Going direct

Warning: I'm going to rant philosophically.

Osho said “the sunrise is not a word.” In other words, the word is not the thing itself. When we know the name of something, do we then know anything about it?

What is the moon in this photo? Its light is not the moon, is it? The light is reflected from the sun.

Have you ever looked at an apple (or anything) for 15 minutes straight? Without judgment or description, like “Oh, that’s a beautiful apple, so shiny and a great shade of red, and I'm sure it will be crispy and delicious”? Just look at it and see it for what it is?

To come directly into contact with what is – what does that mean?

How can an old chair worth just a few dollars in Arles, France, be transformed into a chair worth millions of dollars when painted by Van Gogh? (idea from Eckhart Tolle’s book A New Earth) What is the chair’s essence? What is there beyond the chair that gives it meaning? Or maybe, within the chair?

What do I take time to meditate upon and contemplate, for greater understanding? Anything?

I find these questions compelling, because I am overwhelmed by the barrage of information I encounter every day. There is so much I want to give my attention to, but haven’t the time. I don’t really know anything that I do not know directly.

Knowing something or someone, without separation, is that possible?


Van Gogh's "Chair with Pipe"