In quantum mechanics, until a superposed system entangles with you (i.e., information about the system reaches you), you are not entitled to say that it is in a definite state. In a meaningful sense, the place you call "the world" comes into definite existence only when it comes into contact with you.
A key lesson from Mahayana Buddhism is that the world you think you are passively experiencing is actually a world that you are fabricating. Listen to a sound. It seems like it is happening to you, right? Well, it turns out that if your attention becomes precise and subtle enough, you'll discover that you are constructing that experience out of a slew of assumptions and habits.
In both of these descriptions, the word "you" is central, but what does it really refer to? Who or what are you, exactly? Discovering the answer to this question is, of course, another crucial issue in Buddhism. Who is fabricating the world? What is that without which no world exists?
A common meditation to learn first is breathing meditation, where you passively observe the sensations of breath. With practice, you may learn to passively observe other sensations as well. The pinnacle of this kind of practice is to be the silent observer of your entire field of experience. This is sometimes called "bare attention"; a kind of raw perception supposedly without interpretation.
But in such a practice, there's a subtle activity that's not privy to observation: the very effort required to artificially separate oneself from the field of experience. And until that subtle effort is released along with the rest of the field of perception, it is impossible to uncover even subtler forms of identity.
When the subtle effort of distancing "oneself" from perception finally subsides, it becomes clear that the whole radiant field of experience is experiencing itself. Listen to a sound again, and notice that the experience is a sort of energetic phenomenon. This energy can manifest as sound, as color, as smell, as thought, etc. You are not a separate self experiencing this energy; "you" are the energy itself, contorting itself into a form called "my human perspective." The whole experience you call "the world" is made of you.
The task before you is to discern how exactly you play this game of hide-and-seek. You are all that exists, and yet you form yourself into a perspective that seemingly doesn't know or believe this. In fact, in most incarnations, it flatly refuses to even consider such mystical nonsense.
Sooner or later, though, the game will be up.
A key lesson from Mahayana Buddhism is that the world you think you are passively experiencing is actually a world that you are fabricating. Listen to a sound. It seems like it is happening to you, right? Well, it turns out that if your attention becomes precise and subtle enough, you'll discover that you are constructing that experience out of a slew of assumptions and habits.
In both of these descriptions, the word "you" is central, but what does it really refer to? Who or what are you, exactly? Discovering the answer to this question is, of course, another crucial issue in Buddhism. Who is fabricating the world? What is that without which no world exists?
A common meditation to learn first is breathing meditation, where you passively observe the sensations of breath. With practice, you may learn to passively observe other sensations as well. The pinnacle of this kind of practice is to be the silent observer of your entire field of experience. This is sometimes called "bare attention"; a kind of raw perception supposedly without interpretation.
But in such a practice, there's a subtle activity that's not privy to observation: the very effort required to artificially separate oneself from the field of experience. And until that subtle effort is released along with the rest of the field of perception, it is impossible to uncover even subtler forms of identity.
When the subtle effort of distancing "oneself" from perception finally subsides, it becomes clear that the whole radiant field of experience is experiencing itself. Listen to a sound again, and notice that the experience is a sort of energetic phenomenon. This energy can manifest as sound, as color, as smell, as thought, etc. You are not a separate self experiencing this energy; "you" are the energy itself, contorting itself into a form called "my human perspective." The whole experience you call "the world" is made of you.
The task before you is to discern how exactly you play this game of hide-and-seek. You are all that exists, and yet you form yourself into a perspective that seemingly doesn't know or believe this. In fact, in most incarnations, it flatly refuses to even consider such mystical nonsense.
Sooner or later, though, the game will be up.
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