And in this the irony sprouts into the paradox.ashley72 wrote:Practising exposes the same fallacy... practising for what? ... Those things just happen.
I was reading the first chapter of TPON to Sue on that very spot where that picture of the shoulder kitten was taken just now and came across this:
"When a thought subsides, you experience a discountinuity in the mental stream -- a gap of "no-mind." At first, the gaps will be short, a few seconds perhaps, but gradually they will become longer. When these gaps occur, you feel a certain stillness and peace inside you. This is the beginning of your natural state of felt oneness with Being, which is usually obscured by the mind. With practice, the sense of stillness and peace will deepen. In fact, there is no end to its depth. You will also feel a subtle emanation of joy arising from deep within: the joy of Being."
TPON Chapter 1 para 31
So we have two truths, yours and Eckharts. I've got no goal on that depth, but Hagen does speak a bit about "training the mind". One of the thoughts most likely to precede a persistent gap on the bench, with eyes closed and the mousehole conjured, is about practice itself; and it is astonishing to the mind how much more difficult and demanding Hagen's simple, stark practice, which would seem not so much different from the visualization ... just how much more of a challenge that would appear to be.
In the practice, and to say again -- every moment is an opportunity for practice -- as in the living ... the paradox dissolves as we express it by constantly falling effortlessly into existence.
Namaste