Processing...

Ok, let's consider this; EVERYTHING that is outside of your current Experiencing is story. (they may or may not be accurate, but as they are not part of Experiencing in this instant, they can only be conceptualized.)
All beliefs and opinions are story. Every word or thought is story, even those 'original' thought/words used to describe/communicate Experiencing (because by the time a word ABOUT it is formed it is already only memory)
Only Experiencing is Reality for 'you'. In Experiencing there is no thought, no awareness. You are the Experiencing. Experiencing is 'you'.
So in order to have awareness, we have to have thought. The awareness is description of an Experience (memory).
The moment we have thought, we are in the realm of concept, of Story. In order to communicate we need story. This is useful. We have a useful story to enable the transfer of information to 'another'.
When does a story become the source of suffering ?
Is it when it adds something to the Experiential Reality ?
Is it when we respond to the conceptual instead of to the Experiencing ?
How do we Recognize when this occurs ? What triggers can we set that will evoke the Recognition ?
We know that when Recognition that we are responding to a story happens, that the response get 'short circuited', it gets dropped.
We also know that this de-conditions the habitual responding to this particular story.
So the key is the trigger.
If we have it clear that it is conceptual additions to Experiencing, that constitutes these stories, we can use the responding itself (the responding that will be dropped when Recognition occurs) as the trigger.
When emotion starts to rise, or has risen there will be investigation as to whether it it emotion as a response to the Experiencing that is occurring, or whether it is a response to something about that Experiencing.
If it is about it, then it is conceptual. This is SEEn and then reaction is dropped.

The difference between the liberated and 'others'

The first difference between the liberated and 'others', is that the liberated have stopped believing that they are the character in the story of a self.
The result of this is that they then recognize when they start to 'act out' the script, and with that recognition, a dropping of the responding to beliefs that come out of the story.
Each time a dropping occurs, the neuronal pathways associated with the habitual expressing of the reactive emotion, is weakened. It starts to atrophy with disuse.
Relatively (relative to the years lived in the delusion that an I was actual) quickly all of the extra dross is no longer a feature in the liberateds' life-ing.
Considering that this Reality distorting shit permeated all waking life (and even sleeping dreams), a huge burden has been lifted.
The result of the elimination of this load, is much more than just the absence of all of this emotion.
On a physical level, the body is not flooded with stress hormones regularly, which has obvious benefits.
On another level, an innate 'wisdom' is revealed that was previously swamped with the old reactions to almost every situation. There is a 'knowing' of all that needs to be known in every situation that 'life presents'.
i am describing experiencing here.
How much of it is story for you ?

Others...

There can be responding (by this mind/body organism) to Reality or to Story.
This is not a choice, it is a statement of observation.
Whether there is responding to animate or inanimate others (people or things), the moment meaning is applied, then i am responding to story. Any meaning is speculative and thus response is to actuality plus meaning. The response itself is actual and can be given the label of reality, but the meaning component of what was responded to, is imagined, is concept, is thought content and may or may not turn out to be accurate.
It would seem that Reality is confined to direct Experiencing as everything outside of this can only be thought about. (until it is encountered)
When it comes to other people, it is exactly the same. If you see them, there is a visual experiencing. If they touch you there is a kinaesthetic experiencing. If you hear them, an auditory experiencing. Of course it doesn't stop with the raw sensory stimulation. Almost always there is association with past experience. This is still Reality. It is the belief that past experience 'means' something about this person, that is where story starts to influence reality.
When i imagine that i know what another thinks or feels, when i imagine that the others personal... the others persona, their personality can be known by anybody else, then i am totally outside of reality and completely inside concept, imagination.
Of course, this is a somewhat simplistic description. At the other end of the spectrum is relationships.
My relationship with a rock brings with it a history and preferences. For reasons beyond awareness, i prefer solid rocks to crumbly ones. i like smooth surfaces as opposed to jagged. i am taken by unusual shapes, etc.
When it comes to relationships with other people, the complexity and extent of history and preferences is huge and unknowable.
The unknown component presents the 'most likely to corrupt', influence.
The question "What is actual, and what is imagined" is the best chance for a healthy relationship. It may well be the most difficult too, as we react so quickly and unconsciously to the stuff of our thoughts while thinking that we are reacting to the other.

Wisdom revisited...

A repost from a year before awakening happened...
"Your default setting is wisdom and peace. 
The only thing that ever covers over your experience of spaciousness and peace, in any moment, is believed thought." Vince Flammini
Now, a year post liberation (2 yrs later), this is seen rather differently.
Whereas before the 'default setting' was seen as a state, now it is seen as a flow.
Even the (newly) awakened being, when responding habitually to a 'button' being pushed, will not be expressing wise thinking. This is impossible while the current of emotion is raging. The wise perspective will certainly reappear the moment that the actual happening is seen to be the result of conditioning. (this will weaken it and cause it to eventually wither away)

Here are previous posts on this subject.
http://vince-wisingup.blogspot.com.au/2011/09/wisdom.html

http://vince-wisingup.blogspot.com.au/2011/09/before-wisdom.html

http://vince-wisingup.blogspot.com.au/2011/09/more-wisdom.html

http://vince-wisingup.blogspot.com.au/2011/09/wise-thoughts.html

Is it possible for children to express wisdom ?
This question begets the need to describe wise thinking.
In view of what is currently seen, it is simply seeing 'what IS', that is the actual, without the distortion or addition of the mind filters. The filters produced by the story of self.
The saying "out of the mouths of babes." gives us a clue. How often do we hear an unfiltered statement  about 'how it IS' from children ?
Their ego (story of self) is not yet sufficiently complex for them to include in their script, the possible ramifications of what they say, so they just blurt it out. As it IS.
i guess this is unintentional wisdom ??

Can wisdom be expressed while not knowing it is wisdom ?
The child above certainly has no concept of wisdom.
It is infrequent that an adult will express anything without an inherent opinion/judgement. (therefore unlikely that wisdom is present)

Is there such a thing as accidental wisdom ? (is there such a thing as intentional wisdom ?)
If wise thinking is present, it most certainly isn't the result of seeking wisdom. It most likely is the result of someone grokking that suffering is induced by believing a story about how they & the world works, rather than SEEing the actuality. How IT Is.
Grok means to understand so thoroughly that the observer becomes a part of the observed—to merge, blend, intermarry, lose identity in experience. Wiki...

Separate or One ?

In seeing, Both see-er and seen are required. Remove any one, then neither exist. (except as a story in your mind)
How can there be separation ?
 Only the mind behaves as if separation exists. In experience, everything only exists because of everything else.
Consider the senses, hearing, tasting, smelling, seeing, feeling.
Isn't it the case that any of these senses require stimulation to become active ?
If they are being activated by a connection with whatever is being sensed, then that dance requires all partners. Ergo, no separation. In fact, a joining. And only when we are joined does experiencing start. Only when we are One, can the dance begin.
If something were truly separate, then it couldn't be part of Experiencing, as there would be no connection and thus no sense stimulation.

Belief...

A belief is where some thoughts have given other thoughts permission to generate a response without consulting the 'conscious' mind, that is without consulting thoughts in the present.
It is a given. If you believe something then you respond to it without any thought. Automatically.

It is impossible to resist beliefs as there is nothing there to push back against.

Do you believe that you are at the mercy of your beliefs ?

Is belief born of thoughts ?
Is it thoughts that resonated once, in the past ?
Thoughts that other thoughts said were right ?
Thoughts that other thoughts have said need not be questioned ?
Thoughts that bypass conscious awareness and directly effect emotion ?

The way to allow a belief to become irrelevant is to examine it.
All beliefs are story, and none stand up to close scrutiny. (as being reality)
Beliefs (and opinions) are always ABOUT something. They are never IT.

Belief is what handcuffs you to a fictitious self.
No self = No beliefs. (of course, the story of self and beliefs inherent to that, remain - but are seen for what they are. That is that they are SEEn to be nothing but a Concept.)

The moment i see a belief or an opinion, alarms go off here.

Does belief require faith ?
Is faith another form of belief ?

Why does belief have any credibility ? Lots of kids believe in Santa Clause. What's the difference between that belief and somebody that believes in god, or somebody that believes in conspiracy theories. Why is your belief more credible ?

When i was a kid, it happened that one day as normally happened, my mother woke me, telling me to get ready for school.
i got up and got dressed and was just heading out the bedroom door when my mother woke me for school.
i believed i was awake and it was so realistic that when i was woken for the second time i felt like i had to do it all again, even though the first time was in a dream.
This experience left me believing that i can't actually know anything, i can only have beliefs and they can be shown to be wrong at any moment. i.e. they have no credibility. In fact they are the cause of most (if not all) suffering.
Just to finish this, i now hold the following to be true (until it is shown not to be); i can't know anything. i can only have beliefs that i will use 'as if' they are true for the purpose of navigating a given situation, and then discard them until/if they become useful again.

Experiencing, or an Experience...

The verb, Experiencing, or a noun, an Experience... this is the question.
Conventional language always uses the noun Experience, but what is an experience ?
It is a memory, a mental thing about what was being experienced at the time Experiencing was happening. Even to say "what was being experienced" attempts to turn it into a thing. (a noun)
How can the awareness-ing of the constantly changing perception be a thing ?
Language convention escapes the paradox by introducing an 'acceptable' oxymoron, called an "abstract noun".  A dictionary description says; "In this instance, abstract means to exist apart from concrete existence. A noun that is abstract is an aspect, concept, idea, experience, state of being, trait, quality, feeling, or other entity that cannot be experienced with the five senses."
Language is both useful and necessary, but like assumptions (see previous post), can easily lead us astray when it comes to assessing reality.
This 'leading astray' occurs when we remember, that is, have thoughts about previous experiencing, and mistake that, for the actual experiencing.
Consider this; can there be sensory input without sense activation ?
Can there be seeing without the seen ?
Can there be hearing without the heard ?
Of course not ! They are inseparable. So when Seeing or Hearing is occurring, there is only SEEing or HEARing. The See-er and Seen, Hear-er and Heard are inclusive of the Seeing or Hearing.
While it is occurring, there is experiencing.
Experiencing is a constant and ever changing 'process' and this happening can only ever be NOW.
The moment we refer to the past (or future), we are in concept land. The realm of thought, and that is always ABOUT. It is never IT.

Assumptions...

Assumptions are great.
They save a lot of time and energy and make navigating daily life smoother.
example; we assume that we will arrive where we intend to go, so we don't need to consider a mechanical check of the car, or consult the public transport administration to see if everything is running ok.
You can imagine how bogged down it would get if we had to consider the details of every intention.
On the other hand, there are triggers that tell us that it's appropriate to put assumptions aside and check details. When a red light appears on the dashboard of the car, or when problems with public transport is detected.
There are those assumptions that have a more profound effect on quality of life.
The trigger for one of these is spiritual seeking. Searching for the 'meaning' of life. Dissatisfaction with happiness levels.
These triggers point to a really fundamental assumption that is universal. If everybody you know carries the same assumption, you might be forgiven for assuming that it is fact and not open to be re-considered.
When thinking of this one, the fact that the whole world once thought the earth was flat, says something...
Todays equivalent of the Flat Earth belief is the assumption that there is an actual self, that there is an I.
You don't need to be an astronomer to work this out. You can investigate it for yourself quite easily.

Choice or Choice-less ?

Since awakening occurred, there is a willing acceptance of the arisings of life-ing.
No decisions need to be made, although it still seems that they are.
Sometimes there is a reminder that i will 'go with the flow', and this seems like a choice, but on investigation, it is seen that there was already put in place the intention to 'do' this.
Certainly, it seems (in hindsight) that i could have 'chosen' to take a different direction.
But that didn't happen.
Did i have the capacity to 'do' otherwise ? i don't know.
i do know that it seems like i did, but i also know that there were no alternatives considered.
There was recognising some resistance, then a 'letting go' when the memory arose of the 'going with the flow'.

By going with the flow, i mean that whatever is in front of me, is what is willingly accepted as the top priority. eg, i am typing this and my wife comes and asks will it attend to a job, whereas before i would feel intruded upon and interrupted, now there is just doing it. No reluctance, no resistance. Just happiness at the opportunity to practice 'going with the flow'.

This 'going with the flow' seems like a previous decision was made, but in fact was a recognition that it is either do this or add distortion by resisting.
Is there a choice here ?
Before that recognition, while the illusion of choice was present, there was habit.
There was a desire to continue what was happening (what i was 'doing') and so the request to 'change course' was seen as an interference. This was where conflict occurred, which resulted in anger and disharmony.
Once seen, where was the choice ? Could i choose to continue with an attitude/behaviour that induced stress ?
Of course, conditioning (habit) still sometimes arises, but is usually seen to be occurring, which instantly causes evaporation of resistance, accompanied by a chuckle of recognition.

Friendship

In pre-awakened times, friendship, like all relationships existed on a spectrum.
There were those that were closer and those more distant.
An acquaintance, being the most distant, was someone that you shared little more with than a knowing of names, maybe occupation, and had somewhat regular visual contact with.
As the distance decreases, at some point we start calling it friendship.
It may be that this point is when personal sharing occurs.
'personal' is a whole rabbit hole of its' own.
Since awakening, it has been impossible to take anything personally. For a start, there is only a story of I or Me or self, so there is no-one to take anything personally. 
Then there is the recognition that others cannot actually know anything about 'me'. 
They can only relate to their story of me, 
and who knows how accurate that might be ?
There is no doubt that imagining that the other likes me is also important, and add to this an underlying sharing of attitudes and philosophy and the distance decreases even further.
In close friendships there is a non-judgemental acceptance of the others behaviour and thinking.
Predictability may have a place in the feeling of safety that exists when either interacting or thinking about a friend.
i used to think that it was important that a friend 'knew me'. Knew my likes and dislikes, knew my philosophy on life. Now, my 'best' friend clearly relates to a story of me, and there is complete acceptance that they will never really 'know' me.


Many so-called friendships, like most couples relationships, are actually each others demons feeding of the other.
When you say "friend", there is a softness, a warmth, good humor, connection. It is a heart thing.
When you say "acquaintance", there is a knowledge about that person. It is a mental thing (mostly).
The awakened can see clearly that the relationship with another is, in fact a relationship with a story they hold about the other, and actually is very loosely based on the actual person.
This doesn't preclude friendships as preferences still exist and the organism certainly prefers feeling safe and warm.

...maybe to be continued.

Is 'Looking At' the same as 'Seeing' ?

When we 'look AT' we are looking at labels, we are therefore relating to a brain generated overlay, complete with opinions and judgements, and just as opinions and judgements are ABOUT something, so too is the overlay, but when we are SEEing we are experiencing what IS. Not about it, but  direct experiencing. This includes the perception that what is being SEEN is not an object 'out there' but a focussing on details of interaction that are indescribable.  Indescribable because to attempt to describe them is to ignore the nuance that is the depth of the multi sensorial experiencing. 
Can the Seen be seen without the See-er ? Is there a See-er without the Seen ? Where does the See-er and the Seen begin and end ?
To appreciate that See-er and Seen are actually an experiencing of SEEing, that there can be No separation, is to begin to grok this.
It may not be possible to avoid the 'looking At', as brain conditioning has already taken place and all of the ingredients for labeling are already there, But it is possible to be aware that this is happening and to give it the attention that it deserves (which is very little usually, though to communicate with another, it may be useful to have a 'shared' perception) The mind is obsessed with applying meaning to everything and part of doing this is to categorise and label everything that it touches.
The realization that thoughts have no inherent integrity (thoughts are always about, always conceptual and can only interfere with direct experiencing.) allows a relationship with reality that doesn't distort it. (reality is not actually an "it", nor can it be related to,  but language...)

When looking at it,
mind knows what it's seen before.
and sees it again.

When SEEing something,
it's always for the first time,
and it's Wonder-Full

What is Love ?

Love is such a contaminated word these days, that it is almost better not to use it.

An open, willing acceptance of what IS, tinged with appreciation and a huge Wonder at the constant discovery that is occurring.
When this is focused on other people, a compassion emerges along with the realisation that they are actually a projection of 'me', and indeed are revealing something more about this organism..., provokes an almost painful emotion that can conveniently be labeled Love.

Seeker - hear this.

Seeker, all of your effort-ing has caused your body to hover about a meter above ground level. The more you struggle, the higher you go. The usual struggle to maintain an I, has most of the world just under a meter high.
There is NOTHING you can DO to float back to ground level.
It happens with the cessation of struggle.
Any belief (opinion, judgement) is an attempt to manipulate reality, and up you go...
There is nothing to 'get' here.
EVERYTHING you Seek, already IS, and ALWAYS has been.
Grounded is the default state.

Surrender

Is surrender what happens when you do not do ?
Surrender doesn't mean 'giving up'.
Surrender means Letting Go !
Surrender means that the Only thing that can happen is to Witness, just Watch, Observe. No judgment, No Opinion, No Belief. Wordless Observing. Thoughtless Observing. Mindless Observing.
And in that, there is a SEEING.
A SEEING of What IS
Now let's not get too pure here.
Thoughts or Doing will still occur, you can't willfully turn them off, but you can recognise them for what they are. That is an attempt by mind to do what it is good at. Maintain the status quo, keep within the familiar.
This is where (you have heard it said) that everybody is already enlightened.
Whatever IS, is. Shit included.
It all just IS. Even when it's not, it IS.
Do you have a choice which thoughts arise ?
Do you have a choice about anything ?

mind mistaking mind for reality.

An object (a tree) is seen. Seeing occurs.
Light of various wavelengths enter the eye and this stimulates nerves which trigger the brain to see shape and color. At this point the brain consults a database of previous experiences and learned information to arrive with a label "tree".
It is at this point that mind enters the show.
It might say "just a tree, pleasant color and shape" and minds' physical component, emotion, kicks in and a good feeling happens.
At this point most people are 'seeing' what was in the database and not the actual tree.
This all happens automatically and takes nano seconds.
Can you imagine if we didn't consult the database ?
Everything would be seen as if for the first time and there would be an overwhelming flood of information that needed to be sorted. But the database has been filled with both useful as well as 'actuality distorting' information.
We just need to sort out the wheat from the chaff and allow the inappropriate to 'bleed' away.
The point i make here is that this process is mind seeing mind.
To think ABOUT what is occurring, to recognise, involves thought. But only original thought. First thought. This is how communication occurs. Labels are applied.
Importantly here, we need awareness, not to start relating to the label instead of the actual.
The minds I kicks in as soon as we have opinion or judgement and obviously we have to think to consider if that is occurring.
To say that an I is involved here maybe nothing more than a recognition of a familiar, habit form.
If you see the opinions that ring the alarm bells for I involvement, then identification is broken.
If unthinking wallowing in judgements happens, then I-dentification with an imaginary self exists.
Without identification with the illusory I, thoughts will continue to arise (Thoughts will never go away completely - maybe) The I will always be on call for when it is useful, but will always be seen as story.

Reality...

There is no such thing as Truth. It is as much an illusion as Self.
Check for yourself. Have you ever Experienced a thing called Truth ?
It is just language talking about some supposed characteristics of something.
You are not separated from the Truth (presuming Truth = Reality) Nor are you separate from "what is". Reality is, As IT IS.
As Reality consists entirely of your current experiencing, tell me, is it possible for there to be Experiencing without an Experiencer or an Experiencer without an Experiencing ?
Is it possible for there to be any separation between 'you' and 'your' experiencing ?

Experiencing
reality is only
Experiencing.

Belief in the story of I

Some people say that the mind is I.
The reality is that the I is mind.
That is it is constructed of thought and is just a story, a concept.
This concept is powerful in that the emotional reactions to the story are very real and they imply that the cause (the story) is real too. NOT SO!
The mind won't immediately stop doing what it does, but the SEEing that it is doing mind stuff, is ALL it takes to break the identification with the belief in the story of I.

If I is the mind,
and mind is only some thoughts,
When thinking ceases ?

about freedom...

This comes from a blog by Ciaran Healy; http://ruthlesstruthdotcom.blogspot.com.au/2011/09/second-kind-of-freedom.html

Freedom. What is freedom?

Well, there's two different kinds. One, is freedom FROM something. The other is freedom TO DO something you couldn't do before.

Yeah? Positive and negative freedom. Everyone tends to think of negative freedom. Freedom as the removal or this tyranny, or that tyranny.

Negative freedom is freedom from something bad. The civil rights movement, for instance, is a case of people fighting for negative freedom. Freedom from discrimination, freedom from inequality. Freedom from.

That's not to say it's not important, it is. But there's also another kind of freedom.

Freedom to. Freedom TO. That's something different.

Freedom TO is the addition of an option you never had before. If you are suddenly granted a pair of wings, that's not freedom from not having wings. It's freedom TO. Freedom to fly.

You don't have to fly. You can just sort of sit there. But you can, if you want, spread your new wings and take off. If you want. You don't have to. You just have the option to. The freedom to.

Freedom to.

Enlightenment is classically seen - and we have seen it, including myself, from the start - as freedom FROM. We've been looking for the end of suffering, freedom from suffering.

The problem with freedom FROM is that unless something VERY intense happens, you'll never fully root out the thing you want freedom from.

Racism is a good example. Did the Civil Rights movement deliver freedom FROM racism? Well, it definitely reduced the tyranny of it, absolutely. But no, there's still racism.

What it did deliver is freedom TO. With the new laws passed against discrimination, and the groundswell of public support for their cause it meant that black people had a new option, they were free TO live in ways that had previously been blocked to them.

Freedom TO.

Does liberation + gate + void end deliver freedom FROM suffering?

Nope.

Does it help?

Yup.

Does it deliver any FREEDOM TO's?

I would argue that with this eternal stuff, yes. Yes it does. It is brilliantly delivering a very CLEAR freedom TO for me.

The freedom to be cool. The freedom to be chill. The freedom to be balanced. The freedom to focus. The freedom to be open. The freedom to empathise. The freedom to apologise. The freedom to live an emotionally balanced life.

Yeah?

"I don't know how to SEE." said the Seeker.

SEEing is about Direct Experiencing.
That is about what happens before mind.
Before thoughts start their ranting about what just happened.
The thoughts take a milliSecond to arrive and if you are relaxed and ready you can take a snapshot of conditions which can then be inspected 'outside of time', so to speak.
Thoughts will still arise as a torrent, and like ads on the tv will endeavor to make you dissatisfied with what has just been observed and then offer you relief in the familiar.
Allow these thought (you can't stop them anyway), allow them, then as in judo, rather than try and stop them, you just deflect them, using their own momentum to take them off into infinity.
It's the moment before the thought torrent, that you intend to glimpse.
That glimpse will encompass so much detail that you may spend days inspecting it.
Practice it. (without judgement or opinions about how successful you might be)

enlightenment description

A quote from this blog that resonated here; restinginawareness.com
When awakening comes it is known, there is no more feeling of incompleteness or need for seeking. You can carry on learning and increasing in wisdom for the rest of your life, but you will know your true nature beyond doubt.