Over the past couple of days reading facebook posts, i have consumed thousands of words and excreted thousands more.
They all seemed meaningful at the time.
They all seem meaningless now.
They did have an effect on me at the time. They changed something as i assimilated their perceived meanings.
Now they are forgotten. Only the results of the integration of my reactions remain.
It makes up the new me, or more accurately they contributed to the enhanced story of me.
The pointing that they were may contribute to a new way of approaching circumstances. A different view of experiences.
Has life-ing changed ?
Different reactions, different experiencing, the same life.
Sunday, December 11, 2011
Monday, December 5, 2011
What is Enlightenment ?
What is Enlightenment ?
There is no answer to this.
It means different things to different people.
Certainly for those who have passed through the 'gateless gate' it is obvious how contaminated the word is.
If we look at a thesaurus, then the first three word that come up are insight, understanding & awareness.
There is no answer to this.
It means different things to different people.
Certainly for those who have passed through the 'gateless gate' it is obvious how contaminated the word is.
If we look at a thesaurus, then the first three word that come up are insight, understanding & awareness.
Insight, understanding and awareness of what ?
This is much easier to answer.
Insight, awareness that the I or Me is an illusion. (Deleted understanding as that is only intellectual.)
To see is not to realise (make real), but seeing can precede realisation.
Blind identification with an I/me is definitely UNenlightened.
Re-cognising that the concept of an I/me has a limited, but useful role to play in interacting with a world full of people who do have blind identification with an I/me, is enlightened behaviour.
If you are naturally left handed, but teachers and parents from a very young age always insisted that you use the right hand for all single handed tasks, you would grow up thinking that right handed-ness was natural for you and you would even have trouble writing with your left hand.
It had been a conditioning that you took as normal.
This is the case for the unenlightened. It is a conditioning that is taken as normal.
How does one learn to use their left hand again?
The first thing is to believe that it can be done. The next thing is to practise it.
This seems like work or discipline is required and if that is true then that is where the analogy must end.
In the case of the conditioning of thoughts to identify with an I/me, once it is seen that it is just conditioning then identification only occurs when buttons are pushed, when emotional responses are evoked then the old conditioning reasserts itself. This is usually for less time and with less intensity and fades with practice. In this case practising comes naturally most of the time and requires no discipline.
So what is a usual attitude of one who doesn't blindly identify with an I/me ?
This might be best answered by describing a thought process of one who does blindly identify.
When I believe that I own My thoughts, then I am responsible for them. That also means I must judge each thought according to a moral code (that They conditioned into My brain) As my behaviour is seen as a response to My thoughts, everything I do is also judged by that moral code. This means that every waking moment, I am being good or bad (or somewhere in between) and having an emotional response to that. How exhausting !
What an incredible release from all that, to wake up to the illusion of an I/me.
To react to 'what is' without all that emotional baggage allows an incredible amount of energy to be freed.
There is an easy, relaxed willingness to 'go with the flow'
There is a chuckle that bubbles up with each recognition of how it used to be, of how stress used to greet this situation. Everything from a red traffic light to a queue at the supermarket, or the wife interrupting your blog writing to do some chore.
Further to this is an appreciation of everything from the shape of a tree or the colour of the grass to the human-ness of somebody upset with somebody or something. (even yourself)
Don't quite know from where this emanates, possible a result of the extra energy available.
Ok, have run out of energy for all these words. Going to shower & bed now. May continue at another time. Probably will...
Sunday, December 4, 2011
What is it that can't find a self ?
Some say that there is a knowing that there is no self.
Here there is just a realisation that thoughts can't find an I.
The I was a thought construct, a concept.
The truth (a concept too) was arrived at by seeing the false.
The I was false. Or rather, no I found, that is all.
Thoughts are what i experience, but i can't call them mine.
Science shows that the brain decides 6 seconds before a thought thinks it decides.
see here
Thoughts just arise. Can't see where they come from.
Yet it's thoughts that decide that there is no I.
Well actually they don't decide, they just can't find one.
i don't know anything, don't even know that i'm not dreaming all this. Dreams seem so real when they're happening, just as this seems so real. So there is no knowing.
Can't find an I. Thoughts not mine. Don't know anything.
Is this freedom to experience directly ?
To simply watch life life-ing ?
Here there is just a realisation that thoughts can't find an I.
The I was a thought construct, a concept.
The truth (a concept too) was arrived at by seeing the false.
The I was false. Or rather, no I found, that is all.
Thoughts are what i experience, but i can't call them mine.
Science shows that the brain decides 6 seconds before a thought thinks it decides.
see here
Thoughts just arise. Can't see where they come from.
Yet it's thoughts that decide that there is no I.
Well actually they don't decide, they just can't find one.
i don't know anything, don't even know that i'm not dreaming all this. Dreams seem so real when they're happening, just as this seems so real. So there is no knowing.
Can't find an I. Thoughts not mine. Don't know anything.
Is this freedom to experience directly ?
To simply watch life life-ing ?
Saturday, December 3, 2011
Where ever you are, BE STILL.
Where ever you are, BE STILL.
Go into that sensitive place where it feels like you are trying to be tiny.
You know, huddle down like you might as a kid hiding from everybody. Shut your eyes like if you can't see them then they can't see you.
Now go inside yourself, starting in your head and look for a self. Whatever it is that you call 'me'
Just for a moment keep looking down through your body right to your feet.
Can't find a 'me' anywhere in there ?
Of course not ! You are not there.
Now keeping your eyes closed, think about your left shoulder. Don't move. Just think about it.
Can you feel anything touching it without moving ? Don't move, just think about it.
Where does it stop and the space it is in start ?
Does the you that you couldn't find own the space around your shoulder ?
Does that space just melt into what you know as your shoulder ?
Where does one stop and the other start ?
Listen ! What sounds are there. Try starting with sounds that are inside, then sounds close outside this body, then sounds further away, then the fartherest away.
Instead of the sounds coming from away towards you, listen as if all sounds start in this body and move outwards (or inwards).
Try it....
Go into that sensitive place where it feels like you are trying to be tiny.
You know, huddle down like you might as a kid hiding from everybody. Shut your eyes like if you can't see them then they can't see you.
Now go inside yourself, starting in your head and look for a self. Whatever it is that you call 'me'
Just for a moment keep looking down through your body right to your feet.
Can't find a 'me' anywhere in there ?
Of course not ! You are not there.
Now keeping your eyes closed, think about your left shoulder. Don't move. Just think about it.
Can you feel anything touching it without moving ? Don't move, just think about it.
Where does it stop and the space it is in start ?
Does the you that you couldn't find own the space around your shoulder ?
Does that space just melt into what you know as your shoulder ?
Where does one stop and the other start ?
Listen ! What sounds are there. Try starting with sounds that are inside, then sounds close outside this body, then sounds further away, then the fartherest away.
Instead of the sounds coming from away towards you, listen as if all sounds start in this body and move outwards (or inwards).
Try it....
Friday, December 2, 2011
an urge arose...
An urge arose to express 'it' verbally.
With a head full of everybody from J. Krishnamurti to Seth to Jed McKenna - all similar to the sweetness of rocky road, i was seeking and seeking.
What was found was, an absence of all that. It is still sweet mind you. It was (and still is) the best entertainment. There was hardly a tv show or movie or anything else that could come close to being as entertaining,
Maybe it was part of the journey.
i guess that everything that has occurred to this mind/body has let to this point and so was part of the journey. A necessary part of the journey, i don't know.
But i digress...
The urge was to describe something small and close. So small that it almost needs a magnifying glass to see. So close that to even look, is to look past it.
It is the intimacy of NOW.
...going for a walk. Back soon.
WELL, just went for a walk and what i was trying to describe before was so BIG.
The sound of these footsteps had a clarity that was sharply inside this body, which expanded out to the sounds coming from blocks away. When the birdcall inside my head vibrated away to where ever the sound seemed to originate it compelled a whistle from these lips to mimic it. The feel of the wind seemed to stretch to somewhere over an ocean fifty kilometers away.
The bigness and the smallness, the closeness and the distance don't contradict each other.
They are the same thing.
i might call it ME, but that would trivialise it. i can't own it, for i am IT, or is it me. We are not WE as that implies separation.
Language requires compartmentalisation.
Just as when saying "that table has a brown top" doesn't mean it has no legs, or no shape. These things are ignored for the convenience of communication.
i imagine that the idea of a separate me started out as a convenience of communication and over generations became seen as an actuality. Brain conditioning.
What a loss. We live in paradise but somehow have come to believe something else.
What i want to describe can't be described.
The experience mentioned above didn't happen TO me. It wasn't done BY me. It was just experiencing happening and somehow there was a witness that chose this mind/body to be involved. Well... everything was involved, even you, but awareness-ing had limitations, probably for the convenience of not totally freaking out this mind/body, maybe.
This body isn't stoned, hasn't imbibed on mushrooms or LSD, but there are definite similarities.
Love for everybody and everything is happening. (just a language way of saying something)
The 'it' i started out to describe seemed to involve me. The end of the description seems to involve ALL of creation, and the as yet to be created and the created that has been uncreated.
Ah shit, maybe GOD is a language way to say it....
All of existence,
and all of everything else,
adds up to be me.
With a head full of everybody from J. Krishnamurti to Seth to Jed McKenna - all similar to the sweetness of rocky road, i was seeking and seeking.
What was found was, an absence of all that. It is still sweet mind you. It was (and still is) the best entertainment. There was hardly a tv show or movie or anything else that could come close to being as entertaining,
Maybe it was part of the journey.
i guess that everything that has occurred to this mind/body has let to this point and so was part of the journey. A necessary part of the journey, i don't know.
But i digress...
The urge was to describe something small and close. So small that it almost needs a magnifying glass to see. So close that to even look, is to look past it.
It is the intimacy of NOW.
...going for a walk. Back soon.
WELL, just went for a walk and what i was trying to describe before was so BIG.
The sound of these footsteps had a clarity that was sharply inside this body, which expanded out to the sounds coming from blocks away. When the birdcall inside my head vibrated away to where ever the sound seemed to originate it compelled a whistle from these lips to mimic it. The feel of the wind seemed to stretch to somewhere over an ocean fifty kilometers away.
The bigness and the smallness, the closeness and the distance don't contradict each other.
They are the same thing.
i might call it ME, but that would trivialise it. i can't own it, for i am IT, or is it me. We are not WE as that implies separation.
Language requires compartmentalisation.
Just as when saying "that table has a brown top" doesn't mean it has no legs, or no shape. These things are ignored for the convenience of communication.
i imagine that the idea of a separate me started out as a convenience of communication and over generations became seen as an actuality. Brain conditioning.
What a loss. We live in paradise but somehow have come to believe something else.
What i want to describe can't be described.
The experience mentioned above didn't happen TO me. It wasn't done BY me. It was just experiencing happening and somehow there was a witness that chose this mind/body to be involved. Well... everything was involved, even you, but awareness-ing had limitations, probably for the convenience of not totally freaking out this mind/body, maybe.
This body isn't stoned, hasn't imbibed on mushrooms or LSD, but there are definite similarities.
Love for everybody and everything is happening. (just a language way of saying something)
The 'it' i started out to describe seemed to involve me. The end of the description seems to involve ALL of creation, and the as yet to be created and the created that has been uncreated.
Ah shit, maybe GOD is a language way to say it....
All of existence,
and all of everything else,
adds up to be me.
Thursday, December 1, 2011
Trust means not 'doing'
A point of departure from seeking happened for me when Eric said something like "Trust.... " (i don't even remember what he meant for me to trust now), But it was a letting go of the need to do anything. It was an acceptance that everything necessary exists in me and in my world. In Jed McKennas' words (paraphrased) "Let go of the tiller and the boat will steer itself better than i ever could"
It is sometimes hard, no, sometimes i forget and grab the tiller again, sometimes in panic 'cos it think i am going to hit some rocks, and sometimes just automatically from habit. Usually it isn't too long before realisation that it has happened occurs, and i chuckle and it is released
It is sometimes hard, no, sometimes i forget and grab the tiller again, sometimes in panic 'cos it think i am going to hit some rocks, and sometimes just automatically from habit. Usually it isn't too long before realisation that it has happened occurs, and i chuckle and it is released
Sunday, November 27, 2011
Have no opinion !
If i have an idea, a view, an opinion about something or somebody, then what i see, interact with is that internal mind generated concept and NOT the actual somebody or something.
How is it possible to not have opinion ?
How is it possible to not have opinion ?
Thank you Ed
Drop all of your ideas about what awakening is like, what the teacher/student relation is supposed to be, what duties you still have post-awakening, post awakening paths and problems, etc. All these things will happen to you, awakening, bliss, love, etc., the more quickly you drop your wondering what it is and just focus and seeing and enjoying yourselves and others to whom you relate. Mind, opinions, theories, judgments, and self-checking are the way the mind prevents your freedom.Ed Muzika
After my post yesterday this appeared on Facebook this morning. (is that synchronistic?)
After my post yesterday this appeared on Facebook this morning. (is that synchronistic?)
Saturday, November 26, 2011
the right question
Paraphrasing Jed McKenna, "the right question is way more important than any answer." "the right question is the one you don't want to ask" "you will know it's the right question by resistance/avoidance"
Very loose paraphrasing, but no point looking for the actual quote - the gist is here, so...
What is the right question ?
Seems like i am seeking again here, so, having passed through the gate, what am i seeking ?
What am i seeking ?
Good question.
Looking, looking... i could say deepening but that is a concept, and a vague one at that.
Looking for the sonic boom that didn't happen on stream entry ? Even though that is recognised as thoughts left over from a time when a fantasy enlightenment looked like the ultimate escape from emotional pain, it still has some energy.
There was nothing i could do to gain stream entry and certainly nothing i can do to generate a blissful high (other than do drugs - which won't help this journey from here) So i guess i'll just have to live with remnant thoughts/desires.
It's a pretty busy life appreciating now, so those thoughts will just arise and pass away. (anicca)
I wanted some bliss,
so life could be wonderful.
Now it's wonder-full.
Very loose paraphrasing, but no point looking for the actual quote - the gist is here, so...
What is the right question ?
Seems like i am seeking again here, so, having passed through the gate, what am i seeking ?
What am i seeking ?
Good question.
Looking, looking... i could say deepening but that is a concept, and a vague one at that.
Looking for the sonic boom that didn't happen on stream entry ? Even though that is recognised as thoughts left over from a time when a fantasy enlightenment looked like the ultimate escape from emotional pain, it still has some energy.
There was nothing i could do to gain stream entry and certainly nothing i can do to generate a blissful high (other than do drugs - which won't help this journey from here) So i guess i'll just have to live with remnant thoughts/desires.
It's a pretty busy life appreciating now, so those thoughts will just arise and pass away. (anicca)
I wanted some bliss,
so life could be wonderful.
Now it's wonder-full.
Friday, November 25, 2011
further
"Look close at the most precious beliefs that are close to the heart, in no touch zone. They are the ones that you really want to inspect up close. You will recognise them by feeling resistance. Follow resistance. It is here to let you know that another bit of lie is sitting somewhere waiting to be noticed." Ilona
Beliefs, resistance. Looking, looking.
A current belief is that there aren't any beliefs left. But that is too convenient. Of course there are beliefs that are required to make daily life work. (i believe i will wake up in the morning, etc.) But beliefs about a self ? To say "no", which is the first reaction, is this resistance ?
Will consider while i shower...
Anthony Amrhein asked on Facebook a few seconds ago "What are you trying to unlock or open up, exactly?"
Beliefs, resistance. Looking, looking.
A current belief is that there aren't any beliefs left. But that is too convenient. Of course there are beliefs that are required to make daily life work. (i believe i will wake up in the morning, etc.) But beliefs about a self ? To say "no", which is the first reaction, is this resistance ?
Will consider while i shower...
Anthony Amrhein asked on Facebook a few seconds ago "What are you trying to unlock or open up, exactly?"
Is this synchronistic ?
Unlock, Open up ???
First response is Jed McKennas' "Further"
Going for that shower now...
No good answers, just "further, further..."
Will sleep on it...
Woke up seemingly normally but an hour later was extremely irritable, snapping at my wife over trivial stuff.
Certainly there have been occasions since 'it' happened where the reaction to frustration has been irritability, but on those occasions it dissipated with the seeing of what was happening within minutes. This time it lasted for about an hour in spite of seeing it.
Investigation took me straight back to the stuff above.
What is this resistance to ?
What belief was/am i hanging on to ?
The first answer that arose was that i still wanted the bliss, the high that i used to believe came with Enlightenment (that's what i was seeking)
Even though there was recognition that these were only thoughts, the irritability persisted. It must be something deeper. This was just a ploy to avoid looking deeper.
Being only a week or so away from returning home from this trip, the story of what i will tell my long time (25 years) meditation buddy has happened to Vince sounds so lame.
"Oh, by the way, while i was away i 'saw' the illusion of a self."
My wife also is unimpressed. i guess she is thinking "Oh, just Vince being weird again."
This desire for something substantial to show for 'stream entry' was possibly behing this mornings hissy fit.
Further...
Keep open to deeper.
Accept that conditioning will continue for some time.
illusions
Enlightenment, like God, is a word that means different things to different people.
Because of the assumptions and preconceptions which are often highly emotive, they can be considered contaminated words and not used unless accompanied by definitions.
Liberation is a more appropriate word for 'stream entry', a Buddhist term for someone who has realised (made real) or seen at an experiential level the illusion of a 'self' (and some other stuff - see here)
The illusion of permanence is also another one the Buddhists place great emphasis on.
The illusion of knowing another person.
The illusion of knowing anything at all.
The illusion of Truth (see here for an exposition this and the previous illusion)
A caveat on knowing anything and Truth is that these may not be illusion for somebody more fully realised. i have no insight for this - yet.
Illusion of the existence of an entity called society, church, government, etc., anything that is a name for a collection of events or people. It is the generalisation (an illusion) that constitutes the evil (another illusion) and makes for 'isms. (racism, nationalism etc.)
The illusion of Ownership.
The illusion of the inevitability of suffering.
The illusion of the future/past.
The illusion of good/bad.
In fact, if it is said that seeing what is real as distinct to what is illusion, then we get to a position where the only reality is the wordless happening of NOW. (it can only be described post event)
Does this make everything else illusion?
Monday, November 21, 2011
Experience
James asked me here "Experientially, does experience belong to the body, or is the body part of experience?"
The reply went "Hi James, (in my experience :))they can't be separated.
When this body experiences, it is both the experienced and the experiencer.
The experience can't be experienced without the body just as the body can't exist (be perceived) without the experience."
Experience was.
Happenings remembered.
Only now is real.
The reply went "Hi James, (in my experience :))they can't be separated.
When this body experiences, it is both the experienced and the experiencer.
The experience can't be experienced without the body just as the body can't exist (be perceived) without the experience."
But now to take this a little deeper...
What is experience?
Is it a reaction to something? re-action...
Is it action, as in primary activity ? Is all action really re-action ?
2 day break...
Thoughts, thoughts, thoughts and couldn't arrive at what experience actually is, then Aha!
Experience is an illusion too. Like thoughts, experience is a label, a concept to explain happenings that have already happened.
Experience is memory about thoughts &/or sensations that have occurred in the past (albeit sometimes only seconds ago, but nevertheless in the past) usually as a reaction to circumstances.
2 day break...
Thoughts, thoughts, thoughts and couldn't arrive at what experience actually is, then Aha!
Experience is an illusion too. Like thoughts, experience is a label, a concept to explain happenings that have already happened.
Experience is memory about thoughts &/or sensations that have occurred in the past (albeit sometimes only seconds ago, but nevertheless in the past) usually as a reaction to circumstances.
Experience was.
Happenings remembered.
Only now is real.
Saturday, November 19, 2011
intention
Mariana Caplan is quoted as saying here in Suzanne Foxtons' blog Nothing Exists, Despite Appearances;
"...Or is it best to entirely relax all semblance of control, and let life live you?"
Thoughts arise saying that "...let life live you" is all that can happen anyway.
Whether relaxed or uptight (or anything else) makes no difference to the fact of 'life-ing' happening.
It's an illusion to believe that choice exists.
Yet...
Relaxed or uptight will have an effect on how it happens.
Yet...
If choice is an illusion, then how can relaxation predominate over stress ?
It seems that future thoughts or feelings can be influenced by intention.
Not the exact thought of feeling but their flavour.
This may be a moot point, as when the welcoming of 'what is' exists (how do we choose this, if choice is an illusion?), then everything is OK, and a relaxed attitude follows.
Welcoming 'what IS',
relaxing into the 'now',
opens up the heart.
"...Or is it best to entirely relax all semblance of control, and let life live you?"
Thoughts arise saying that "...let life live you" is all that can happen anyway.
Whether relaxed or uptight (or anything else) makes no difference to the fact of 'life-ing' happening.
It's an illusion to believe that choice exists.
Yet...
Relaxed or uptight will have an effect on how it happens.
Yet...
If choice is an illusion, then how can relaxation predominate over stress ?
It seems that future thoughts or feelings can be influenced by intention.
Not the exact thought of feeling but their flavour.
This may be a moot point, as when the welcoming of 'what is' exists (how do we choose this, if choice is an illusion?), then everything is OK, and a relaxed attitude follows.
Welcoming 'what IS',
relaxing into the 'now',
opens up the heart.
Friday, November 18, 2011
doubts
When asked by Ilona on the LiberationUnleashed forum last night if there were any doubts about having passed through the gate (to Liberation), the reply was;
"No doubts anywhere..."
That was last night.
This morning, woke with thoughts arising that went like this; "surely this can't be IT", "this is too ordinary to be IT", "there would be definite knowledge if..."
These thoughts might be labelled as doubts, but there is an immediate recognition that they are only thoughts.
No matter what thoughts arise, there can be no doubt that any idea of a me is entirely conceptual.
There simply isn't anything to anchor a certainty to, that this is IT.
"No doubts anywhere..."
That was last night.
This morning, woke with thoughts arising that went like this; "surely this can't be IT", "this is too ordinary to be IT", "there would be definite knowledge if..."
These thoughts might be labelled as doubts, but there is an immediate recognition that they are only thoughts.
No matter what thoughts arise, there can be no doubt that any idea of a me is entirely conceptual.
There simply isn't anything to anchor a certainty to, that this is IT.
Pain, Suffering & Happiness
There is a somewhat cliched saying that goes "You should live every day of your life like it it your last day on earth."
The 'New Age' genre has taken this to mean something like "live life with gusto". To analyse this a little further, they mean that to be inhibited by possible negative consequences is to limit achievement, and thus limit happiness. This implies happiness it a result of achievement. This is False.
Happiness is the default state for human beings.
In the absence of all conceptual thinking, happiness remains. Even with the existence of pain there is happiness.
Some elaboration here.
Suffering is entirely caused by thinking.
Suffering can exist even without physical pain.
You might say suffering is emotional pain.
Physical pain + concept = suffering is also true.
The body has it's own way of handling pain.
Pain is a messenger, with the intent to protect the body. Obviously there is value to heed it.
Our culture has seemingly forgotten that and treats all pain as an enemy to be subdued.
Consider a headache. i am feeling sorry for myself (suffering) when something interesting comes along and for a while there is no thought or feeling of the headache. Later when attention falls away from the diversion awareness of the pain returns, and so the actual pain returns.
Had it gone while i was diverted, or was i just unaware of it. Can awareness of the pain, and the actual pain, be separated?
What about the occasions when discovering an injury that has left blood, but having no recollection of doing it. Logically, there would have been pain, but there is no memory of it. There is just a wound that the mind says "Oh, I must have bumped it against something..."
But enough of pain, what about Happiness?
Not the high of yippee-ness, or blissed out ecstasy. That is beyond happiness and obviously can't be sustained.
A sense of "all is well", of a harmony with circumstances that exists in the background of current happenings. When focused on, elicits a feeling of quiet pleasure.
This is the happiness that exists when the absence of concept is realised. (the convention of language makes it seem that happiness (a noun) exists in it's own right as a separate thing to be owned, but that isn't how it is meant here. It is just a clumsy description for awareness of a sense of something.)
Nothing needs to be done, in fact nothing can be done to achieve it.
It exists in the absence of the belief that a concept is real. The concept of Self, the concept of Future or Past, the concept of good or bad. Probably any concept.
Happiness just is,
when I don't chase it away.
Oh how wonder-full.
Death doesn't exist !
Two weeks ago i was having a conversation with my father-in-law.
Ten days ago he was in a hospital bed full of morphine, unable to communicate with us.
One week ago we buried him.
Now he is a memory.
That is he exists only as thoughts. He has become conceptual to this mind/body.
Did i consider my own and others eventual demise because of this experience? Yes.
BUT, it was recognised that they were just thoughts. It was conceptual.
What is real is now, and now, and now...
My death is a thought,
until it really happens.
today i'm living.
Ten days ago he was in a hospital bed full of morphine, unable to communicate with us.
One week ago we buried him.
Now he is a memory.
That is he exists only as thoughts. He has become conceptual to this mind/body.
Did i consider my own and others eventual demise because of this experience? Yes.
BUT, it was recognised that they were just thoughts. It was conceptual.
What is real is now, and now, and now...
My death is a thought,
until it really happens.
today i'm living.
Wednesday, November 16, 2011
the meaning of life...
Just reading a blog wherein some 'free' bods talking about the meaning of life.
Here is a take on it....
Q: what is the meaning of life ?
Hmm, first thought is that mind needs/wants to give meaning to everything. That's what minds do.
A cliche'd response is "life is it's own meaning".
This presumes that there is a thing called life (a noun) and that meaning (purpose) is intrinsic to it.
'Life' like 'Truth' is one of those words that are used as a noun but don't actually exist. An anomaly in our language.
'Life' is what we call the process of 'Living'. It's a language convention. It's uncritical thinking that leads to believing a language convention actually has literal meaning as a thing.
What is 'Life' ?
Is there a thing called 'Life' separate from a person (mind/body)?
If there were no people on this planet we would say that there was still life here. The plants and animals are the obvious 'living' things.
So now it becomes a little clearer that what we call 'life' is the process of coming into existence, growing (or evolving) then dying (after which, there is no life left)
Less commonly considered would be the life of a rock. Technically it comes into being from some process (compression or a volcano etc) gets moved about by various means, gets eroded back to dust (dies). There is no evolution during its 'life-time'
Clearly the process between birth and death is what we mean by 'life' when we consider plants and rocks (animals may fit here or with the following...) but when we talk about humans, we are referring not to what takes place internally, but what happens TO them. "Life did that to him." etc.
If 'life' doesn't exist as a separate thing, then obviously is can't do anything to anybody.
Life is just as much an illusion, a story, as Self is, therefore is is impossible for meaning to be intrinsic to it. Meaning can only be ascribed to Life. It is just part of the story that is constructed by mind (thoughts)
Of course all of the above is from this limited mind perspective, so it is absolutely NOT a complete view.
There are those who claim to recognise Oneness that say there is purpose to it all....
Can life have meaning,
when happenings called living,
only happen now.
Here is a take on it....
Q: what is the meaning of life ?
Hmm, first thought is that mind needs/wants to give meaning to everything. That's what minds do.
A cliche'd response is "life is it's own meaning".
This presumes that there is a thing called life (a noun) and that meaning (purpose) is intrinsic to it.
'Life' like 'Truth' is one of those words that are used as a noun but don't actually exist. An anomaly in our language.
'Life' is what we call the process of 'Living'. It's a language convention. It's uncritical thinking that leads to believing a language convention actually has literal meaning as a thing.
What is 'Life' ?
Is there a thing called 'Life' separate from a person (mind/body)?
If there were no people on this planet we would say that there was still life here. The plants and animals are the obvious 'living' things.
So now it becomes a little clearer that what we call 'life' is the process of coming into existence, growing (or evolving) then dying (after which, there is no life left)
Less commonly considered would be the life of a rock. Technically it comes into being from some process (compression or a volcano etc) gets moved about by various means, gets eroded back to dust (dies). There is no evolution during its 'life-time'
Clearly the process between birth and death is what we mean by 'life' when we consider plants and rocks (animals may fit here or with the following...) but when we talk about humans, we are referring not to what takes place internally, but what happens TO them. "Life did that to him." etc.
If 'life' doesn't exist as a separate thing, then obviously is can't do anything to anybody.
Life is just as much an illusion, a story, as Self is, therefore is is impossible for meaning to be intrinsic to it. Meaning can only be ascribed to Life. It is just part of the story that is constructed by mind (thoughts)
Of course all of the above is from this limited mind perspective, so it is absolutely NOT a complete view.
There are those who claim to recognise Oneness that say there is purpose to it all....
Can life have meaning,
when happenings called living,
only happen now.
Monday, November 14, 2011
current situation...
What is the current situation, a week after going through the gate?
Still no sonic boom, still no Aha! of seeing anything exciting, just a continual awareness that Vince was all made up and that THIS is all there is.
By THIS i mean WHAT IS happening now, and now, and now...
Sounds of typing is happening, sounds of cars are happening, sounds of Tinnitus is happening.
No thoughts of the past or future are needed for this typing, so no such thoughts.
Feeling a slight fullness in the stomach region after eating tea a few minutes ago.
Waiting, waiting for the next words to form on the screen. Hmm, how is waiting experienced ? It's just a stillness that has a sensation of emptiness, a kind of vacuum that sucks words from somewhere. The word emptiness came out spelled wrongly and a red line formed under it. Without verbal thought, a right mouse click and insert the correction.
As boring as this might seem, it isn't. Life is mostly like this now, and now, etc.
It's actually very freeing. Hmm, that is there is no weight of what has to be done. A trust that everything that needs doing will get done, and above all i don't need to 'do' Vince. Everything just happens.
Lost in the 'doing' happens.
i watched a movie this afternoon with my wife and her two sisters. As it finished one sister looked at me and said "You've been crying" at which point i realised that it was true. It wasn't a sad movie and i couldn't say why i had been crying. It was emotional and i was lost in it. There was no awareness of a me until she spoke to me.
Life is becoming that way. Lost in each activity that happens. Just being reactive. Present circumstances telling me what is required now, and now, and now...
Life is a story.
Living is doing it now.
It all just happens.
Friday, November 11, 2011
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The you that you think of as you is not you.
The you that thinks of you as you is not you.
There is no you, so who wishes to become enlightened?
Who will become enlightened?
Who will be enlightened?
You cannot fail to achieve enlightenment.
Were you told otherwise?
Irresistible forces compel you. The universe insists.
It is not within your power to fail.
It lies in all directions at all times.
On the journey to enlightenment, you create and destroy
your own path with every step.
No one can step off the path.
No one can lead another.
No one can stop.
more immediate than your next breath,
and forever beyond your reach.
It cannot be found because it cannot be lost.
It cannot be lost because it is not other than that which seeks.
Is that not the damnedest thing?