Wednesday, February 16, 2011

The concept of Anatta

Half a year had lapsed since I last publicly shared my thoughts.

That's fast. Time flies. Time, in our third physical dimension, is linear, measurable, quantifiable.

With the passing of linear time as we have known and conditioned to, the neurons in my brain does seem to have acquired some new connections and pathways for the last 6 mths. 12 strands of DNA in a perfect being, yet we are only utilising 3% of 2 strands of DNA. Yeah, thats 2 STRANDS ONLY.

What's the other 10 strands doing ? Staying inactive, dormant ? Scientists have yet to discover what the other 10 strands are used for, though some speculated they contained the important genetic codes of human race, the workings of the subconscious mind and the "all-knowing" enlightened awareness of cosmic consciousness.

Oops, why am I in this...

Ok, anatta.

Anatta is derived from the concept of "no-self". When I first read this doctrine probably a year ago, I was quite confused. I love to probe, doubt and question till I think I finally got a satisfactory answer that mades real true sense. Doubting is always the essential prelude to steadfast and unwavering faith. It is not a lack of trust or faith, I doubt because I seek to believe strongly. Life is perception of realities and relativities.

Light comes from knowing there is dark
Love comes from understanding the illusion of hate, an ego-defense mechanism
The crave of peace comes through the sorrowful turbulences of war
And faith, is because we had once doubted strongly
Unwavering because we can finally see the real truth behind words and texts

The only question i always asked, does this meaning/doctrine/teachings create harmony/love/joy or discord/fear/helpless ?

Love is a simple word, but its meaning is "all-that-it-is". Understand it, apply it and you can know the answers. Pretty simple, but its seriously not easy.

Ok, anatta.

I was confused with this doctrine because how can a person disregard his self, cuts off his emotions and yet be able to spiritually advance himself ?

We are in humanoid forms, and this physical energy form that we have, comes with emotions. If we were to lose the concept of self, how are we going to evolve where loving kindness is a primary emotion.

Until i realised, words and doctrines/teachings are very difficult to comprehend till we do a self-discovery through experience, active self realisations and knowing it deeper, right into the source of our being.

This no-self is referring to our ego-self. The part of us, which drives our emotions and basic thoughts, turning them into realities. The concept of anatta teaches realities are an illusion. Which I pondered for quite sometime.

It's this. Our ego self is a fear based defence mechanism that comes attached to every human form. Every experience that we encountered since birth lives into the ego's memory, as a form of future self defense. Thus, as we grow, our reactions, our perceptions of life, is based on the thought forms of our past. If we did not have a happy past/childhood, these wounds will slowly eat into our subconsciousness mind, and forms the basis of how we view our reality.

And thus, the meaning of "realities are an illusion". Because, our realities are indeed an illusion of our mind, through thinking our ego represents ourselves.

To free ourselves from the burdens of our past that has conditioned us to think of who we are, are indeed who we are, we need to consciously understand the source of that feeling/thinking that arises in everything.

By understanding our ego self is not the self, we prevent attaching the emotions that arises. We can be fully aware, intuitive, and yet not attached to the situation or get eaten into the emotions. This is also an important step to prevent negative karmic consequences from forming due to our ignorance.

On the contrary, the idea of no-self lifts up the veil of fear through seeing the real source of every condition, often lying deep within our subconscious mind, linking way back to our past. And realising all of us are one. We attracts what comes to us. The law of attraction. Through forms and our five senses, we see a difference in one another. But we are all one. Made of the same energy, having the same sets of emotions, all seeking the same thing. The different forms of others enables us to see a part of ourselves which we fail to see. Be consciously aware of others as they are also a part of yourself.

Whenever I get angry, or stressed, the first reaction is always championed and directed by my ego. Its tough to get the ego to stay calm and listen to your higher self. This has to be done consciously and it really means giving up your sense of self-importance. The concept of no-self comes in. Situations that arises are always the mirror to show us where we are still lacking in. Anger at someone are sometimes anger at ourselves for not being able to handle the situation properly. An example would be a superiority complex to mask an underlying inferiority persona. When we realise that the arrrghhh arrogant person that we so hate, has a sad and difficult past, we will prevent the negative energies from coming to us, and from us spreading to others. We see the difficulty in them and their struggles and instead of being angry, we feel loving kindness towards them. That's how forgiving comes naturally.

That's when we stopped the destructive cycle of lower energies from circulating.

The past is past. Its an illusion of reality.
The future is the illusion of now.
To dissolve illusions, the NOW has to seek a path of emptiness & void. This is almost impossible when we are living in modern lives. It can be done, but it requires strength, wisdom and willpower to de-attach from being embroiled into daily phenomena.

Buddhism teaches that there is no soul self. Till date, I am still questioning on this. If there is no soul self, how could we evolve into higher beings ? Hence, this is something which I do not quite agree with, or do not have the ability and wisdom to understand its true meaning yet.