The What-Is-Not

[Jay]

You look like a flame, feel hot and smell like smoke? lol

When I see a candle flame, I see what the flame is not. Therefore, I ponder the flame and seek to know what it is.

When I put my hand over the flame, I feel what it is not. I then ponder, what does it feel like?

When I blow the flame out, I smell what the flame is not. Therefore, I wonder, what does the flame smell like?

Keep trying. Perhaps you'll get it yet.

This reminds me of a saying from Alan Watts, “Where does my fist go when I open my hand?”.

I don't think it has as much to do with an answer, as it more has to do with a knowing/feeling. The flame could be like a tree, which in the eyes of a regular conditioned human looks like a "dead" inanimate object, while as it's being contemplated and being perceived in the moment, you would see the true essence of the tree, as it is. And knowing that it's no different from you, that you don't judge and compare it with yourself or put value on it. Also knowing it that if you call it a 'tree' or 'flame', it would have nothing to do with itself, it's just something that we've labled it. But the lable itself is just a word, which we only use as a sign post to indicate the something we perceive as a tree.