I bookmarked your video when it came out, but I knew I wanted to read it as an essay first.
Your videos, to me, belong in a museum. A dense collage of ideas and images, like something Jean-Luc Godard would make. It’s low-key miraculous that we can watch them on YouTube.
When it comes to dense ideas, I need to read slowly, taking notes. That was super helpful in this case, as my prior exposure to Vasubandhu has been confusing. I encountered him through the writing + talks of Jay Garfield and the book “Inside Vasubandhu's Yogacara: A Practitioner's Guide” by Ben Connelly — both excellent, but this piece contributes something new to my understanding.
Sorry for glazing you so much, but you’re kind of a triple threat — simultaneously a deeply skilled practitioner, writer, *and* filmmaker. It’s a treat to encounter you across so many media — video essays, essays, and now interviews. Each unveils a different facet.
Thank you for these kind words about me and my work, Rey! I’m glad that posting the scripts here is useful :) This piece was especially difficult for me, and the process of making it very long… It did give me a new understanding of “non-duality” however, and I hope I’ve communicated this understanding in an accessible way here. Thank you for reading!
Very nicely done and greatly appreciated. This is considered a difficult topic in Western thought, and this presentation is clear and straightforward! Thank you, Simeon.
Didn't expect this take on the subject; it's fascinating to consider these ancient philosophical systems were already tackling concepts that feel so cutting-edge even now, like the mind constructing our perceived realilty. Thank you for this brilliant dive into Yogācāra; it really makes you pause and think about the deeper implications of what we define as 'real' and 'out there', which is super relevant as we build increasingly sophisticated AI models.
It is fascinating indeed, and a reminder of how much we still have to learn from those who've come before us. Especially in the study of subjective/inner experience, since the tools for studying that (unlike the tools for studying objective/external experience) remain the same: our own awareness and body-minds. Thank you for reading!
I wish to thank you for sharing these insightful videos and commentary. I became an avid listener of your material when I was transitioning from being an Orthodox Christian priest to a Soto Zen Buddhist novice. Thank you as you have helped open up my mind a few things in a different way. Please keep up this wonderful work and visit me on the Backyard Buddhist Substack!
Thank you, my friend! My interest now takes me in almost the opposite direction; I am now curious to see what I can find in the Christian tradition concerning non-duality, contemplation, and mystical union. And I would love to see what common insights emerge when we compare this with Eastern wisdom.
So many assumptions which is the nature of seeking and thinking i supose.
Therefore i will cut through it all by sujesting…1 all this talk is the activity of thinking
2 the activity of thinking is all mind is. So thought and mind are the same … there is no thinker of thought and thought is only images…
3 images arent realy there… the assumptions reffered to as mind/ consciousness here are all just another thought. None are thinkers because there isnt one. I know you have never found a mind etc but have only thought the and concept of a mind. I also know you have never pined down a single thought. At best only thoughts about thoughts. I know this because there is no mind beyond the idea of it and there is mo thought beyond the thought about it.
All these are the abstractions on reality called mentalisation or spiritualisation ( imaginings) abstacted from reality.
So lets just stop searching, stop trying to understand and just know what we all already know. Ahh but we dont want what we know, so we search for what we want and ignor deny and avoid what we know but dont want to know… what we as a sensory living being know before thinking.
There is all we can know. We know the emediacy of sensation and thats it. Thats before thought reaction saying … 1/ thats not hiw i want to be, 2/ how can i change , improve , be other than what my emedite sense knows i am, .. and then thought adds to the emediate sense of our known existing… denial judgement and avoidance of that direct understanding. Seeking, which is an attempt to escape reality, just because we find it uncomfortable at times, overides our emediate understanding of this as it is or that this is how it is, and creats / adds the dishonesty of, “ i dont underdstand” , when we do, and the search , the running away begins. When the denied fact is, in the emediate fact of our experiencial lived existance there is NOTHING TO UNDERSTAND because we already do undertsand. We are just to gutless to live with that . So we invent absttractions on life and escape into the distraction from life, into those.
Yes jidu krishnamurti is a step up from buddhism for sure but…
What jidu krishnamurti overlooked and NEVER understood was the elephant in the room. The living organism and its capacity for emediate wordless understanding. Poor jidu keishnamurti was the product of child abuse ( sexual abuse) from Leadbeater and phsycological abuse of indoctrination into the ideal of being a saviour … another sad victim of the mass gatheting of 1000s if children by religions and cults world wide for by peodophiles dressed in robes and claiming the child is reborn buddah or some such nonsence.
Your work is sincere clearly, but young and naive.
Drop the thinking the searching , ground yourself in the emediacy of your own existance as you feel it or sence it to be now, and if yoy fo this, something will hapen from within the body of you that only you will understand.
Thank you for your stimulating article. I will enjoy reading more from you but
Simeon, thank you so much for this.
I bookmarked your video when it came out, but I knew I wanted to read it as an essay first.
Your videos, to me, belong in a museum. A dense collage of ideas and images, like something Jean-Luc Godard would make. It’s low-key miraculous that we can watch them on YouTube.
When it comes to dense ideas, I need to read slowly, taking notes. That was super helpful in this case, as my prior exposure to Vasubandhu has been confusing. I encountered him through the writing + talks of Jay Garfield and the book “Inside Vasubandhu's Yogacara: A Practitioner's Guide” by Ben Connelly — both excellent, but this piece contributes something new to my understanding.
Sorry for glazing you so much, but you’re kind of a triple threat — simultaneously a deeply skilled practitioner, writer, *and* filmmaker. It’s a treat to encounter you across so many media — video essays, essays, and now interviews. Each unveils a different facet.
Keep up the good work.
Thank you for these kind words about me and my work, Rey! I’m glad that posting the scripts here is useful :) This piece was especially difficult for me, and the process of making it very long… It did give me a new understanding of “non-duality” however, and I hope I’ve communicated this understanding in an accessible way here. Thank you for reading!
Very nicely done and greatly appreciated. This is considered a difficult topic in Western thought, and this presentation is clear and straightforward! Thank you, Simeon.
--
The Lankavatara Sutra is considered by many to be of the Yogacara tradition. Here is an outline of it: https://burnteliot.substack.com/s/lankavatara
Didn't expect this take on the subject; it's fascinating to consider these ancient philosophical systems were already tackling concepts that feel so cutting-edge even now, like the mind constructing our perceived realilty. Thank you for this brilliant dive into Yogācāra; it really makes you pause and think about the deeper implications of what we define as 'real' and 'out there', which is super relevant as we build increasingly sophisticated AI models.
It is fascinating indeed, and a reminder of how much we still have to learn from those who've come before us. Especially in the study of subjective/inner experience, since the tools for studying that (unlike the tools for studying objective/external experience) remain the same: our own awareness and body-minds. Thank you for reading!
I wish to thank you for sharing these insightful videos and commentary. I became an avid listener of your material when I was transitioning from being an Orthodox Christian priest to a Soto Zen Buddhist novice. Thank you as you have helped open up my mind a few things in a different way. Please keep up this wonderful work and visit me on the Backyard Buddhist Substack!
Thank you, my friend! My interest now takes me in almost the opposite direction; I am now curious to see what I can find in the Christian tradition concerning non-duality, contemplation, and mystical union. And I would love to see what common insights emerge when we compare this with Eastern wisdom.
Look into the Eastern Orthodox theology. Of particular interest would be St. Maximos the Confessor and St. Gregory the Great
Thank you for these pointers, I will look into those!
So many assumptions which is the nature of seeking and thinking i supose.
Therefore i will cut through it all by sujesting…1 all this talk is the activity of thinking
2 the activity of thinking is all mind is. So thought and mind are the same … there is no thinker of thought and thought is only images…
3 images arent realy there… the assumptions reffered to as mind/ consciousness here are all just another thought. None are thinkers because there isnt one. I know you have never found a mind etc but have only thought the and concept of a mind. I also know you have never pined down a single thought. At best only thoughts about thoughts. I know this because there is no mind beyond the idea of it and there is mo thought beyond the thought about it.
All these are the abstractions on reality called mentalisation or spiritualisation ( imaginings) abstacted from reality.
So lets just stop searching, stop trying to understand and just know what we all already know. Ahh but we dont want what we know, so we search for what we want and ignor deny and avoid what we know but dont want to know… what we as a sensory living being know before thinking.
There is all we can know. We know the emediacy of sensation and thats it. Thats before thought reaction saying … 1/ thats not hiw i want to be, 2/ how can i change , improve , be other than what my emedite sense knows i am, .. and then thought adds to the emediate sense of our known existing… denial judgement and avoidance of that direct understanding. Seeking, which is an attempt to escape reality, just because we find it uncomfortable at times, overides our emediate understanding of this as it is or that this is how it is, and creats / adds the dishonesty of, “ i dont underdstand” , when we do, and the search , the running away begins. When the denied fact is, in the emediate fact of our experiencial lived existance there is NOTHING TO UNDERSTAND because we already do undertsand. We are just to gutless to live with that . So we invent absttractions on life and escape into the distraction from life, into those.
Yes jidu krishnamurti is a step up from buddhism for sure but…
What jidu krishnamurti overlooked and NEVER understood was the elephant in the room. The living organism and its capacity for emediate wordless understanding. Poor jidu keishnamurti was the product of child abuse ( sexual abuse) from Leadbeater and phsycological abuse of indoctrination into the ideal of being a saviour … another sad victim of the mass gatheting of 1000s if children by religions and cults world wide for by peodophiles dressed in robes and claiming the child is reborn buddah or some such nonsence.
Your work is sincere clearly, but young and naive.
Drop the thinking the searching , ground yourself in the emediacy of your own existance as you feel it or sence it to be now, and if yoy fo this, something will hapen from within the body of you that only you will understand.
Thank you for your stimulating article. I will enjoy reading more from you but