Our Practice Is To Close The Gap
Nuestra práctica es cerrar la brecha--por Charlotte Joko Beck
Toda nuestra vida consiste en este pequeño sujeto que busca un objeto fuera de sí mismo. Pero si tomas algo que es limitado, como el cuerpo y la mente, y buscas algo fuera de eso, ese algo se convierte en un objeto y también debe ser limitado. Así que tienes algo limitado buscando algo limitado y terminas con más de la misma locura que te ha hecho estar abatido.
Todos hemos pasado muchos años construyendo una visión condicionada de la vida. Hay un "yo" y una "cosa" ahí afuera que me está lastimando o complaciendo. Tendemos a pasar toda nuestra vida tratando de evitar todo lo que nos duele o nos disgusta, fijándonos en los objetos, personas o situaciones que pensamos que nos darán dolor o placer, evitando uno y persiguiendo lo otro. Sin excepción, todos hacemos esto. Permanecemos separados de nuestra vida, mirándola, analizándola, juzgándola, buscando responder a las preguntas, '¿Qué voy a sacar de ella? ¿Me va a dar placer o consuelo o debo huir de eso?" Hacemos esto desde la mañana hasta la noche.
Debajo de nuestras fachadas agradables y amistosas hay una gran inquietud. Si tuviera que rascar debajo de la superficie de alguien, encontraría miedo, dolor y ansiedad enloquecidos. Todos tenemos maneras de encubrirlos. Comemos en exceso, bebemos en exceso, trabajamos en exceso; vemos demasiada televisión. Siempre estamos haciendo algo para encubrir nuestra ansiedad existencial básica. Algunas personas viven así hasta el día de su muerte.
A medida que pasan los años, se pone peor y peor. Lo que podría no verse tan mal cuando tienes veinticinco años, se ve horrible cuando tienes cincuenta. Todos conocemos personas que bien podrían estar muertas; se han contraído tanto en sus puntos de vista limitados que es tan doloroso para quienes los rodean como para ellos mismos. La flexibilidad, la alegría y el fluir de la vida se han ido. Y esa posibilidad bastante sombría nos enfrenta a todos, a menos que nos demos cuenta del hecho de que necesitamos trabajar con nuestra vida, necesitamos practicar.
Tenemos que ver a través del espejismo que hay un "yo" separado de "eso". Nuestra práctica es cerrar la brecha. Solo en ese instante cuando nosotros y el objeto nos hacemos uno podemos ver lo que es nuestra vida.
La iluminación no es algo que se logra. Es la ausencia de algo. Toda tu vida has estado yendo hacia adelante tras algo, persiguiendo alguna meta. La iluminación es abandonar todo eso. Pero hablar de ello sirve de poco.
La práctica tiene que ser hecha por cada individuo. No hay sustituto. Podemos leer acerca de esto hasta que tengamos mil años y no hará nada por nosotros. Todos tenemos que practicar, y tenemos que practicar con todas nuestras fuerzas por el resto de nuestras vidas.
Preguntas semilla para la reflexión: ¿Cómo te relacionas con la noción de que la iluminación es la ausencia de perseguir cualquier meta? ¿Puedes compartir una historia personal de un momento en que viste a través del espejismo del sujeto separado del objeto? ¿Qué te ayuda a cerrar la brecha?
Charlotte Joko Beck fue profesora de Zen y autora de libros como Everyday Zen: Love and Work y Nothing Special: Living Zen.
Charlotte Joko Beck was a Zen teacher and the author of the books like Everyday Zen: Love and Work and Nothing Special: Living Zen.
SEED QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION: How do you relate to the notion that enlightenment is the absence of pursuing any goal? Can you share a personal story of a time you saw through the mirage of the subject being separate from the object? What helps you close the gap?
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18 Past Reflections
On Jul 4, 2023 Paul Fillinger wrote :
This sounds like you can force something to happen by working hard at that objective. I am more convinced by the practice of letting go, open to the silence, listen, become one with the present.
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On May 3, 2023 Nithya wrote :
This reading reminds me of one of the folk sufi stories Ammamma (mother's mother) used to tell me. Later I came to know of this as "Street Light Effect" or "The Drunkard's Search". For those who are not familiar, the story goes like this, - A saint finds a man searching for a his gold coin under the street light, he thinks to help him and asks him, 'Do you know where you might have dropped it?' The man points to dark corner a few yards away and says, 'somewhere over there, I think'. The saint chuckles, 'I think I'll be on my way'.
Our true nature as the author beautifully explains is boundless. In our birth, engulfed by the convenience of the skin, the dreaminess of the mind and the quirkiness of the intellect, we forget our boundless nature. Just like when a fish is pulled out of the water, it wiggles the best it can not knowing what or how to find peace, we wiggle too. We often do not quite know what we are wiggling towards. We just know something is not right, I'll wiggle to fi... [View Full Comment]
2 replies: Shaila, Indira | Post Your Reply
On May 1, 2023 Shyam wrote :
Enlightenment or something a kin to that, is the absence of craving for pleasure and the absence of running away from pain.
No seeking , no goals, just being our true selves.
As Brother David puts it. " Ask nothing ,refuse nothing. What is , is. Nothing else I want, just what is ".
One realisation. When I am typing this I realise or question how will I sound or appear.
If someone appreciates I will feel good. If someone ignores or disagrees I will feel bad.
This is what prevents us from living our true lives as per the author.
No seeking , no goals, just being our true selves.
As Brother David puts it. " Ask nothing ,refuse nothing. What is , is. Nothing else I want, just what is ".
One realisation. When I am typing this I realise or question how will I sound or appear.
If someone appreciates I will feel good. If someone ignores or disagrees I will feel bad.
This is what prevents us from living our true lives as per the author.
1 reply: David | Post Your Reply
On May 1, 2023 David Doane wrote :
We all do some avoiding and pursuing -- some don't do it "from morning until night," and many do less and less of it as the years go by. I see enlightenment as involving absence of pursuing a goal and absence of having an agenda or purpose, all of which are limiting. I've seen through and beyond the mirage of subject object split during peak experiences; other than those experiences, I remind myself often that I and object appear separate but are one or are different aspects of oneness. What helps me close the gap is my deep belief that all is one existence of which there are a zillion manifestations each of which is different but not separate. It also helps me to minimize goal-directed living and to eliminate have to's, such as having to practice -- have to's are another mirage, a human created mirage, by which we imprison self.
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On Apr 28, 2023 Ted wrote :
As this passage describes, seeing ourselves as separate from all else in life is nearly universal, and perhaps inevitable in that learning differentiation: round, square, red, green, cause, effect, concepts, words... are required for our brain to develop past infancy. The function of our egoic self that develops is attachment to our "likes", and rejecting our "dislikes" and believing the delusion that getting only "likes" and never "dislikes" will be peace and happiness (the 3 poisons, which always result in suffering). At some point we can discover the non-separate whole (perhaps as an initial awakening "dṛṣṭi-svabhāva" or "kenshō" experience?) as one more thing amongst all else in life. When seen through the eye of ego, the "gap" between Oneness and separation is one more "dislike" in our way. Though it often takes time, it IS possible to see duality FROM Oneness (and as a manifestation of Oneness), not just as one more element within duality from my limited egoic view. From... [View Full Comment]
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On Apr 28, 2023 Vicki wrote :
The late Charlotte Joko Beck writes in an extraordinary way in which she sees and explains the practicality of “practice” and how this mighty individual effort is universal for all.
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On Apr 28, 2023 Chelsea wrote :
I have experiences of closing the gap which tend to come during meditation, but can also come in moments when I just let go. The more I am finding time to close the gap, the more the gap closes for me. I am a near constant hair twirler, and sometimes I will get a moment of clarity when I go to twirl my hair and choose not to - I then experience a blissful moment of rest and awareness. Most recently, I have experienced closure of the gap when I imagine I am dancing with my son who passed at 17 years old on August 28th, 2022. I have had many thoughts about how he is no longer in a physical body and so can't experience dance the way we used to (he always danced with me, even in his teen years). At first it made me feel sorry for him, but then I started exploring the idea of dancing without my physical body, and so I close my eyes and dance with him without my physical form. It is a beautiful lightening experience of joy, and I believe he is guiding me in this new practice.
4 replies: Vicki, David, Shyam, Barbara | Post Your Reply
On Apr 28, 2023 Jagdish P Dave wrote :
Being has no -time and no- space boundaries. Being is ONE and WHOLE. Being is UNIVERSAL. I have read this truth and heard about it many many times. And I also know that TRUTH needs to realized, to be lived. And when I live this way, the dividing walls of me against you break down and we spiritualy become one. There is oneness in manyness. In fact there is only ONENESS and that is who I am and that is who you are, and that is we are. There is no subject-object daulity. Enlightement is seeing this nondual existence and living it.
I feel the light of enlighenment when I love someone unconditionally, when I serve someone selflessly, when I feel unitive consciousness in meditation. Wakefulness, awareness, looking within and practing mindfulness meditation have been very helpful to me to see through the mirage of the subject being separate from the object, closing the gap between the suject and the object.
Namaste!
Jagdish P Dave
I feel the light of enlighenment when I love someone unconditionally, when I serve someone selflessly, when I feel unitive consciousness in meditation. Wakefulness, awareness, looking within and practing mindfulness meditation have been very helpful to me to see through the mirage of the subject being separate from the object, closing the gap between the suject and the object.
Namaste!
Jagdish P Dave
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On Apr 28, 2023 Pat Denino wrote :
This observation resonates with my life journey. As I become more able to identify with the "oneness", so to speak, I find that my physical life becomes more satisfying, even in its difficulties. Interestingly enough, it was the physical life that I was trying to bypass, when, as it turns out, the more "I" identify with "oneness", the more rewarding is my own physical life, in addition to the incredible journey into that which cannot be described with words (though I certainly try...)