Omega II: Visiting with the Sages
Day 2 - Evening Session - Part 5

by Alisa Joaquin

David then asked if he could read something from the book that he brought. (And once again, David's own words explain it best.) He stated, "I came here armed. Remember I was talking about this book earlier. It's actually called Zero." That's the first, instead of one."

David then read from the book "All Else Is Bondage."

Zero Reads:

Enlightenment and the Extinction of 'Me'

David stated that this was really going to be difficult to understand. Then he qualified and stated that HE did not understand it then followed up with reading the part.

"Doing away with the I-notion is the same as not desiring the personal attainment of enlightenment."

He added his own thoughts in between reading the passage. He stated, "Personal attainment. In other words, what difference does it make whether you or I attain enlightenment? The whole universe is going to go on anyway. I mean, so the problem is the desire to attain it. (At this point he's partially paraphrasing and reading.) And not desiring that, it's called the last desire, the last barrier. Not desiring it is having it. Because having it is any case merely being rid of that which concealed of that which concealed what is forever that which alone we are.

"I know that sounds really complex, but all it's saying is that if you just stop wanting it, it's just like having it. Because the only thing, it's like, God, I've always wanted a PT Cruiser. And then you get the PT Cruiser and now you have the PT Cruiser, even if it just sits there in the garage and keep getting it shiny, the desire is gone. You cannot even see it. But you no longer can say I always wanted a PT Cruiser, and suppose you hated it. But you still got rid of the desire. I'm not saying this quite right." He then read the rest of the passage.

"Therefore not desiring personal attainment of that is at the same time the elimination of the I-notion (which is the whole notion that conceals the truth, that me, me, me thing) which constitutes its concealment.

"This is the core thing (he stated then read),

"The idea of liberation automatically inhibits the simple realization that we are free.

"If you think about that, if you say, 'We have to be free of this stuff. We need to have a revolution.' Well all that does is that it makes you forget the fact that you are already free. Everybody's always saying about me that, even about that questionaire I was telling you about, asking all these questions. One of the questions is "What irritates you the most." People come up with these, you're supposed to get this questionaire, fill it out, and send it on to your friends, and they're supposed to send it back to you as well. I send it out, you know, and INSTANTLY I got back all these emails, you know, which everybody's thinking about all these statistics being what irritates me the most. Everybody's irritated by something. And what I remember what I wrote down was, I thought and I said, 'Nothing bothers me,' and sort of nothing does."

Everyone laughed at that point and David looked over at Ron and said, "Rob, I think is down that road, too. And David (Nakahara) confirmed just a few minutes ago, 'Yeah, nothing bothers you.' I mean, if I don't eat I'm happy. I didn't sleep I'm happy. This is a good one. This is called GENESIS.

(Reads another passage)

"And this is very much like what we've been teaching here:

I move,

Space becomes (as a result of my movement),

David comments, "There is no space until I move into it. Everything that we see is happening right here. It's funny; we just take it on faith that the image that's right here on our eye is really something that the world placed there. It's not just something that we're imagining but we don't actually, we don't really perceive anything out here. It's all burned on our retina. So, space becomes as a result of my movement.

Time is born (as the result of my movement in space),

I have objects (because I have become the subject of space and time),

Again David comments, "Until I say I, there is no object out there. There are no other people out there.

Dualism is established,

David states, "There isn't any dualism until I define myself as a separate person, because otherwise it is all one thing. Me, you, the floor your sitting on, the building, the fact that it's cold outside and everything else, all these departmentalizations that mortals do, and what the Tao teaches us and what Christianity teaches us, all the great philosophies teach us is that there isn't any such thing as duality. The yin and the yang is just a joke. It's all one thing. But as soon as we establish this idea of ego, we're born, we get an ego, and we want things. We want to be admired, that separates us from everything else. You go, well that person's fatter than I am. I don't look old for my age. And all this thing starts happening. That's what becomes the texture of life, all those little things like that, like I want a PT Cruiser, and uh,

The Universe appears,

And David states, "Because we just imagined it. Because we just decided I'm me, so there's our universe now,

I identify myself with my objects (and there are illusory egos),

I suffer illusory (and suffering becomes universal).

And that's the whole paragraph. I said so many things in the middle of it, you're probably not even clear what the paragraph was. But that is how the universe gets born in this Taoist version instead of saying, in the beginning there was darkness, we did it all ourselves. Then the other thing is called, METANOESIS. I have no idea what that's about. But what it is, is the opposite of the first one, which says, the first one in the beginning, if you remember, with I Move. This one begins with I repose. It's like what you were doing, this meditation things, this thing of sitting and being quiet,

I repose,

Space vanishes (for I have ceased to move),

Time ceases (for there is no movement to measure),

There are no objects (for I am no longer a subject),

Dualism is no more,

The universe disappears,

There are no illusory egos,

There is no suffering,

I am, but there is no 'me'.

I think this stuff is so cool," David said with a smile. "And the other thing that I found out is, is, is if you think, you talk about Christianity, the teachings of Christ, the real teachings, not the stories. I went to my mother who was a very religious person. I said to her, 'You know this thing about Taoism, which it seems to me I read this book where it's the same thing as quantum mechanics and I think it's also the same thing as the teachings of Christ.' And she said, 'Well the difference is in the teachings of Christ we have an example. And with Taoism we don't really have an example. With quantum mechanics we have the atomic bomb that shows us this works.' That's sort of supposed to get a laugh. But . . ." a few people did laugh at that. "Anyway, that was my whole little, what do you call it? Might be digression, interpulation into this."

Someone asked him the name of the book and he stated the name, "All Else is Bondage. And the subtitle is Non-Volitional Living. The idea that you eliminate, and I have something I say about that, if you eliminate desire you eliminate the fact that you don't have things. You eliminate hope, you eliminate despair, which is, that's how nirvana works. I don't care for the nirvana thing very much. I answer that in this thing here (referring to the questionaire), this question is, Is the reality of Non-Duality possible on the 3rd dimensional backdrop? I answer, Yes, but not in society, I think. Maybe on a mountain top. Anyway, eliminate hope and you eliminate despair. Eliminate sorrow and you'll probably miss out on joy. A very real question is who wants that? We like roller coasters. Golfers like tough courses. Ecstasy, Agony. Hot and cold. We like sweet and we like tart. What are emotions for if not to feel them? If we do away with hate, will we loose love in the bargain? And then I say Nirvana is probably a dead end. I'm not getting any laughs. Okay that's all I wanted to do. For the moment any way."

End of Day 2 - Evening Session - Part 5

Alisa Joaquin Copyright@2001.
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