We are like the wind. Feel it, that blowing in the air, but try to find permanence in the wind, and it evaporates.
This statement, I believe, is very similar to the paradox we find in ourselves. Our perception of ‘self’ is extremely strong but when we meditate on “I” and try to find a permanence there, we fail. We are interesting creatures, the way we categorise and label. We even name the winds! Sirocco for example, a Mediterranean wind. But actually, as we all understand at an academic level, wind is just the movement of air molecules driven by air pressure, temperature change or even the turning of the earth! I think it is a desire to avoid complexity that drives our in built need to label. It simplifies things. But we can look beyond this.
Here I am, sat on Pendennis Point, Falmouth, on a beautiful sunny day, watching the yachts in the bay. The wind, a few moments ago was playing across my body. A gentle wind. Yet it has to be a completely different ‘wind’ to the one driving the Yachts down in the sea. They are leaning over and moving quickly in their ‘wind’ So the winds that the yachtsmen and I are experiencing are individual. They have ‘character’. Or so our perceptions tell us.
I look up. The different clouds at different heights are moving in different directions driven by their own individual ‘winds’. Then, in an instant, my ‘wind’, the one that has been keeping me company for the last 5 minutes as it travels across my body, dissipates and disappears. It hasn’t gone anywhere of course because my ‘wind’ wasn’t there in the first place. It was merely dependent arising. An apparent something created by my perception and the combined events that led to the air moving in a particular way. The only reason the ‘wind’ exists at all is because I am sitting on this bench feeling it. If I weren’t here, my ‘wind’ would never have existed. In fact, I understand that all these different ‘winds’ are existing in this same vast body of air in which I am resting. The ‘winds’ are merely different movements in the same air mass. They don’t have individuality. They are part of that same mass of air molecules. Of course, it helps us to identify the ‘winds’ If we talked about molecular movement it would make the task of sailing rather more difficult (and probably a lot less enjoyable!)
But, these winds I feel, are like me. I am after all, a collection of dust, air, water, energy and space. One day this collection of things will dissipate back into the mass of elements that make up the earth and universe.
I have my consciousness of course. The wind certainly doesn’t have this. However, when I meditate on this and experience my consciousness I discover it is made up of just a jumble of thoughts relating to things in the past and plans and desires for the future. Just a jumble of thoughts. When I calm my mind, these dissipate too. So I think that my consciousness will also dissipate one day leaving nothing. But then, if I am like the wind, there isn’t anything to dissipate anyway. I am but dust already. I just happen to have the perception, (or is it an illusion?) of self. I am just a bubble of consciousness born out of the universe, experiencing things with this set of 5 senses.
A seagull flies overhead. Her universe is entirely different to mine. Yes, it has similarities. She probably has the same 5 senses but balanced in a different way. In his world, these winds that play across her are far more important than in mine.
This statement, I believe, is very similar to the paradox we find in ourselves. Our perception of ‘self’ is extremely strong but when we meditate on “I” and try to find a permanence there, we fail. We are interesting creatures, the way we categorise and label. We even name the winds! Sirocco for example, a Mediterranean wind. But actually, as we all understand at an academic level, wind is just the movement of air molecules driven by air pressure, temperature change or even the turning of the earth! I think it is a desire to avoid complexity that drives our in built need to label. It simplifies things. But we can look beyond this.
Here I am, sat on Pendennis Point, Falmouth, on a beautiful sunny day, watching the yachts in the bay. The wind, a few moments ago was playing across my body. A gentle wind. Yet it has to be a completely different ‘wind’ to the one driving the Yachts down in the sea. They are leaning over and moving quickly in their ‘wind’ So the winds that the yachtsmen and I are experiencing are individual. They have ‘character’. Or so our perceptions tell us.
I look up. The different clouds at different heights are moving in different directions driven by their own individual ‘winds’. Then, in an instant, my ‘wind’, the one that has been keeping me company for the last 5 minutes as it travels across my body, dissipates and disappears. It hasn’t gone anywhere of course because my ‘wind’ wasn’t there in the first place. It was merely dependent arising. An apparent something created by my perception and the combined events that led to the air moving in a particular way. The only reason the ‘wind’ exists at all is because I am sitting on this bench feeling it. If I weren’t here, my ‘wind’ would never have existed. In fact, I understand that all these different ‘winds’ are existing in this same vast body of air in which I am resting. The ‘winds’ are merely different movements in the same air mass. They don’t have individuality. They are part of that same mass of air molecules. Of course, it helps us to identify the ‘winds’ If we talked about molecular movement it would make the task of sailing rather more difficult (and probably a lot less enjoyable!)
But, these winds I feel, are like me. I am after all, a collection of dust, air, water, energy and space. One day this collection of things will dissipate back into the mass of elements that make up the earth and universe.
I have my consciousness of course. The wind certainly doesn’t have this. However, when I meditate on this and experience my consciousness I discover it is made up of just a jumble of thoughts relating to things in the past and plans and desires for the future. Just a jumble of thoughts. When I calm my mind, these dissipate too. So I think that my consciousness will also dissipate one day leaving nothing. But then, if I am like the wind, there isn’t anything to dissipate anyway. I am but dust already. I just happen to have the perception, (or is it an illusion?) of self. I am just a bubble of consciousness born out of the universe, experiencing things with this set of 5 senses.
A seagull flies overhead. Her universe is entirely different to mine. Yes, it has similarities. She probably has the same 5 senses but balanced in a different way. In his world, these winds that play across her are far more important than in mine.
2 comments:
Really nice post, Andy, very deep and insightful.
You raise a good point when you say "I think that my consciousness will also dissipate one day leaving nothing." - after all, what is this "consciousness" that you speak of? Is it just an awareness of our existance? I don't know. What will happen to it after I die? I don't know that either.
I love the way, however, you compare it to the wind. The wind is just air molecules bumping around; when the wind stops, the air molecules remain. What causes consciousness to arise, and what will remain when consciousness fades? I always like the analogy of waves in the sea - the waves are the sea, yet not the sea. Each wave is different, each wave comes in to existance and disappears, yet the sea remains.
Now my head is spinning.....!
haha, my thinkig too!
You wrote "I am after all, a collection of dust, air, water, energy and space. One day this collection of things will dissipate back into the mass of elements that make up the earth and universe."
It's not only that this collectio of things will return to the universe at my death, they never left it in the first place. I am, we are just a small part of the universe conditioned with consciousness. Am I perceiving? Am I conscious? Or just the universe 'having' feelings, perceptions, responses and consciousness?... Turning experience inside out like a glove!
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