Friends:

No Substantial Object exists 'Out There' nor any Subject 'In Here'!

The Blessed Buddha once said:
In the seen is merely the process of seeing...
In the heard is merely the process of hearing...
In the sensed is merely the process of sensing...
In the thought is merely the process of thinking...
So knowing, you will not be connected 'with that'...
So disconnected you will not be absorbed 'into that'...
So neither 'with that' nor 'into that' You Are! not 'by that' sensation!!!
When there is no 'You' inferred or conjectured by that very sensation,
then 'You' are neither 'here', 'there', 'both', 'beyond' nor 'in between'...

On realizing the importance of this incident the Blessed One exclaimed:
Where neither solidity, fluidity, heat nor motion find any footing,
there no sun, moon nor star ever shines. There is neither any light,
yet nor is there any darkness! When the Noble, through stilling of
all construction, through quieting of all mental formation, directly
experiences this, then is he freed from both form & formlessness,
then is he released from both pleasure & pain ...

Source: The Udana – Inspirations by the Buddha: I - 10
http://www.pariyatti.com/book.cgi?prod_id=404214
http://www.accesstoinsight.org/canon/khuddaka/udana/index.html

Comments:
There is no-one who senses, nor substance sensed, even though the process of sensing occurs!
Seeing is just a selfless event of contact between the eye, the object & visual consciousness.
Neither any 'person' nor any 'observer' is involved nor can be inferred just by photographing!
No subject or 'I' is thereby created, just because there is an object, or just because there
occurs the process of sensing... Sensing itself, thus neither create any object nor any subject,
just as a camera - though making an image - do neither create the object, nor the photographer!
Neither can any 'substance' nor 'reality' per se be ascribed to neither object nor subject:
Just because there is a picture, one cannot by that in itself infer or ascribe any existence
to neither the object, nor the picture-maker! Both may be artificial and of past existence...
The fact that there is an image projected, does per se imply, in or by itself, that any-one
actually is 'looking in' or 'is behind' the camera … 'By that' perception no 'perceiver' is thereby
present or created... So the 'personal entity' we assume, suppose, deduce, expect & believe to
enjoy the experience, is merely a mental construct, an habitual idea, a concept, & not a reality...
The passive impersonal process of sensing, perception & experiencing cannot thereby be
'instrumental' for neither creating nor inferring any 'being in existence'. The fact of this
fundamental 'selflessness' is far the most essential core of the unique Buddha-Dhamma...
Outmost important to grasp, yet subtle, counterintuitive & thereby difficult & somewhat 'nasty'
to comprehend. Keep trying, since this central Anatta doctrine is the opener, releaser & freer
of any mind. Being hopelessly in love with an imagined idea of 'I' & 'World' is both fatal, tragic
& sardonically comic... Hehehe ;-)
 


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Updated: 22 Nov 2009 http://What-Buddha-Said.net/drops/II/No_Substance_'Out_There'.htm