Saying For Today: One could say the encounter with another becomes only seeing - seer and seen appearing within the act of seeing. To see... is to love.
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When you realize everyone you meet is not a person with a soul but the soul appearing as a person, this opens up fresh, previously unrecognized possibilities of seeing and being with others. - "Soul" can refer to Buddha, Buddha Nature, Christ, spirit, essence, oneness, that-of-God-in-everyone, the Light... . - When we realize this shared subjectivity, we aspire for it to become more of our experience of all beings, human and nonhuman, seen and unseen.
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David Reich Chadwick, a student of the late Suzuki Roshi, tells of giving a copy of To Shine in One Corner of the World: Moments with Shunryu Suzuki to the Japanese poet Nanao Sakaki. David asked Nanao if he had known Suzuki Roshi. Nanao said he had met Suzuki Roshi twice. He and Suzuki Roshi spoke just one word in their first meeting: "Hi." Nanao said, "It was enough. I could see his great spirit, and he could see me."
Nanao and Suzuki Roshi met again. Suzuki Roshi was dying. They said "Hi" and "Hi" and slightly bowed their heads.
Chadwick asked Nanao, "So you and Suzuki Roshi had two meetings over the years, and the sum total of what you said to each other in both meetings was four words - actually, one word four times?" "Yes. It was just right. I am so happy to have met him. He was a great teacher for America."
*David Reich Chadwick. To Shine in One Corner of the World.
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She told the Sage of a strong aversion to a fellow practitioner, "Every time I see her, I feel a strong dislike. I don't know why. I just do, and I'm ashamed of it. What do you recommend?" The Sage answered, "Don't just look at her with your eyes; look at her through your heart. If you look at her through your heart, you will see her, and in time the aversion will drop away."
*Brian K. Wilcox. "Meetings with an Anonymous Sage."
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To look at the other is to objectify the other. When seeing the other, you see the other no longer as only other or another. In seeing, you see that of the other that is you - you see yourself. You think you are not seeing yourself, for thought is saying you are not seeing yourself. All true seeing is this seeing in which there is no separation between seer and seeing. One could say the encounter with another becomes only seeing - seer and seen appearing within the act of seeing. To see... is to love.
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The brain creates "I" and "you," "we" and "they." However, the brain can see differently by the cultivation of a consciousness of oneness, or non-separation. With this consciousness, one perceives differentiation within unity, when before, one interpreted differentiation as separation. Accordingly, consciousness is nondual, or unitive, and the brain must be trained to allow consciousness to manifest without splitting unitive into the illusion of separation. All spiritual practice entails retraining the brain. Meditation, or Contemplative Prayer, can be a direct means to engage in this transformation.
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Now, does the sense of the otherness of the other continue? It continues as the play of Spirit. Spirit seems to enjoy playing what can be called a game of hide-'n-seek. Yet, once the absolute otherness of the other drops, the sense of otherness is experienced as relative, so it is an experience different than before. Manyness has been taken back into oneness. Also, one learns to relax with the paradoxical play of one and many. So, please enjoy!
A Sufi practice is to drop awareness into the area of the physical heart when meeting someone. While I use "heart" as a reference to our essence, not the physical heart, you might still wish to try the Sufi practice. You might find it helps you see the other heart-with-heart in awareness of a shared subjectivity: I-and-I, or I-with-I.
*Use of photography is allowed accompanied by credit given to Brian K. Wilcox and notation of title and place of the photograph.
*Brian's book, An Ache for Union: Poems on Oneness with God through Love, can be ordered through major online booksellers or the publisher AuthorHouse.
