The body

The Horse: One Experience That Opened the Door to the Study of Figure-Names

In about 1997, at one point in my life, I had the opportunity to ordain and live in a forest temple, and my prayers at that time followed the approach of the teacher of the forest temple, one of the ways that the master took the temple to practice, called the "horse."

The word "horse" is in the northeastern language, meaning to dismantle, dismantle, or unpack what is assembled one by one.

So it's a prayer to consider and imagine the bodies we've seen as "one person" or "ourselves" gradually being separated layer by layer.

The Master started by reminding that the skin had been peeled from the body, and then slowly considered the flesh, the ligaments, the fascia, the membranes, and then removed the bones one by one.

Arm bones, leg bones, ribs, vertebrae, skull...

Gradually removed until the last bone was removed and discarded.

What's left?

This question that day did not arise in the form of sitting, thinking, reasoning, but arose from direct experience in prayer.

When the body at the center of the word "we" was completely knocked out, one of the things I experienced was:

There's still a sense of "know."

That day, for the first time, I began to see that what I knew was not necessarily the same thing as the body or the body we were familiar with.

Of course, my understanding was not very deep at the time.

I haven't seen the "name" clearly yet, and I haven't noticed that thoughts, memories, feelings, interpretations, and embellishments are also happening and going out.

What was touched then was therefore only a fuzzy understanding of what in practical language was called "the knower."

But that little experience turned out to be a very important starting point for me.

When the "body" that used to be us was separated,

Our daily lives are interesting in that we almost never see the body as a component.

When we look at ourselves in the mirror, we don't see skin, muscle, fat, ligaments and bone.

We immediately saw that.

"This Is Me"

When we look at others, we don't see those elements, we see mothers, fathers, children, lovers, friends, or people we don't like.

The mind brings together so many components and builds them into "one person" so quickly that we don't see the process.

So it's like doing the opposite.

From what the mind used to put things together to become "us."

Praying for a gradual dismantling of what was assembled.

The body didn't really disappear.

But the picture in my heart used to be tight that

"This body is me."

Beginning to be questioned.

The important thing may not be what is paddled, but what we are beginning to see.

In retrospect, I think the essence of that experience is not how clearly we can imagine stripping or removing bones.

What is more important is to find that the experiences we call ourselves may not be as simple as they once understood.

Before that, the words "I" and "this body" were virtually the same thing.

But when the pictures are completely separated, in the experience of prayer, knowledge arises.

There it raises a new question:

If the body isn't all ours, then

What is this knowing thing?

Later, this question led me to learn more about images and names, body and mind.

From seeing the body, he became interested in what was going on inside.

How did the idea happen?

How does the feeling happen?

When does memory come to work?

When did the interpretation and embellishment take place?

And most importantly, when did we take them as "me"?

From the body to seeing what the mind makes up.

Looking at this day, the experience of the paddock has attracted me to one question:

Is what we are experiencing in front of what our minds are building about it the same thing?

The body is an easily seen example.

But in real life, we may constantly do the same thing about other things.

People say a sentence to us.

But the heart may continue that

"He despised me."

Someone's not answering the message.

Mind may create that

"He doesn't see our importance."

One incident is not as it hoped.

The heart may continue to say

"My life has failed."

What actually happens may only be part of it, but the psyche can bring memory, fears, expectations, and stories of the past into its composition to become another set of "truths."

In this sense, the paddling gives a broader lesson than the consideration of the body.

It taught me to wonder

What parts of what we consider to be true and what parts of what our hearts make up?

That day is not the answer.

I didn't see that experience as the final answer.

On the contrary, it's just opening the door.

That day I began to see an ominous "knower," but I didn't see the thoughts, thoughts, memories, and embellishments clearly.

There is still a lot to learn from the experience of body and mind.

But sometimes a long journey begins with a single small experience.

For me, the "horse" experience when I was ordained in a forest temple around 1997 was one of its beginnings.

From dismantling one part at a time.

Leads to questioning the so-called "ourselves."

From seeing the picture.

Gradually led to the study of nouns.

Of trying to understand what's being known.

Leads to an interest in the "knower."

And from that day on, I was constantly interested in the study of the mind, the nom and the process by which the mind creates "our world."

Tell each other, not to believe or to follow, but to make my experience useful to those interested in praying, and perhaps to invite us to observe that

Of what we're calling "I" today.

What is body

What is the heart

What's really going on?

And what is our mind making up?