Seeing the substance of thought

Composing thoughts about the nature or substance of our thoughts only serves to hide the very nature or substance of thought.  To achieve direct contact with the very nature or substance of thoughts, or if you like, mental concepts, requires a different methodology, a methodology the West doesn't possess.

Backing up a little, Buddhism wants us to see this substance—not through various thought-forms, but directly.  Outside of this, all else amounts to a subtle diversion, a way of putting off what we need to accomplish.  

In this consideration, the world we live in conceals this spiritual nature or substance as do our thoughts including their various forms.  Were we to acquaint ourselves fully and directly with this substance, mysteriously, everything would appear to be a configuration of this substance, even our dreams and yes, our thoughts.

Obviously, modern Buddhists are not here.  They're a long way off from even valuing such a methodology that can approach the the substance of our thoughts.  As far as the current and popular methodology it is mainly concerned with seated meditation or just sitting.  There are physiological benefits to this as well as a placebo effect but not much else.  There is no penetration through the tenuous veil of our thoughts which are ever-changing.  Impenetrably, they stand hiding the substance from which they are fashioned.

What meditation is supposed to do can be illustrated by a firebrand being used in the dark to make a circle.  If we spin the firebrand fast enough the circle illusion appears.  If we stop, we only see the lighted end of the firebrand.  No more illusion, in other words.  Likewise, when a thoughts stop spinning, so to speak, we see the pure substance.  This is samadhi.  This, incidentally, takes us into the territory of the Lankavatara Sutra which is saying that our world is only the configuration of Mind or the Alaya.  This is another blog.

The two greatest problems with such a methodology is how do we stop being entranced by the spinning firebrand (our thought-forms), and how do we see this pristine substance?  Unfortunately, a teacher cannot help us at this point.  We have to become self-reliant.  We have always been the gatekeepers of our ignorance and awakening.  This is the time when some monks go into extended retreat—maybe for the rest of their lives.

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