As long as one thinks that bugs should not be there, that the surface must be calm and peaceful, there will be dissatisfaction. What is dissatisfaction? When things don't match our expectations. Now, is the source of the problem found in the things or in the expectations? Or, in Zen lingo, do you hit the cart or the horse?duckfiasco wrote:The difficult point I think is the ceaseless, instantaneous identification with what the mind does. I see dukka woven into the mind but think "well, what else is there other than this churning out of thoughts, feelings etc.?"
It feels like trying to watch the surface of a lake, and bugs keep skittering by.
Now, they're going to do that no matter what, but I seem to pay attention to every single one to the point of exhaustion, and I've lost sight of the water's calm surface. All I see is bugs making endless ripples.
If you believe that you are your mind, your consciousness, your attention or whatever else, then you want to freeze it in some state you consider acceptable. If you want control over what happens, that is assuming a self. But if you want to disassociate from everything going on, that is also assuming a self. What you might want to see is that even when you get lost in a stream of ideas, that is as insubstantial as everything else. Don't consider one type of experience good and another type bad. That's because this kind of like-dislike attitude is the very problem. If you focus on the bugs, then just focus on them, it is the same awareness as the awareness of the whole lake. In fact, both are just temporary experiences. The question is whether you want to stay somewhere, want to move somewhere, or not.