NEW QUANTUM THINKING

The Trickster

A Trickster is seen by many as a mischievous or roguish figure in North and South American folklore who typically makes up for weaknesses with cunning and subversive humor. His actions alternate between cleverness and stupidity, kindness and cruelty, deceiver and deceived, breaker of taboos and creator of culture.

In other words, his qualities appear on a par with the human Identity. And like the human Identity, it suffers

Actually it appears that the Trickster is a great synonym for the human Identity for it has confusion, acquisitiveness, aversion and great folly for though it appears that while he it is working in his best interest he is working continually with a blind belief in his own truths, superiority and logic, against what is actually best for him.

In Dharma teachings we always warn against this Trickster, for those with trust in their own intellect are those that most quickly fall into his trap.

The Dharma teachings, you see, must first be grasped by the stained mind, for that is all in the beginning there is to work with. But it has to be made clear that words and intellectual ideas, as well as rites and ceremonies, are great traps for the mind that is not prepared for the traps.

Buddha declared clearly that words when exposed for the illusion they are open the first door of the Dharma... One must then see beyond those words... But if the listener or reader believes in his own capacity to really understand those words he easily believes he is looking behind where wisdom appears to be hidden, but really he is listening to the Trickster.

The question presented is how one can obtain the secret of how the mind may be changed and be permitted to open, for the greatest danger is not to oneself but the damage you may do to others with this fraudulent knowledge. The blind cannot lead the blind.

The first task, of course, is to see for yourself that your thoughts are Identity-laden and then examine those thoughts. Do they follow one another as night follows day and day follows night in a logical succession? Then that is shallow thinking as far as Dharma is concerned, although it might be an excellent tool in Samsara.

Are the deepest and correct Dharma thoughts that lead behind words thoughts then based upon lateral thinking?

What is lateral thinking?

Technically, as described by de Bono, the logical method is digging the same old hole deeper in order to discover something new. 

Lateral Thinking requires the changing of concepts and perceptions. de Bono declares that lateral thinking is not like playing chess (which is logical thinking), where you start out with given pieces, assuming certain perceptions, certain concepts and certain boundaries.

"Lateral thinking," he says, "is concerned not with playing with the existing pieces but with seeking to change those very pieces. Lateral thinking is concerned with the perception part of thinking. This is where we organise the external world into the pieces we can then 'process'. It is a moving across patterns, not following them." 

While this system also works, speeding up thinking with better creativity than traditional ways for those with the mental attributes, in solving complex problems it does not produce the "going fully beyond" the words being examined.

Recognize exactly how you are processing information and you will quickly discover if Identity is present and if the thought processes used are logical or lateral.

Since we in Dharma are working beyond the requirements of traditional society then we must dismiss logical and lateral thinking as inadequate. That is the first step.

The second step which seems so simple is really quite difficult.

The brilliant method of the old sages who knew the Trickster's ways works here. You just laugh at your own folly in trying to use the logical and lateral ways for deeper Dharma understanding. That means acknowledging that both these ways are Identity-bound so you laugh at Identity, the Trickster.... Now, according to legend, the strange thing is that while the Trickster is content to laugh at you he can't stand to be laughed at... so genuinely laugh at your folly any these forms of thinking will fall away. What remains?

The development of the most simple form of thinking.

In physics a "quantum" of time is a minute interval which is assigned a process to execute its instructions. In Dharma terms, we can suppose it is the most simple collection of mind-moments that can transmit information.

People are beginning to understand the world of science better, so from now on when speaking of the correct way of Chan and Dao thought we will speak of "Quantum Thinking."

Now we don't want to start another wave of cognitive association so let us then make it clear that Quantum Thinking is returning to the point where thinking involves "experiences" and not words.

In ancient China the way of thought using characters, which is generally beyond today's native Chinese speakers, used this quantum thought. To convey the experience of "panic," the person may present in written form characters which represented a "panicking horse" that was symbolic, not a visual representation.

The reader then, capturing the expression "panicking horse" without the use of word forms or word ideas, would grasp the experience of a panicking horse. Thus the experience would be transmitted in its minimal form.

Normally the word "panic" would in a modern speaker conjure up a word description of what panic was with a great chain of other associations.

The quantum character use indeed has associations in memory, but they are minimal when compared to the chains of associations developed in lateral thinking, which is brilliant for extending and cataloging creative ideas with rapidity in the samsaric world.

The development of this Quantum Thinking is not easy, but it is essential for the understanding of Dharma and Dao. The traditional translations of the Book of Dé and of Dào do not capture the deeper ideas of Dé and Dào for that reason and as a result here in the Seminary we have generated a new translation of the Book of Dao which has a deeper significance than the traditional which allows the rather fruitless translations that capture the mind in the trap of intellectual slavery to words in both Dharma and Dao understanding.

Anyway, the first steps are clear:

1. Dismiss logical and lateral thinking as inadequate with certainty that they are erroneous for Dharma and Dao understanding.

2. Generate a falling away of Identity domination through determining that your thoughts are Identity-laden.

3. Examine those thoughts with a sincere and not serious manner that allows you to laugh at your own folly in being trapped by them and not knowing the useful illusions for what they are, completely vacuous.

4. Open the mind to Quantum Thinking without words.