The Way of Life as the Mother of All Things

Existence is beyond the reach of words to define.

Descriptive words may be used, but all are approximate.

In the direct experiencing of things, there are no descriptive words.

Descriptive words are a later development in the scheme of things.

If we wish to use descriptive terms to describe existence,

we may say

that mysteriously,

existence appears, persists, and changes.

Such may be said of The Way of Life.

Lawrence Gold's rendering of

~ Lao Tzuh, Tao Teh Ching

or as the late Dr. Richard (Dick) Feynman put it:

I wonder why

I wonder why

I wonder why I wonder.

I wonder why I wonder why

I wonder why I wonder.

from Richard Feynman: The Adventures of a Curious Character

edited by Ralph Leighton

Smart fella. Also, a bit of a Zen smart-aleck.

FROM IDEA to EXPERIMENT

In practicing with The TetraSeed, we may come to notice that every different pairing of the four powers of the TetraSeed [  IMAGINING | INTENDING | REMEMBERING | ATTENDING TO  ] feels different from all of the other pairings. (There exist twelve combinations, in which forward and backward order makes a difference.) Never mind.

If we experiment with different pairings, we may also come to notice that when two different pairings balance with each other in intensity (take a breath and pause with that one) . . . . .  the unity of all four (two pairings of two) intuitively reveals "The Way as A Mother," as described in my rendering of the text.

Let's make that practical. Let's create and do an experiment. Here goes.

Examples of pairings:
< PSYCHOACTIVE >

"imagining intending"
"intending remembering"
"remembering attending to"
"attending to imagining"
"imagining remembering"
"intending attending to"

also

"attending to intending"
"remembering imagining"
"imagining attending to"
"attending to remembering"
"remembering intending"
"intending imagining"

< THAT'S ENOUGH, FOR NOW >

So, we have two pairs for consideration:

INTENDING ATTENDING TO

IMAGINING REMEMBERING

Here's the experiment. Do this.


INTENDING ATTENDING TO

A few times in succession, think to yourself or speak aloud with a pause after each line,
the words . . . . .

Intending

intending intending

intending attending to

attending to attending to

attending to intending

intending intending

intending attending to intending

attending to intending attending

Ok. That leaves you "resonating" a certain way, like a struck bell.


Now,

IMAGINING REMEMBERING

remembering
remembering imagining 
imagining imagining

imagining remembering
imagining remembering remembering
remembering remembering
imagining imagining
imagining remembering

imagining remembering imagining
remembering imagining remembering
imagining
remembering

Now, to show more clearly how those to pairings feel different,
let's start from the first one. Go ahead. 

Now do the second one. Alternate between them a few times. I'll wait.

By this example, I illustrate the "Children" of which The Way of Life is as a Mother: experience-able things of all kinds.

These TetraSeed pairings and rhythms create unique experiences that can be felt as "resonances". As "phenomena" -- events -- they are the "children" of the Way in its Mother metaphor.

If we now apply what we have learned to feel ( THOSE RESONANCES, IN THE FIRST EXPERIMENTS )  in a structured experiment, perhaps we may discover something more.

So, the next experiment:

Recall the feeling of 
INTENDING ATTENDING TO INTENDING ~ or ~ 
ATTENDING TO INTENDING ATTENDING TO 
Do that, now. I'll wait.

Now, recall the feeling of 
IMAGINING REMEMBERING IMAGINING ~ or ~
REMEMBERING IMAGINING REMEMBERING
Do that, now. I'll wait.

Repeat back and forth until the sensations "consolidate" (get denser and stabilize).

Do that now. I'll wait.


Now, as you repeat them back and forth, make them equally available, equally intense, equally vivid.

Notice what happens.

I'll wait.



Notice what happened? They fell transparent and revealed the silent presence, the field of undefined (or "infinite") consciousness, the "substance" of which all "thingness" is made, The Mother or Matrix of The Way, The Way as a Mother. Your mind turned to mush -- that is to say, dissolved.

That which we reach for, beyond grasping,
and call, unattainable
listen for and find inaudible
look for and never find
merge beyond conceptual comprehension (beyond understanding)
in a singleness or universality
that does not merely rise and bring light, as the sun,
nor set and leave darkness, as the sun,
but forever issues a succession of living events
as mysterious as the singleness of origin that is their substance
which itself has no quality, no location, no signal of its own
and so has nothing to change.

Lawrence Gold's rendering of

Lao Tzuh, The Tao Teh Ching

That is why wise human beings notice 

that the sense of substantiality we feel

when we combine 

the pairings of two into two balanced pairings

< YOU DID DO THE EXPERIMENTS, DIDN'T YOU? >

we feel the same sense of substantiality that we feel 

when we experience anything and everything else --

even ourselves.

It's something everything has in common.

The Sense of Substantiality

Thus, we feel the balanced combination of The Four Powers of The TetraSeed: as the very sense of substantiality:  "something there" or "something, here".

At the same time, the particular felt qualities of things recede from the Foreground to the Background, so that what is universal is all the more obvious. The sensation is of a gathering of attention in a steady, but unfocused, presence without location -- in a manner of speaking.

If we notice that sensation as our own state of tension, feel its texture, its shape and ours, and recognize it as our own mysterious stress pattern, we may desist from, cease to do, relax out of it. 

We lose a persistent feature of self-definition

lose concern about it

and lose concern about the center of things.

The Way is as a mother.

Know the children, but know the mother dearer.

~ Lao Tzuh, ibid.