“You are seen, House-builder – you won’t build the house again.
Your rafters are broken, the roof beam destroyed. The mind is unconditioned, craving ended.”
– The Dhammapada, verse 154. Translated by Christopher J. Ash.
Mindfulness, when developed, reveals one’s identification with self-images. As a result, there is the experience of the absence of small-‘I’ identity. Such is the ending of rebirth. I am often touched by this, because it appears to me that entering physical death purely, utterly alone, must be like this.
Imagine that someday you’re simply being yourself. You may be enjoying a conversation with friends, or walking by the seas, or listening to some music. There’s no need, right now, of artifice. Your defences have been put aside.
Your mindfulness is present, so your self-reflective capacity is clear and non-conceptual; it’s not seeking anything outside of present-moment experience. What could there be, outside the present moment? You become aware for a moment that your presence is not based on images, and you are just being. You feel the breeze touch your face.
You have no power to change the moment, because it is what it is. Of course, you need no such power, if you are a lover of truth. There is just this naked now; no accumulation, no dust. If you’re with your friends, their voices don’t need any inward comment from you. The reality doesn’t need augmenting, or reducing. Whatever is being said is transparently clear, comprehended without grasping.
What is this? Who or what am I? Nothing seems to apply. Big-B ‘Being’ doesn’t apply right then. Small-b ‘being’ doesn’t apply. Utterly open. How is this any different, in naked awareness, from:
“You are at the end of your life, and proceeding to meet the Lord of Death (Yama).
Inside (the experience) you have no power, and nothing for the journey.
“Make of yourself an island. Hasten to make an effort. Be wise.
With impurities removed, spotless, you won’t come to birth and old age again.”
– The Dhammapada, verses 237-238. Translated by Christopher J. Ash.