Basho, a master of haiku, is giving some hints to aspiring poets for authentic creativity to emerge and express itself. This is good advice for us yogis as well. If we see and listen inaccurately—internally or externally—then our actions will be flawed, unlikely to be wise or kind. If at dusk, as an ancient Indian story teaches, we perceive a rope to be a snake, fear is aroused in the body. Our reactions, emotions and speech may alarm other people, all because there was not full and accurate attention.
Go to the pine if you want to learn about the pine, or to the bamboo if you want to learn about the bamboo. And in doing so, you must leave your subjective preoccupation with yourself. Otherwise you impose yourself on the object and do not learn.
basho
How about mistakenly seeing a snake as a rope? Life could be endangered. Accuracy follows full attention. Inaccuracy follows inattention, absent-mindedness, and the many forms of mental distraction that occupy inner space. Following Basho’s advice, if we want to learn about the source of the needless suffering that is set in motion by inaccuracy in our perceptions, we have to go to ourselves!
Vipassana meditation is a vital part of this curriculum. To know ourselves is NOT a matter of thinking-knowing, nor the intelligence of accumulated knowledge. It is the freshness of a mind uncluttered by a lifetime of views, opinions, wounds, triumphs and failures…by conditioned consciousness. A mind not for or against anything is like a clear mirror reflecting whatever is in front of it accurately, and then completely cleansed when that departs (as it always does). Do you see this incessant coming and going in your own mind? Can the observing mind be intimate with whatever appears next, without reactivity? If there is “like” or “dislike”, can we see this? We dust off the mirror with the help of many techniques presented to us by the Buddha and generations of yogis devoted to direct, clear seeing, to the urgency and beauty of the journey of self-discovery taking us to freedom and sanity.
Wisdom practice—Vipassana—encourages us to see ourselves come what may, and in the process to become free. Of course the greatest challenge for us is in relationship with other people. When we bring our self-awareness practice to relationships we have to learn to be aware of what others say and do and of our subjective reaction simultaneously, in one sweep of awareness. With practice, awareness can turn a reaction (mechanical, conditioned) into a response that is fresh and more likely to be wise and kind. It is one thing to see shattered idealizations of ourselves in the privacy of our sitting practice, quite another when our unflattering behavior is witnessed and experienced by others! It is clear, at least for me, that nothing flushes out self-cherishing and attachment like relationship.
Right now, many of us are feeling anxious, or confused, or lonely, whether we live with others or on our own, whether we’re relating to our family, our pets, or our friends at work. Can you observe without too much distortion all that’s going on within and around you? Please remember, you’re not helpless, even in the midst of the pandemic, even in the midst of suffering at home or in your community. Whatever is happening is workable. Why? Because it is observable. You have a practice. You have tools. You just have to remember to do it! This IS the practice.