I had difficulty understanding what is going on in TSK 26 – Transcendence of Pointings. All I could derive is that it is suggesting that all matter, including our concepts of mind and body, are actually uncertain/subjective. I can go along with that, but then I guess I would ask what makes us believe that time and space are any different from this. Maybe they are just as subjective – I don’t know. Accepting the ‘non-substantiality’ of body and mind probably leaves us more open to all possibilities and that, I agree, is valuable. I spent a lot of time in this practice feeling confused and cross – maybe this is a sign that I am too tied to certainty and the lower self. I can accept that the mind and body are eventually insubstantial – they both flux and pass away, and at higher levels may cease to exist – but I’m not sure that this tells me much more about ‘pointings’. “Saying nothing’ is , however, certainly very opening, very liberating, so I decided in practising just to stay with that.
Taking this approach into the next exercise – LOK 48: Exploring Space, Time and Knowledge – was good. Placing space and time at the centre of experience is something that I find a relaxing phenomenon, opening up objects, experiences and thoughts. Playing with this would certainly provide a very different perspective on everyday life – a bit of magical fascination, rather like travelling in a foreign country where every experience seems new, intrinsically interesting and unique. Wonderful things can be experienced when I lose my ‘self-concern’. I really enjoyed this exercise.
Gaynor