I Don't Mind

Over the years, walking with my dog Buddha has become the cornerstone of my daily meditation. As we walk, events small and large flow by. Thoughts and feelings appear, linger for a moment, then disappear. Others immediately take their place. I regard them with impartial curiosity. Buddha sniffs.

As the Persian saying goes, “The dogs may bark but the caravan moves on.”

This morning my thoughts swirled around this question: Just what is "enlightenment" anyway? What do I think about that elusive, treacherous word these days?

I've been poking at that question off and on since I read Alan Watts in 1972, but I still don't have an answer for it.

I do have some intuitions about what enlightenment is not. For example, I don't think it's an end-state that someone can strive for, achieve and then rest in. In this case striving seems to negate the possibility of achievement. And few ever stay in one mental state for the rest of their lives.

The best I can come up with for what it might be, is that it seems more like an ongoing relationship with the world and oneself. The relationship is often characterized by the acceptance of whatever happens and a lack of desire to judge. This interpretation was well expressed by Jiddu Krishnamurti, who was reported (in the article below) to have said, "Do you want to know what my secret is? You see, I don't mind what happens."

“Not minding what happens” is a very simple approach, and appears to be one of the keys - but it's both profound and difficult.
It's profound because it allows us to see the world (which includes ourselves) more as it really is - without the coloration that is automatically overlaid on our understanding by our learned judgments and reflexive emotions.

It's difficult because we are taught from birth to mind very much what happens. This cultural teaching is so pervasive that "not minding" may be seen as evidence of moral failure or even pathology.

What fascinates me is that "not minding" in this sense seems to be a direct outcome of mindfulness. To be fully mindful of something, you have to not mind what it is. But in order to be mindful one has to "not mind" a lot of difficult and contradictory stuff. For example, I have to not mind that I sometimes become reactive, attached and even angry about things. I have to "not mind" hearing that Syrian children are drowning on the beaches of Lesbos. Or that Donald Trump might become President of the US. Or that the human race could perhaps go extinct in a handful of decades, and that whether we disappear or not, a host of other species will suffer and vanish at our hands.

Becoming enlightened in this way requires one not to mind spending the rest of one's life outside the perimeter of the human village, out of the circle of firelight where the story-tellers weave their illusions. This sort of "not minding" is value that few are prepared to cultivate. It requires an arduous and deliberate deprogramming and replacement of one's learned value systems, and if one actually succeeds the social costs may be enormous.

So the question becomes, even if you could achieve this sort of enlightenment - would you want it? The answer is usually no, which is why most people pursue something more like "enlightenment lite". That approach simply requires a combination of positive thinking, imperturbable behavior and the ability to come up with wise-sounding quotes.

This is all just my opinion, of course. Others will disagree with me - but I don't mind.

The Guru who Didn't Believe in Gurus