Comments on Four

It's a bit odd that there is an abbreviated list here: "there is no eye-element and so on up to no mind-element including up to no element of mental conscioussness." Apparently, the actual list contains eighteen elements, although I don't know what they are. The other abbreviated list, "There is no ignorance, there is no extinction of ignorance and so on up to no aging and death and no extinction of aging and death," concerns the twelve "links", the full list of which is as follows: ignorance, volitional action, consciousness, name and form, sense sources, contact, feelings, attachment, craving, becoming, birth, and aging and death.

Now when it says there is no eye-element, mind-element, I believe it means there is no fundamental unit or atom of these things. That's okay, there doesn't need to be, and for some, this might help underscore the emptiness of eye, of mind, etc.
The second paragraph of "four" reminds us that enlightenment is not to be grasped, for it, too, is an illusion.

In this passage, we are getting something of an exhaustive list of things which are merely mental constructs, and this includes the mental constructs themselves. Indeed, more or less by definition, anything that I can put in to words is a mental construct and is only a representation of reality. I believe it helps to feel this at a gut level, and I also believe that, through continued study and meditation, I am getting closer to that.

In the middle of my everyday life, I more often find refuge in the moment. Walking down the street a few days ago, I was tired and it was raining, and I started to feel like it was drudgery, and I couldn't wait for the experience to end. Then I decided that my discomfort was largely an illusion, that there was no need and no point to feel it. Why be bothered by rain? Then, looking around with an appreciative eye, I noticed that the traffic lights were reflecting in the wet road surface in a beautiful pattern.
It was a very nice walk after that.