☸ Meditate on No I My Me
Source: Buddhism @ Facebook
I think one of the most difficult thing about meditation is observing the body and mind without hanging to the damn deep seated 'I', 'THIS IS ME', 'THIS IS MINE:
When awareness of the body arises, the tendency to identify the body with 'this is me', when awareness of thoughts arise, we cling to 'this is mine'......... to meditate or to bring awareness into a larger dimension, we need to overcome this extremely difficulty. One of the most obvious moment when we identity 'I', 'Me' and 'Mine' with the body is when we look into a mirror. But how do we overcome this?
First and a very good way to overcome this is the fundamental teaching of the 5 Aggregates that defeats the mistaken notion of 'I' the Buddha gave, .. when He turned the First Dharma Wheel of Hinayana. We need to contemplate deep into this truth, not just reading it once or twice. We need to think about again and again and again. This truth needs to sit deep in our heart, we need to feel the absolute surety of this truth.
Second, we need to study about Emptiness and put this understanding in context with the 5 Aggregates.
The Heart Sutra or the Prajnaparamita Sutra or the Diamond Sutra among other Sutras play a unprecedented role to this understanding.
Here again, we need to contemplate again and again. Bear in mind that the success on this level depends very much on how deep we have understood the First Turning of the Wheel on the 5 Aggregates that defeats our mistaken notion of 'I'.
Important point here is not to hold onto a concept of 'This is not me', 'This is not mine'. If we do, this is no different to the affirmation of 'I', 'Me' and 'Mine', being dualistic and conceptual and will not contribute to absolute freedom of pure awareness without concepts.
If we do this and meditate, slowly we will be able to loosen the grip on 'I'; 'Mine; 'Me' and come closer the realization of Emptiness Awareness.
This is one of the gradual paths to towards egolessness.