From: oldernow@dev.null   
      
   "They Said It Was Simple" - Wei Wu Wei   
      
   31. They Said It was Simple   
      
   STRANGE TO SAY - and how rare it is! - the term 'phenomena'   
   implies precisely what etymologically it says. Every   
   thing, every conceivable thing, that our senses, and   
   our mind (which interprets what our senses perceive)   
   cognise, is exactly an 'appearance', i.e., an appearance   
   in consciousness interpreted as an event extended in space   
   and in duration and objectified in a world external to that   
   which cognises it. And simultaneously that which cognises   
   it assumes that it is the subject of the cognition and,   
   as such, an entity apart from that which is cognised.   
      
   As long as these associated assumptions subsist, the   
   correlated assumption of 'bondage', and the painful   
   sensations accompanying that assumption, must necessarily   
   remain intact.   
      
   Therefore release from this assumed 'bondage' can only be   
   obtained by comprehending the falsity of these assumptions   
   which are responsible for the presumed bondage, for both   
   'assumptions' and 'bondage' are apparent only, i.e.,   
   are purely 'phenomenal'.   
      
   'Appearance' is precisely what the word implies, i.e.,   
   something that 'seems to be', not 'something that is'.   
      
   If this is realised - and how obvious it should be, since   
   the terms themselves say it precisely! - the psychological   
   elements of a purely psychological bondage are severed,   
   and only the psychological conditioning occasioned by   
   that 'bondage' remains, and this, like all conditioning,   
   will dissolve as a result of a process of de-conditioning   
   which consists in the establishment of the concept of   
   'appearance' (phenomenon) in place of the concept of   
   'reality'.   
      
   The dissolution of that which is cognised as 'real' and   
   'separate', as events extended in space and in time,   
   necessarily involves the dissolution of the assumed   
   cognising entity, and both are then seen as phenomena,   
   or appearance, in consciousness.   
      
   When this readjustment is effected both subject and   
   object no longer exist as such, and no entity remains   
   which could be conceived as being 'bound'. That is -   
   bondage is no more.   
      
   How very simple indeed it is!   
      
   Note: 'Then who am I?' If anyone could tell you that,   
   what you were told would necessarily be nonsense - for   
   it would be just another object, as phenomenal as the   
   rest. Some day you will know automatically what you are -   
   which is what the Masters meant when they said so often,   
   'You will know of yourself whether water is tepid or cold'   
   - or, you will just be that knowledge.   
      
   --   
   Oh, for the love of signature silliness....   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)