The Tao of Dark Sages - Chapter 7, Part 3

The Tao of Dark Sages
by Scott Bradley

Can I break the flow a bit and ask something that’s been bugging me for awhile? It’s about “not existing” — I don’t understand how, if I don’t exist, I should spend all this time and effort thinking about..."I."

I like to picture a wild flower like those all around us (and it is hoped that we can managed not to eat them all!). We are like that flower. It’s very real and beautiful. It’s just that it won’t be around for very long. And when it’s gone, it’s gone. It is, of course, part of something larger that it cannot know, but not in the sense of a separate identity.

It is absurd, of course, to say, “I do not exist” since the “I” is being affirmed in the statement. I like to say: My sense of individual existence is entirely transitory.

Maybe if we had said that earlier we wouldn’t have lost so many friends!

(Chuckles)

We haven’t lost them really. And maybe their departure was for the best, all the way around.

I can understand the transitory nature of the self — somehow it seems obvious. But what of awareness? I, too, have come to sense that I am this awareness and that that awareness is other than the self. Can we say that as awareness we truly exist?

Can any of us say anything of awareness? I certainly can’t. And so, I can only say that all that I experience of myself I find to be transitory. Has anyone here found it to be otherwise?

Since none of us have apparently experienced a quantum leap in understanding with regards to awareness, it seems none of us can say much about it. It does seem like it would be dishonest to assert something about it now. And I wonder if we could ever say anything definitive about awareness.

I agree, Sue-tzu. I’m sure we will be going there in someway soon, but for now, let’s consider the self. Sue-tzu asked us to consider enjoying our selves. I’d like to hear what you have discovered in doing so.

If you're interested in reading more from this series by Scott Bradley, go here.