Are we face-to-face, in symmetrical relationship, object to confronting object, each shutting out the other? Quite the contrary. Here where I am is no face, no speck of anything to ward you off with, to resist your invasion. Whether I like it or not, I’m so wide open to you that your face is mine and I have no other.
(Douglas Harding from ‘Open to the Source’, edited by Richard Lang*)
If time is taken to take facts as they are, based on present evidence rather than on belief, where is the separation between you and me to be found? What I see here is you, and (I suggest) what you see there is, in fact, me - or whoever happens to be with you. We are seen to be interdependent in actual experience, not only in Buddhist theory. The apparent separate self is nothing more than an apparition, and it is none other than the Buddha that sees this ghostly delusion for what it is. You are my 'Buddha Face.'
*'Open to the Source' is published by Inner Directions and available via the Headless Way website, linked on the right of this blog.
6 comments:
Being Schizoaffective I sometimes get hallucinations. One being seeing things. Some good but mostly scary. One good one is seeing everything in tiny molecules that seen in a wide picture connect into one big picture.
It's like looking at one of those pictures sold of a famous person like Bob Marley made of tiny pictures of other things. Such as ocean related pictures.
This also reminds me of that movie, "I Heart Huckabees." It's a little crude in parts but does have a Buddhist quality to it. I guess it being a bit wild in nature it would be a Zen film lol.
Ah, and that face is so beautiful!
Interesting observations, James.
I've had visions during meditation, as well as what's often called lucid dreams, both of which can be very enjoyable or very disturbing. Of course, as soon as I open my eyes, they disappear.
I can only imagine what it's like to have the disorder you write of; as you've written previously, it's a testament to the efficacy of Buddhism that it helps you so much with the schizoaffective condition you have. (And a testament to your own abilities to successfully apply Buddhist teachings to your life!)
Yes, Peter: each face is truly beautiful when it is seen that it is the face of the Buddha - even the one in the mirror!
Beautiful
Beautiful, indeed, Buddhist Amulet.
G
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