a response to Roy's email

Is the mind aware?

11/09/10 22:45:24

This  mind (my mind) calls it awareness when the process of remembering a recent event and then speculating about it occurres (all the while pretending that it is happening in real time.) Being able to replay a memory enables a sense of objectively which adds to the illusion of awareness. This awareness is a vastly different state to that where it appears that the minds processes are not conscious. When it is lost in the processes. 

Hmmm, maybe being (mentally) conscious (as opposed to unconscious mental activity) is analogous with awareness. (to the mind) 

Of course i am not talking about Consciousness or Awareness.

It is seen that there is only one-ness with no separation at all.

My mind has no trouble believing this – it's the seeing I yearn for.

No separate god, only god.

I believe this too. Jane Roberts' Seth turned me onto this years ago. It instantly resonated with me when I read it.

Everything is made of awareness – no me, no-one making decisions.
I have no trouble accepting this.

… belief and acceptance

this is a state where the mind has no apparent conflict attached to an idea

Buddha said “choices are made, deeds are done but there is no doer thereof”.

Obviously if my only claim to an I is a mental process tricking itself then the doer (i) is also an illusion.

The mind is the wrong tool for the job, and will keep you distracted but you can only do what you do.

Yes, I understand this and also have been practising (doing) total acceptance with awareness (of the acceptance and any habitual residual emotional reactions. It is mostly a natural/automatic thing for me now. (well about 60% of the time (?)

The understanding comes from realising that the real you is watching the whole human experience. You are not the human or the human experience but the awareness that is aware of it.

I can understand this as a concept. Acceptance and belief are also present.

I also understand that my understanding and acceptance and belief are my mind processes.

The understanding comes from realising

How to realise ? When i Know that it is beyond doing.

Take a step back!

How? Mentally? ( lol )

Be careful not to make the ego the enemy

it's not. I came to terms with my ego long ago (did a lot of pop psychology – encounter groups, psychotherapy etc.) and now really appreciate how it has always had the best intentions – in fact made survival bearable and even enjoyable sometimes. It made a lot of stuff ups with those good intentions.

You are experiencing directly (since in the end there is nothing separate) but you are not the experience nor the human that generates the experience but are the awareness of it.

No trouble accepting the logic of this. Do also believe it. ( it still doesn't help with the doing (that can't be done...)

And, does awareness have any qualities,

hmmm... seems like it would have except for the logic that says that qualities can only exist in duality.

quantities or dimensions? How big is it? Where does it reside?

Omnipresent, omniscience, omnipotent – no problems, it fit's in with my desire to believe in magic.

silence’. There the mind can’t function and awareness is seen directly.

A few years of Vipassana with one or two ten day retreats per year and I still haven't experienced silence. ( I guess we are not really talking about silence as an experience here. )

perhaps this silence is a quality of awareness. The silence that arises.

patience is the key

just watch is all i can do

come on springtime!