juicy concepts and boundless bounds

"As Dogen might say, rather than eliminate concepts, we need to 'liberate' them!--which requires, of course, that we do not cling to any particular set." -- David Loy, Nonduality

Each of us embraces a set of religio-philosophical concepts ("I am like this, the world is like that, life is like this, death is like that"). And these concepts embrace us, set bounds to our thinking and thus our experiencing, while simultaneously providing and giving focus to the juice, the elan vital, the spirit and energy that makes us lively.

The concepts by which we see and define the world are not dry, dull philosophical terminology, but provide membranous bounds and definition to our energetic core. Our concepts direct and focus the energy that we are. They contain our juice.

Our character is formed, is evident by the set of concepts that we have glommed onto in life (and that have glommed onto us). For example, the religion that we swear to (and yes, I still see atheism as a religion; every way of thinking one subscribes to is a religion) is composed of a set of concepts that explains the world.

The fundamentalists of each grouping of juicy concepts believe their set of concepts is the only set capable of world explanation and all the others miss the mark. More realistically, the set of concepts each person employs and is employed by is juicy for that person (and the group to which they belong), which is wonderful and to be deeply appreciated and en-joy-ed.

As you know, if you have been reading these blog postings over the years, I have been and continue making myself conversant with as many religio-philosophical systems as possible. I enjoy learning all the concepts by which people and peoples define themselves.

But how does a person contain all these concepts? I have been "converted" to each conceptual system of understanding, otherwise I could not understand them. (There is no such thing as an objective observer.) But now what? All these religions congregate in my pre-dawn room and call to me and each other and converse. Each wants me to be an adherent to it and it alone. I can see the sanity of that advice.

So I fly higher, beyond all conceptual schema. The consciousness that I am lives in the realm of the Unborn. Not two! Not two! Not even one! All the religions sitting here laugh and swirl upward in one interwhirling, keeping their identity while opening to no bounds.