Gaps
We don’t spend as much time thinking and caught in ego as we think. We are used to grasping at permanence and substantially, so those things that do come up we grab and string together into what seems to be a moment after moment reality. But in between there is a lot of space - a lot of openness. I’m thinking that there may be more space than substance. We don’t notice this because it is something we ignore - we ignore it because to identify with it would cause the loss of self - which seemingly risks the end of survival! When I watch my thoughts, my memories and projections, I can see that there are big gaps. At times it seems possible to absorb into those gaps. The thinking may not even need to disappear. It may be that even in the midst of a wild deluge of rancid thinking, that there is still mostly space, or gap.
Mike said,
07.20.06 at 6:09 am
Interesting observation. I think you’re definitely right, there are gaps. And that’s where our grasping self immediately pulls a thought into consciousness (for the reasons you noted) or turns on the TV or the radio. I wonder, however, how big these gaps are. Actually, I theorize that the more one meditates, the bigger the gaps become because we don’t feel as strong a need to fill those gaps with more and more stuff. Before reading your post here, my mind was in a rapid-thinking, working state - definitely not a calm mindful state. So after reading your post, I left it in this state, but I focused on mindfulness as I went about my work. I notice that there are small gaps, that my mind then fills with the next thought. However, I think there are larger “gaps” that are different from the ones you describe. These “gaps” feel like no-thought, sort of like the real gaps, but there’s a subtle difference. When I look a little deeper, these “gaps” are really a grasping onto the state of “zone out.” So while no thoughts are filling that gap, there is still a grasping, unlike the true gaps that lie in between moments of thought.
Great thought-provoking (or, in other words, gap-reducing
) post!
beesucker said,
07.20.06 at 9:15 am
Don’t blame me! Gasps is gaps. Thinking about gaps is something else. Don’t worry about grasping at zoning out, just look at the gaps in between things. If thinking comes, then, lots of gaps, much more opportunity to see. What is that gap made up of? It isn’t one of the elements - it can’t be grasped. As soon as it is grasped, you have lost the gap. Then there’s another! What do you think? Is there more space (gap) or letters in this comment? I wonder.