When a teacher described awakening as “disinterested,” it disturbed me–it sounded flat, or uninvolved. Unappealing. And I’ve come to see, even though there is truth in it, that it’s also a bit misleading.
It depends from where we look: disinterested only has meaning from the point of view of the separate self. We, as the opinionated separate self, parse experience into pleasant and disagreeable, lively and boring, attractive and ugly–or some intermediate variation along the way. We believe that life without all the beautiful shades would seem uninteresting.
Presence doesn’t ever leave oneness to divide experience into the body, mind, and world; it stays at home. It is disinterested in division. It-that-isn’t-an-it only knows itself–it simply allows, welcomes all equally as itself. Awareness is equally open to everything. Everything! It is prior to parsing–not prior in the realm of time–presence eternally allows. It’s a verb: allowing, experiencing.
© Skye Blaine, 2011
the heart of the matter 
So,” indifferent” may have been a poor word choice. Or maybe that fellow was describing a developing relationship… they all are, aren’t they ? Idk.
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Attended one of Shinzen Young’s retreats in 2007. The point of posting the link: he mentions how difficult “it” is to talk about. From personal experience, have also found this to be so. It’s not really what words were invented to do – describing experience outside of boundaries.
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Beautiful quotes. Thank you, Kathy.
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Oooh… I have always loved the word “disinterested”.
Such a powerful word. I first encountered the term “disinterested love” while reading James Hollis (my favourite Jungian).
“The disinterested love of the Other energizes; it brings a restoration of wonder, girds us for the journey and affords us glimpses of the eternal.” – Hollis
And Tony Parsons mentioned it:
“We are talking here about an energy, a light, which is the source of all that is. This energy is impersonal. It is totally disinterested in what is apparently going on for an illusory body/mind. In fact, what is going on is nothing. It is only dreamed.”
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