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scale

March 6, 2019

Gotama’s method is training to observe our experience clearly, so that we can see the characteristics of impermanence (constant change), not-self (seeing experience & our naïve view of self), & dukkha (suffering & stress). Without training, the mind does not observe at the right scale to see this. We are wired to assume the scale of a self, an abstraction bigger than the smallest parts of experience. We identify with the body, feelings, & thoughts as a whole; together these become a solid something in conflict with the world. Mindfully observing experience, we see something quite different: a continuous storm-surge of sensations, likings & not-likings, fragments of memory, emotions & thoughts—a chaotic, frantic process of making a story out of it all. It’s not a lack of objective reality, but our lack of ability to know clearly what is really going on. We train to see at a different scale of experience—millisecond mental events, the pieces that create the kaleidoscope of self-concept. This provides the right perspective, the right scale, for seeing dukkha (suffering & stress) arise. Seeing this, we can release our experience from enchantment with the larger scale of self, of individual life & death, of ideas & collections of interlocking ideas. Ultimately, the mind trained by Gotama’s teachings can transcend scale. We no longer think of any scale as the scale that is “right.”

practice • three characteristics • sati

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