Community Archive

🧵 View Thread

🧵 Thread (17 tweets)

yatharth ༺༒༻@AskYatharth• about 5 years ago

Remember that rabbit-duck illusion? If you'd only ever thought of it as a rabbit, then a friend told you it could be a duck too . . . you might stare at it, for a long time, fixed in place until you saw it: the duck. 🦆👀🤯 https://t.co/5lqcdSibu4 https://t.co/LQvUaTasuq

5 0

7/28/2020

yatharth ༺༒༻@AskYatharth• about 5 years ago

Replying to @AskYatharth

Meditation works the same way. You stare at yourself, for a long time, fixed in place . . . until you see it: the illusion of self. The moment at which it is created.

2 0

7/28/2020

yatharth ༺༒༻@AskYatharth• about 5 years ago

Replying to @AskYatharth

It's not that the self “doesn't exist.” When you see the duck, the rabbit doesn't “stop existing.” Your visual cortex just feeds you a different story that you're seeing a duck instead of a rabbit.

3 0

7/28/2020

yatharth ༺༒༻@AskYatharth• about 5 years ago

Replying to @AskYatharth

The point of seeing the duck isn't that the duck is real and the rabbit is not. The point is to recognise both are a damn optical illusion! A construction of our fallible visual cortices!

3 0

7/28/2020

yatharth ༺༒༻@AskYatharth• about 5 years ago

Replying to @AskYatharth

From there . . . you're a much wiser, more humble person navigating the world.

1 0

7/28/2020

yatharth ༺༒༻@AskYatharth• about 5 years ago

Replying to @AskYatharth

The point of seeing the no-self isn’t that the self doesn’t exist. It’s to recognise both are a damn mental illusion. You can see it either way, self or no-self. Constructions of our mysterious, wonderful mind. To not just know this, but have had a lived, felt experience.

2 0

7/28/2020

yatharth ༺༒༻@AskYatharth• about 5 years ago

Replying to @AskYatharth

From there, we navigate the world much wiser, more humble people.

2 0

7/28/2020

yatharth ༺༒༻@AskYatharth• about 5 years ago

Replying to @AskYatharth

The point is not even to “see” the duck forever. (Though some people might like the duck more than the rabbit.)

2 0

7/28/2020

yatharth ༺༒༻@AskYatharth• about 5 years ago

Replying to @AskYatharth

The point is not to experience the no-self forever. (Though some people find the experiencing no-self much more comforting than experiencing self and choose to cling to one experience.)

3 0

7/28/2020

yatharth ༺༒༻@AskYatharth• about 5 years ago

Replying to @AskYatharth

Ideally, you’re able to click your mind back and forth, between a spontaneous experience of a duck and a rabbit quite easily. Between the spontaneous experience of self and the spontaneous experience of no-self quite easily.

2 0

7/28/2020

yatharth ༺༒༻@AskYatharth• about 5 years ago

Replying to @AskYatharth

The point is even witnessing the duck for just a moment will change you forever. “Getting” what your friend meant all along when they said they saw a duck. You only need to see through the illusion once to see that it is an illusion forever.

2 0

7/28/2020

yatharth ༺༒༻@AskYatharth• about 5 years ago

Replying to @AskYatharth

Yes, the story of the “no-self” is planted in us. Yes, the story of the “no-self” is itself an illusion (read: construction of mind). That does not in the least impede the point.

3 0

7/28/2020

yatharth ༺༒༻@AskYatharth• about 5 years ago

Replying to @AskYatharth

Tell someone to look for the signs next to the road and they might notice the signs when they would otherwise would missed it.

1 0

7/28/2020

yatharth ༺༒༻@AskYatharth• about 5 years ago

Replying to @AskYatharth

Conversely, tell them to look for the signs, and they might miss the gorilla. https://t.co/ZoBE1Qk57r

1 0

7/28/2020

yatharth ༺༒༻@AskYatharth• about 5 years ago

Replying to @AskYatharth

There is an art to helping someone witness more of the territory. A careful dance of BOTH adding more maps and removing their existing ones.

2 0

7/28/2020

yatharth ༺༒༻@AskYatharth• about 5 years ago

Replying to @AskYatharth

Too often, our minds see only categorically, in terms of the words they know, filtering out anything we don't have a word for. By giving the novice mind more words, the novice might just notice more of the territory.

4 0

7/28/2020

yatharth ༺༒༻@AskYatharth• about 5 years ago

Replying to @AskYatharth

There's a saying that goes Teach a child the word for sparrow, and she will never see another sparrow again.

8 0

7/28/2020