reasoning, we can see that when we face a difficult situation in life, not only we forget that we are the ones who have created that situation we are experiencing, but we solidify it by victimizing ourselves. If only we had the ability to switch our view of reality and recognize the opportunities we have by looking in different directions, we could turn that situation all around.

When the Dalai Lama states that compassion is key to happiness, that is what he means, to have the ability to look at the same situation under different perspectives. Compassion is the key instrument that allows us to remove the focus of our consciousness from our ego and broaden our minds toward a wider reality with vast possibilities. If we look around and pay attention to how other people manage to cope with bigger problems in life, and at the same time, lead a more happy one, we can find strength and wisdom within ourselves to search for alternative routes instead of blaming the external circumstances.

When a person does something negative to us, it is difficult to see good qualities in that person. Our view gets frozen in only one perspective, this way we limit our perception of reality and create more suffering. This limitation of reality is what we call ignorance. And here is where meditation plays a key role, because it will enable us to practice compassion, by making us not so responsive to our impulses and therefore broaden our minds.

It is amazing how this simple example from Lama Samten can show so much.

Have a great contemplation everyone!!!

Cris

THE CUBE INITIATION - PART II

When we contemplate carefully the picture of the CUBE below, we see there is a dimension that has been added, we are looking at a 2D picture and we see a 3D one instead.

Then we can start wondering more about it. Has this dimension been added by the picture? Or it has been added by the observer? Or is it a combination of both? Is the picture separate from the observer? Or do they come to exist in the same experience, they co-emerge?

It's not difficult to see that the picture alone does not have that power of adding the third dimension, so there must be something else, maybe something within us. Is it our eyes maybe? Even though we see the picture through our eyes, we cannot assume that they are neutral about the object they are capturing, otherwise we wouldn't be able to switch between the Cubes without moving their position.

If we keep staring at the picture without moving our eyes, we can see that the cubes switch from time to time. With practice we can switch between the cubes at our own will without any eye movement at all. Therefore we see that it is not the eyes that add the third dimension to the drawing either.

So maybe it is something else. Is it the mind then? Well, here we can start wondering again. What is the mind? Is it our current flow of thoughts, plans and memories? Let's call this the ordinary mind, just for the sake of understanding. If we investigate a little deeper we see that everything we can think of are linked to the five senses. In other words, all of our thoughts are related to things that we have seen, smelled, tasted, heard and/or touched.

We can close our eyes and imagine a certain picture, a scene of a movie, a scene from your own life. We can even remember and reproduce in our minds the smells, sounds, textures and tastes we have ever experienced before. So we see that our minds are intimately connected with our senses, our senses are intimately connected with their objects, therefore, the ordinary mind is also intimately connected with the objects.

From there we can conclude that the ordinary mind alone would not be able to add the third dimension either. So, what can it? Following that line of reasoning we can conclude that us, the observers, do not come to exist without the objects. For us to exist we depend on the objects we perceive. However, the objects we perceive come to exist due to the abilities of our minds to create and add meanings to objects. Then both, observer and object come to exist in the same experience,they co-emerge, they exist together.

When we look at the drawing and see a cube, we can observe that there is an internal disposition which allows us to see the cube. There is this internal, subtle, "mark" that allows us to perceive the Cube. So the Cube is nothing but a reflexion of this internal disposition.

More to come! Have a great contemplation everyone!

Feel free to make comments, questions and so forth!



Cris

THE CUBE INITIATION - PART I

Hi there folks,


We are back on track after a while without posting. In the few last meditation meetings we've talked about the 12 links of inter-dependence origination and we saw that all our confusion starts with ignorance. But what kind of ignorance are we talking about here?


This ignorance we are referring to has nothing to do with a lack of studying of a certain subject, neither it refers to stupidity of some kind. It has to do with an erroneous perception of reality.


When we establish contact with the world through our physical senses we automatically interpret reality as being separate from us, therefore we see objects, events and phenomena as if they existed independently, as if they had an autonomous and intrinsic identity.


This automatic interpretation leads us to believe that our senses are neutral before the objects we establish contact with, and that they are accurate means for capturing reality. This view is the cause for the origination of ego and its consequences like desire for what is pleasant and aversion for what is not.




One of the best examples from Lama Samten to help us see how we are deceived by our senses is the Cube example. When you look at the picture below, what do you see?
























A cube?


How many cubes can you see?


Think carefully!!!


How many?


Two?

The next question would be, how can we see a cube, which is a 3D form in a flat 2D screen?

Where is the third dimension that allows us to see not only one, but two cubes? When we are looking at the picture we can shift from one cube to the other, what makes this shift possible?

I will let you guys contemplate it for a while and come back with more comments on the Cube example. There are so many topics for contemplation in this single picture!

Have a good exercise everyone!

Cris

His Holiness The Dalai Lama in Calgary

Last week, on September 30th at the Saddledome, we had the privilege to have here in Calgary His Holiness the XIV Dalai Lama. In one unique and magical event, people from all ages, religious traditions, backgrounds and walks of life were able to experience for themselves the energy of being in the presence of a great master who, with humility, sense of humor and straightforward sincerity, captivated the whole audience.

Even though subjects such as “world peace” and “compassion” are not entirely new, hearing the Dalai Lama explaining how we should strive on this direction can be very compelling. Inner peace, through the cultivation of a tranquil mind are his recommendations so we can first change the world in the individual level and extend it to the family, community, city, state, country, and worldwide levels subsequently. His Holiness emphasized that the world is getting smaller and smaller, so it doesn’t make sense we keep differentiating ourselves as “us” and “them”, and concluded “harming your neighbor is harming yourself”.

In our search for happiness we condition ourselves to events and circumstances without which we might become sad and depressed, making us say words and make actions we might regret afterwards, so we keep leading our lives blindly guided by impulses. Although His Holiness calls himself “a simple Buddhist monk”, it has been evident through the story of his life, as well as through the energy of his presence, how having the lucidity which arises from a controlled mind can bring infinite benefits to infinite beings.

Cris

The Conditioned Existence

As we progress on our meditation sessions, we start getting more acquainted with the four noble truths that Buddha announced after his enlightment. Last session we contemplated the first noble truth in which the Buddha points out the human situation of suffering. In the gross level, we suffer when we feel pain or discomfort. This gross level of suffering is somewhat easy to recognize since whenever we feel pain, we do something to get rid of it.

The second level of suffering (more subtle) is the suffering of change. Whenever we experience a dramatic change in our lives we suffer, as an example, being laid off, ending a relationship, etc. We believe in our abilities of planning our lives beforehand, but, as things don’t always go as planned, we suffer.

The third level of suffering is the most subtle one, the one which is much more difficult to realize, the most deceiving one. It prevails anything and everything. Even the happy moments of our lives contain seeds for this suffering to sprout. This is the suffering of conditioned existence. In our daily lives we fail to realize the interconnection between everything, from the objects which we interact with, through our physical senses, to our most intimate thoughts. Everything is conditioned to something else. For me to be here writing this, I depend on having my arms, my hands, the enough dexterity in order to type, as well as my intellectual capacity for writing in English and, the most important, my intellectual understanding of the subject. If any of these conditions were not met, this text would not have been written.

Therefore, everything is dependent on something, or on a combination of other things. As Lama Samten suggests, ask yourself this question: “I am happy if…?” Then a list of factors come up in our list, factors that would cause us to be happy. If we analyze each and everyone of these factors we will also see that they are compounded of smaller parts and if any is missing, your ideal of happiness is not possible.

Because everything is interconnected, we fail to realize the impermanence of everything, from objects to events, and we strive to make the universe around us permanent and stable so we can accomplish our goals. However, when impermanence touches, we suffer. Another aspect of this suffering is our impulses of action (karma) in this impermanent, interconnected environment. We react to events in an automatic way without being aware of the consequences that will lead our lives.

Having said all that, we can see that this third level of suffering is the one underlying the previous two ones. It is the most subtle and it is the essence of our prison. It is a prison because we don’t have controls of our lives as we think we do; we live by following our karmic automatisms and getting frustration after frustration until we die. We desperately seek happiness in impermanent sources, like as if we were trying to kill our thirsts by drinking water from the ocean. We never really get anywhere.

However, not even this prison is permanent and we can break out from it. In the following sessions we will start studying and contemplating the causes that create and sustain this, so we can contemplate how we get out of it. We do have the power and the potential to get rid of this situation, the key to all this is the lucidity of our minds.

May all beings benefit from this!

Alan Wallace In Brazil

It's with great joy that I announce that Alan Wallace will be touring Brazil from the 4th to 15th of June. He will be giving lectures on where and how Buddhism and Meditation converge with Neuroscience, as well as providing meditation retreats. He will also be launching one of his latest books: "Hidden Dimensions" which I pasted a little piece of it here so you can have a glimpse:

“… A third disparity between mental appearances and reality pertains to the fact that thoughts, emotions, and other mental phenomena seem to have an inherent personal quality. When strong identification with these processes occurs, one may feel that one’s very identity has become fused with them, and momentarily have the sense “I am angry”, or “I am elated”. But with some skill in observing the contents of the mind, one finds that thoughts and mental images arise by themselves, with no voluntary intervention or control by a separate agent or self.

…As noted previously, all usual kinds of experience, both sensory and introspective, are structured by memories, language, beliefs, and expectations, which cause us to assimilate even novel experiences whether we want to or not. …”

B. Alan Wallace
Hidden Dimensions - page 45
http://www.alanwallace.org/index.htm

Cris