White Robed Monks of St. Benedict
–00.004 Prelude: Thought Creation
Peace be with you.
Much of Western Catholic understanding and theology rests upon a philosophical tradition known as Scholasticism. Given our present apperception of ourselves and the universe within which some of us conceptualize we live, perhaps other, more contemporary philosophies may seem apt. One such orientation is phenomenology. In a word, "experience"; might serve as a general alternate term.
The information, or story, that follows is a written phenomenological investigation into phenomenology itself or the experience of experience itself. A theology, the study of God, rests upon a philosophy. Scholasticism offers one foundation by which we can come to perhaps appreciate God given Aristotelian assumed rational categories of matter and form, essence and existence: all speculative creations, as are any elements of any story about life. What follows is but an invitation to appreciate "God" or God through experience. Within our experience we can either know about God (thought creation), know God (also a thought creation), or know.
As you meander through the following story — and yes, it is just a story, a created fantasy — we suggest you keep in mind/heart a Tibetan meditation technique that Lama Tarthang Tulku (founder of Nyingama Institute in Berkeley, California in 1969) taught. He describes a method for eliminating unwanted thought forms and their effects in Hidden Mind of Freedom. Given the mystical traditions, which are experientially based, both East and West, we may expand Lama Tulku's method to any thought form — of God, ourself, our significant others, others, our life, life, reality. Once free, then there is no (emotional) charge on the thought and the thought becomes just what it is, a thought; an emotion, an emotion. (Cf. Merging of Unity and Difference)
Lama Tulku's method is:
"Working with thoughts by opening them as they arise can bring many pleasant feelings, which — without attachment — also become our meditation... We can even go into the thoughts that judge other thoughts, and, embracing this judging mind, become united with it."
"By relying on the light of awareness you can see that the difficulties you face are manifestations of your own concepts. Going deeply into your thoughts, you will see how you create your experience, how you alone are the judge who determines heaven and hell, good and bad."
"Whatever experience arises, stay with it, expand it, and heat it up. If you remain within the intense core of the experience, the meditator unites with thoughts and emotions, and everything dissolves. Then awareness grows powerful and one-pointed. As thoughts and emotions are increasingly included within this field of awareness, they become more useful. Instead of being a cause of frustration or confusion, they become agents of well-being. . . "
Peace.
White Robed Monks of St. Benedict
White Robed Monks of St. Benedict
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