"No Deliberate Thought"

From Dogen's "Rules for Meditation:"

"...neither trying to think nor trying not to think, just sitting with no deliberate thought..."

We attend to the present moment but do not concentrate on it. If we concentrated, then we would be trying not to think. When we notice that a thought has arisen and return our attention to the present moment, then we are preventing not thought but deliberate thought.

The arising of thoughts is neither an interruption to meditation nor a distraction from it but part of it. We see the thoughts, therefore do not allow them to operate unobserved.

Inner And Outer

If we follow a spiritual path, then our inner life is divided between habitual thought processes and spiritual teachings while our outer life is divided between habitual behavior and spiritual practices. Sooner or later, we realize that there is a contradiction and also that we have always known it.

That is a very strange moment. Unenlightened thoughts and actions are very recent. They did not end when we began spiritual practice but why not?

Beliefs About The One

Two beliefs within Hinduism:

that the One, the ultimate reality, is a person who creates everything other than himself;
that the One is everything, including all persons and their environments.

In the latter case, we are:

Its self-consciousness;
the being prayed to by monotheists - It is many persons, not one;
not perennially wise or compassionate;
instead, learning wisdom and compassion;
thus, becoming the only God there is.

Neither one nor three but many persons in one being.

Chaos, Causes And Consciousness

Every event is either uncaused or caused by previous events.
Events are either physical or psychophysical.
Sensations, cognitions and actions are psychophysical events.
Many actions are entirely caused by previous psychophysical events.

For example, a man smokes a cigarette because previous usage has addicted him to nicotine.
However, some actions are instead expressions of present consciousness.
For example, a man suddenly stops smoking because he hears and heeds the message, "Smoking kills."
Previous events have caused both the presentation of the message and the man's ability to heed it.

Nevertheless, conscious responses to new challenges differ qualitatively from semiconscious habits.
Why are some people incapable of new responses?
Zazen is the practice of immediate awareness.
Such practice might facilitate ability to respond. 

One And Many

The One becomes conscious by appearing to itself as many. Thus, it simultaneously reveals that it is and conceals that it is one. Each conscious organism perceives its one environment as many objects and itself as a separate subject. Appearance of multiplicity is the first stage of consciousness but prevents consciousness of oneness.

Stages?
animal consciousness of other
human consciousness of self and other
verbal/intellectual understanding of oneness of self and other
partial intuition of oneness
total intuition of oneness?

Krishna

"King sent a brief prayer of thankfulness to Krishna - it seemed appropriate, since the merciful God had appeared to Arjuna and counseled him on a warrior's duty. Of course, he'd also told the noble bowman that he must fight and kill only from duty, without personal attachment."
-SM Stirling, The Peshawar Lancers (New York, 2003).

Krishna taught Arjuna karma yoga, non-attached action in the secular world, as against ascetic withdrawal from action. To engage even in military conflict may be the lesser evil but a karma yogi performs any necessary task mindfully, thus more efficiently, free from, undistracted by, mental attachments like desire for success or fear of failure. In the battle, he is untouched by it.

The Bhagavad Gita presents bhakti (devotional) yoga, mantra yoga, a cosmic vision and Krishna as a personal deity but I think that karma yoga is its most important and distinctive message. A former Krishna devotee told me that he visited the battlefield of Kurukshetra where there is a life size sculpture of Krishna and Arjuna on their chariot which is inscribed with shlokas (Gita verses) and a temple has been built at the site of the death of each of the epic heroes.

My religious philosophy is built on meditation (the Buddha) and karma yoga (Krishna).

Addendum: Theistic karma yogis offer their actions to God. Laborare est orare. For Buddhists, non-attached action is working meditation.

Meditation And Memory

Meditation is the present self-consciousness of being.
Memory is necessary for self-consciousness but impedes present consciousness.
Thus, a process that makes meditation possible prevents it.
Human history is lived in this contradiction.
Human beings are potentially enlightened.

Accept that guilt, recrimination, resentment and random memories arise.
Let them pass without thought unless it has a practical application.