Self and the Relativity of Truth

With palms together,
Good Morning Sangha,

On my Yahoo 360 blogsite, there is a place called a "Blast." It enables the blogger to make a quick little statement, ask a question, etc. Every morning I create a new "Blast" statement and change the color theme of the blog. I feel this keeps things fresh and present.

This morning's blast thought was about individuality. When we allow our indentification with "self" to fall away, then all sorts of things are made possible. Dogen suggests that everything becomes our Teacher. This is so because we have no self acting as a hindrance. It goes deeper than that, however.

When we cease indentifying with this "self" and this "body" then death and life themselves cease to carry weight. We can become aware of the great stream of living and dying, like the ocean's tide, eternally flowing.

More, with no individual self, everything can be more clearly understood in its relation to everything else: a great web or net containing both point and interconnection.

To say we cease identifying with self does not mean self does not exist. It means self is understood in its proper relation to the universe. In this sense we begin to identify with the great vastness, understanding the relativity of all things.

It is in this understanding that we begin to see truth as both relative and absolute simultaneously.

Be well.