We do things, we experience things. We can have that separation between action and actor, as if we were a disembodied narrator to our own lives. If we look at a drop of dew at night, we can see the reflection of the moon in it. The eye, the sense of sight, and the form being seen are all irrelevant. The moon can be in the dewdrop, the dewdrop can reflect the moon, and the moon. The dewdrop, the moon, and the reflection constitute a single experience. There is no obstruction between any of those elements, they permeate each other freely, leaving no separation, while still being identifiable as moon, dewdrop, and reflection. There is no need for a play-by-play announcer telling us, "There's the moon, and now it's being reflected in the dewdrop, the dewdrop isn't passing the moon, Score!" The experience is...Just This.
A thought investigates the arising of thoughts, the succeeding aware of the arising of the preceding thought, the self studies the self until there is no self, and we are meshed into the one experience. Who is it that is experiencing these things?
Robert Koho Epstein gave the Dharma talk on August 9, 2023 at One Mind Zen.
