Clouds as training

That whole thing about the mind being like the blue sky with clouds of obscuring it is a great metaphor, but at some point you have to let it go. I was just sitting outside watching the clouds on and off and this little riff occurred to me.

Remember when as a kid you would lay in the grass and call out objects that you saw in the clouds? "That one is a bunny rabbit" and "There is a turtle," that sort of thing? In some way, isn't that training for objectifying things that are, by cloud definition, impermanent? Why not replace that childhood game with the adult (or child) practice of noticing how clouds are constantly changing? Tonight, just now, I was trying to pay attention to the clouds, no objectifying names, per se, just watching how they were shaped and moving, and then I got distracted by my dog for a few minutes and when I looked back up the sky/clouds were unrecognizable. Wow, I thought, so much for THAT moment, and on with the next one. There was no choice; the sky was what it was, clouds and all. Gloriously, zennishly, only and completely now.

Just a thought/cloud here
No need to hold it with a comment
Let it pass like clouds
Let it change like clouds
Let it go...............

I really enjoy sitting in the late afternoon, just as the shadows get "long" and watching the sun/shadows on the leaves in the trees. There is no recognizable shape or pattern - but it is simple beautiful.

-Jim

Yes, AlanLa, thank you. This cloud picture is very much a dualistic picture. It helps people to understand but should be dropped through the realization that the sky is sky-cloud-planes, as it is, formed and dissolved every moment.

gassho


Taigu

Quote:

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Originally Posted by AlanLa

That whole thing about the mind being like the blue sky with clouds of obscuring it is a great metaphor, but at some point you have to let it go. I was just sitting outside watching the clouds on and off and this little riff occurred to me.

Remember when as a kid you would lay in the grass and call out objects that you saw in the clouds? "That one is a bunny rabbit" and "There is a turtle," that sort of thing? In some way, isn't that training for objectifying things that are, by cloud definition, impermanent? Why not replace that childhood game with the adult (or child) practice of noticing how clouds are constantly changing? Tonight, just now, I was trying to pay attention to the clouds, no objectifying names, per se, just watching how they were shaped and moving, and then I got distracted by my dog for a few minutes and when I looked back up the sky/clouds were unrecognizable. Wow, I thought, so much for THAT moment, and on with the next one. There was no choice; the sky was what it was, clouds and all. Gloriously, zennishly, only and completely now.

Just a thought/cloud here
No need to hold it with a comment
Let it pass like clouds
Let it change like clouds
Let it go...............

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GONE!
Gassho zak