If you have seen a statue of the Buddha, you may have noticed a subtle smile on his lips. His expression remains tranquil and detached, yet his smile betrays a hint of amusement, as if watching squirrels at play. We don't watch squirrels chase each other around with a critical eye, judging the quality of their antics and measuring one squirrel against another. We merely watch and enjoy. When we learn to abandon the habit of judging and measuring the things we encounter in our everyday lives, we come one step closer to seeing the world through the Buddha's eyes.What did the Buddha mean when he said things like length and shortness are non-substantial? Imagine placing a stick on the ground. Alone, it is just a stick. Now, place a longer stick on the ground, next to the first. How would you describe the first stick? Shorter. The stick is the same as it was before, so what changed? Only your mind. Before measuring one stick against the other, the concepts of length and shortness did not arise. Because of your own mental projection, and for no other reason, one stick became short, while another became long.
It may be tempting, when discussing such dualities as light and dark, for the concept of balance to come to mind. This is not about balance. There is no mystical state of balance between the concepts of "long" and "short." These are mental formations, without substance. Light and dark, white and black, good and evil--none of them can exist without a basis of measure, and someone to measure them.
We observe that the nature of grass is to be green, and the nature of the sky is to be blue. When we make these observations, however, we also create the nature of not-green, and not-blue. All are without substance, and vanish the instant we cease to think of them. The sky is not blue until it is observed to be blue. In fact, the sky is not even sky until it is observed to be sky. Before being observed and quantified, a thing simply "is what it is."
Quantum theory demonstrates the act of observation actually changes what is being observed. The very moment we focus our attention upon a thing, the nature of the thing changes. Everything we can think of works in this manner.
Descartes famously stated, "I think, therefore I am." He reasoned that, in order to get down to the true nature of things, we must start with the assumption that nothing exists. In the same way I can walk down the street, I can also imagine walking down the street, or dream of walking down the street. For this reason, the senses are proven fallible and unreliable. Of only one thing can I be certain: Because there is a thought of something outside the self, there is, by necessity, some form of "self" having the thought.
Eckhart Tolle expertly noted this phenomena in his book, "The Power of Now." As we learn to listen to the mind's dialogue--the constant "color commentary" we hear in our heads most of the time--we may gradually become aware of a second "self." On one hand, we have the talker--the active mind, racing around and commenting about everything. And then we have the listener--the mysterious, quiet entity, patiently listening to the talker prattle on. Suddenly, we may feel a little crazy. "Wait, there's two of me?" Indeed, this can come as a startling revelation. This calmly observing entity we have discovered is the "I" in Descartes' "I think, therefore I am." It is the real you, empty of all compound formations; completely, profoundly, sublimely, whole and perfect.
As we learn to still the active mind, listening and observing without judgments, measurements, or conclusions, we begin to see the world in its pure form. Like in the eye of a hurricane, we can be calm and peaceful in the center of chaos. We may feel more alive, and more tuned-in to the Universe. Circumstances and events that once caused stress or anxiety lose their power over us. Compassion grows, and worry lessens. These things happen naturally, without effort, when the "talker" stops talking and the "listener" wakes up. This is what it means to "awaken." In fact, the word "Buddha" actually means "awakened one." As we become more skillful in observing the world in this way--quietly, without judgment--we may suddenly find ourselves smiling...just like the Buddha.
~ Heather Haze
