Uncovering Pure Mind
“Pronounce yourself happy only when all your satisfactions come from reason and you find nothing to desire or prefer.” —Seneca
In modern times we like to think of ‘reason’ as something us glorious all-as-one humans impose upon the world from the outside. But, taking a slightly larger step back, is reason not simply the natural logic by which the world itself functions? We view logic, science, technology, philosophy, etc, as these royal pursuits for the greater good of humanity, but when we’re too humanocentric we neglect the deep nuances of the universe. This is why we see the modern world coming into constant conflict with nature. We engineered an internal logic that benefits the ideal world of humans but at the expense of the deep natural truths that keep us in line. This is a bizarre transfiguration of Western values— we started off thinking that God created man in his image, and now we think man can recreate the world in his image. Both of these are delusional. Our age-old attempts to defy nature have finally caught up to us.
We recognize the limitations of this point of view by simply examining where the ‘rational disciplines’ are today— science and philosophy tend to gravitate either towards the purely mathematical or the purely abstract. Neither of these extremes will help us understand the true nature of things. In the same way that a self-involved person won’t listen in a conversation, a self-involved humanity doesn’t understand that what they often call ‘reason’ is really just ‘human reason’. To find pure reason in nature itself is to discover a way to transcend subjective human experience and make peace with every spontaneous bit of chaos in the world.
This is, for better or worse, and impossible task, but it’s also the endless journey of spirituality. The early Chinese Zen master Huang Po wrote:
“This pure Mind, the source of everything, shines forever and on all with the brilliance of its own perfection. But the people of the world do not awaken to it, regarding only that which sees, hears, feels and knows as mind. Blinded by their own sight, hearing, feeling and knowing, they do not perceive the spiritual brilliance of the source-substance. If they would only eliminate all conceptual thought in a flash, that source-substance would manifest itself like the sun ascending through the void and illuminating the whole universe without hindrance or bounds.”
This is where Zen and Stoicism meet in the middle. We should not live to adhere to the naive humanism of classical reason, but instead follow the pure experience of the ‘source-substance’. This is what we experience in little bursts during intense moments of concentration in meditation. It is the world in its purest form, beyond the same petty desires and preferences that Seneca sought to overcome. Far above our selfish goals for the world is the reality of the world, its natural rankings and filings. These truths cannot be changed any more than we can defy gravity.
What are the practical applications of manifesting the ‘source-substance’ rather than clinging to stubborn human logic? For one, we stop trying to force the world into our selfish mold. We stop getting offended when other individuals see the world differently from us. We stop yearning for people to ‘complete’ us. We recognize that the material world is an illusion and we should not stumble through life competing with others and grabbing at various shiny objects and distractions. All goals are futile. We understand that every person has a place; happiness comes from learning to work within that place, suffering comes when we try to defy it or escape the true self. All of these lessons come from recognizing that the world is not made for nor by humans. When we let ourselves settle into pure experience, we can examine reality without any tinted lens. We get just a little bit closer to the truth of things. And as most mystical thinkers have reminded us throughout history, even a slight nudge in the direction of truth can completely change the way you go about your life.
