Dogen believes concepts are experienced in three dimensional space as reality. The thoughts of the one mind are what is real, not the characters in the manifestation of the thought.



For example, I am sitting with my friend "sharing" a piece of chocolate cake and coffee. To my ego, I am sitting across the table from my friend, and I am assuming that he is real. He is sitting across from me and likewise is assuming that I am real as is the experience of eating cake, drinking coffee, and exchanging words. According to Dogen what is really happening is the experience of "sharing". It is the "one mind" who is experiencing "sharing" by manifesting the concept in three dimensional space. It is the "sharing" that is real, not the characters.

Sitting in bed this morning I was thinking about this concept. I pictured myself and another at the table with cake and coffee. As I imagined this act of "sharing" I noticed the image was only two dimensional. The Image had height and wide but no depth. Then I started to notice that all my other thoughts likewise were two dimensional. While I sat there motionless in my bed my experience or recollection of everything I know was two dimensional.

It was only when I moved, that I experienced the third dimension of depth. I kept my eyes closed as I got up, put on my house coat and walked out of my bedroom to the washroom. It was in the act of moving that I experienced three dimensions and the experience of being alive.

Awareness is not life-the experience of life is movement. I walked past by living room window and opened my eyes. My eyes wondered across the calm waters of the inlet to the other shore, and in between myself and the backdrop of houses, streets, and mountains where small sail boats at rest, trees, and space. I closed my eyes and the space was gone. I could still see the images, but I could not experience them as real or three dimensional.

While sitting back from my keyboard with my eyes closed I tried to image my own awareness and the essence of self. There was only a concept or an idea that I was there until I got a pain in my back and experienced the distance to my lower back. If I hold myself perfectly still there is only an awareness of self, not an experience of the body until something physical is sensed, some kind of movement.

I believe the truth of Dogen in that it is the consciousness of the one mind that is experiencing physical awareness through manifesting thoughts into reality. In order to experience anger, the one mind creates a situation using one or more bodies to physically demonstrate or experience anger. The life-force is the anger, not the characters or objects, and at any one moment the concept of anger is being experienced physically by many as an overall experience of all the aspects of anger-it is anger experiencing life or physical reality.

If I am in a state of peace, is it me that is experiencing peace, or is it peace that is experiencing itself through me?

I got up to go make a cup of tea-my back was killing me and then I noticed the sounds of my shuffling feet and the breeze moving past my body. It is within awareness of all the senses of my body which is giving me the experience of being alive. It is the consciousness of the one mind that is experiencing the concept of life through my body and 6 billion others, plus all physical objects. It is life that is real, it is that of which I know nothing about-that is life. It is the insanity of being here which gives experience to the sanity of the one mind.

Within the awareness of all this sanity/insanity is my ego trying to make sense of it all. The truth is, "nothing really matters" and nothing is "matter" and matter is created from nothing. It is that which moves between what is real and unreal I have to deal with everyday. I am life itself-I am the movement, not the body. It doesn't matter what I or you believe-life just happens. As far as the ego is concerned it is only ego that matters. None of these things can be figured out and it is a comfort to my ego to know life is continuous and I will spend eternity trying to figure it out.

If you close your eyes and listen to your thoughts-you will become aware of a consciousness that is always there. The consciousness is the very essence of who you are. In order to experience this consciousness you have to let go of your own. It is a comfort to know we are not alone-we are much greater than what we experience physically.

In this awareness we can take responsibility for what we experience, because we are the ones creating the experiences. Within this knowledge comes the gratification we can change it anytime and we will never be destroyed or harmed. We are not victims of circumstances-we are creating them because there is no one else.

It is the right hand working with the left hand that is part of the same body and mind, to create and experience a thought.

Your own sanity is a unique perspective on how you perceive yourself in relationship to others and your environment-it doesn't really matter because you don't exist anyways-unless you believe you do. All you really need to know is that you "are," or in the words of an innocent child-'because!'