All writings herein serve to open up the world towards knowledge that matters, to piece together the greatest philosophies of living, and to expound ways towards
the path of freedom, happiness & choice.
The human condition is characterized by a compulsive and obsessive personal relationship to thought. At its best, thought is a symbolic representation of reality; at its worst, thought takes the place of reality. Our thoughts describe and interpret both the external world and our internal experiences. To conceive of a life lived any other way is incomprehensible to most people. Thought tells us who we are; what we believe; what is right and wrong; what we should feel; what is true and what is false; and how we fit into this event called “life.” We literally create ourselves and our lives out of thought. Further, we associate the end of thought with sleep, unconsciousness, or death. It is this very personal relationship with thought that is the cause of all the fear, ignorance, and suffering which characterizes the human condition, and which destroys the manifestation of true Love in this life.
As long as your experience of self and life is defined by the mechanical, conditioned, and compulsive movement of thought, you are bound to a very, very limited perception of what is real. But imagine a relationship to thought that was impersonal. This would mean that you were no longer compulsively defining and interpreting yourself and your experience by the movement of thought. If this were the case, you would no longer be limited by the conditioned perspective of thought. Suddenly your entire perspective would shift away from thought to that which was the very ground and source of all thought. A source which, because it wasn’t being compulsively interpreted by thought, would be experienced as it actually is for the first time.
Why is this so important? Because when you are able to perceive this Source, you are actually in direct experiential contact with the truth of your own being. Out of that contact the possibility is ripe to suddenly awaken to who and what you really are – the Self – pure consciousness.
The Self is the context within which thought arises. Manifestation in the world of time arises as a wave out of the ocean of eternal consciousness. But the human condition is defined by a very personal and compulsive relationship to thought, which makes this realization impossible unless you are able, either suddenly or gradually, to let go of the compulsive need to know and understand with the mind. You must become more interested in the context within which thought and all experience arises than in the false security of thought itself. Most people find this very difficult because facing the context, which is prior to all knowing, is literally stepping into the unknown, which is the last place most people want to go. Why? Because thought always seeks security in itself, which is the known.
Fear and insecurity always wait for any and all who dare to probe the depths of the Unknown. The true seeker of liberation must have an uncompromising desire to discover Eternal Truth, a desire that outweighs any tendency to hesitate and contract in the face of fear. It is only when the fear of the Unknown is openly embraced that it begins to transform into the positive energy and intensity necessary to awaken from conditioned existence.
It is not uncommon in the presence of a powerful teacher, and under ideal conditions, to have a glimpse of enlightenment. But all too often most seekers are unwilling to surrender to the overwhelming implications of that revelation. The profound intimacy and vulnerability inherent in true freedom marks the destruction of the ego’s boundaries to such an extent that all beings and all things become the content of one’s own Self. To most seekers this is simply too much because the limitlessness of the Self leaves no room for any separateness from the whole. It is this complete lack of separation from the whole which is the very definition of selflessness and love.
The aim of spiritual practice is to discover in your own present experience That which the movement of thought never touches. This does not mean to suppress the thinking mind, nor does it mean to attempt to understand by using thought. What I am pointing toward is the Unknown: the already, ever-present, silent-still-source that not only precedes thought but surrounds it. You must become more interested in the Unknown than in that which is known. Otherwise you will remain enslaved by the very narrow and distorted perspective of conceptual thinking. You must go so deeply into the Unknown that you are no longer referencing thought to tell you who and what you are. Only then will thought be capable of reflecting that which is true rather than falsely masquerading as truth.
What I am talking about is a condition where the mind never fixates; where it never closes; where it has no compulsive need to understand in terms of ideas, concepts, and beliefs. A condition where you are no longer referencing the mind, feelings, or emotions for security in any way. What I am talking about is the complete surrender of all separateness until liberation becomes a permanent condition, and you are forever lost in the freedom of the Absolute.
- Adyashanti
(Him: Next to Eckhart Tolle, Adyashanti seems to be the most recognized teacher on the topic of consciousness in the US. His teachings seem to be easier to understand compared to many others’ on the same subject. To learn more from Adyashanti, kindly visit: http://www.adyashanti.org)
I recently watched a video of David Wilcock & Graham Hancock sitting down together, discussing data around a subject which mainstream archeology has yet to successfully publish.
It concerns a civilization which potentially existed at least 12,000 years ago.
A possible civilization with technologies and a level of intelligence that far exceed its time.
Below is the description of the May 2010 YouTube video:
“Bringing together two inspirational investigators of our hidden past and uncertain future, this unique dialogue between David Wilcock and Graham Hancock takes us on a roller-coaster ride through the wonders of ancient civilisations and into the mysterious nature of reality itself. What is the Ark of the Covenant? Why is its loss the greatest riddle of the Bible? Has its final resting place been found? What do the Great Pyramids and the Great Sphinx of Giza teach us? What was the function of the Osireion and other megalithic sites of unknown origin found throughout Egypt? Were the high knowledge and magic of ancient Egypt brought to the Nile Valley by the survivors of an earlier civilisation around 12,500 years ago at the end of the last Ice Age? The possibility of a great lost civilisation Atlantis by any other name was the focus of Graham Hancock’s book Fingerprints of the Gods and the dialogue considers the evidence for this exciting idea – including out-of-place artifacts and technologies, ancient maps of the world as it last looked more than 12,500 years ago, and the mysteries of the Mayan calendar. Join Hancock and Wilcock as they discuss Angkor in Cambodia, Baalbeck in the Lebanon, underwater ruins submerged by rising sea levels all around the world at the end of the last Ice Age, the alleged monuments and a gigantic sculpture of a human face on the planet Mars. The dialogue concludes with a paradigm-busting investigation into the full mysterious spectrum of reality.”
Now, I’m not the kind of person who’d invest time into speculations, opinions or claims.
The reason why this interaction intrigued me was because of the large amounts of solid facts provided throughout the discussion.
If you’re interested in truth rather than news, I highly endorse it for your viewing.
With time, us humans are able to eventually resolve more and more mysteries.
I hope this video adds value to your life in that sense:
A friend of mine recently wrote on Facebook that she saw a red light passed by at an unusual high speed in the sky near her area.
She was determined that it was a UFO. Here’s a 20-yr old lady brought up in a good family, well educated, has a healthy social circle and she could make sense that the object which flew past in the sky was just not normal. Times are changing, people are beginning to be able to openly talk about things which were in the past deemed ‘psychotic’ – even when the facts supporting the subject is vast.
Her action piqued my interest into searching for some of the latest videos uploaded on YouTube regarding UFOs.
Needless to say – there were lots of them. Documentaries, clips of reports & incidents, arguments, interviews, presentations, there were resources sufficient to convince just any kind of people to believe that there are intelligences that are not from within earth. One only needs to be open-minded enough to spend time watching the videos to learn all one needs to know about this topic.
I always secretly have an invested interest in topics like these. Main reason? I like to unravel truths and history that humans have yet to discover, or have been forcibly hidden away from by certain authorities. That’s how my curiosity works – I perceive that new information provides new avenues of solutions to problems we couldn’t solve in the past. If we can leverage on them with a positive intention, many good things can take place.
I mean, can you imagine what would happen if we knew that humans aren’t the only beings in this entire universe with conscious will & intelligence? How would we live life differently given this understanding? We have been fighting ourselves in many ways, sometimes for matters so small they seem pitiful when seen from a higher perspective. If we knew that we are not alone in this universe, can you imagine how much more willingness people would have in caring and loving for each other? We’d be much closer as one family despite our physical, cultural or social differences.
So good information or knowledge is worth being shared.
There are many more ‘intense’ videos on the subject of UFOs and extra-terrestrials at YouTube. Documentaries up to hours long, interviews that comprise of people with credible status, home-video shots of live events, you name it. But the video I’m going to share with you here will be much more ‘gentle’ in tone instead – to make it an easier watch for people who are still skeptics on this topic.
Here’s a description of the video:
“For the past few years Anthony Woods has somehow recorded videos about UFOs on a scale unprecedented in history. Over one year in the making, this program tells the remarkable story of his efforts to record some of the most extraordinary UFO footage ever seen.”
What’s interesting about Anthony Woods is that he’s the man with the most self-captured videos on UFOs. And on top of that, the videos he had taken were also much more credible than most videos that exist because of their clarity, and time recorded (daylight). He had captured some of the clearest videos involving UFOs that seemingly defy the laws of physics, and also incidents that irrevocably proof their existences in terms of their arrival in fleets.
Here is the video – hope you’ll find it interesting:
Additional Videos:
Words from Former Canadian Defense Minister, Paul Hellyer on the same subject:
CNN reporting declassified UFO national archives by the UK Government on February 2010:
I recently received a question from a nonduality believer.
Nonduality believers believe everything is one in this world, that nothing is separate, and there is no you and me.
Not as an idea, concept or philosophy – but as the truth.
Yes, some of the Hinduism or Buddhism crowds do adopt the same thinking as well.
The only difference is nonduality came about from a philosophical standpoint – through a method of self enquiry, questions that prompt one to answer who one truly is, what is real/not and so on.
So I read some of the things several of them talk about, and decided I had to oppose – since from a logical point of view, I don’t agree with some of the things they say.
Note: I believe in the idea of nonduality, not the spiritual sense of it as supported by Hinduism or Buddhism believers.
Here is a response in return to a question I was asked:
“What occured to excite your passion for society?” – After I opposed the group by stating their fully invested belief in nonduality as a ‘spiritual believer’ is delusional, can be harmful to the world, and I reasonably represent the society in whole: citizens of different countries, people of different hierarchies, humans of different races when I say that because one has to be open-minded enough to include everyone’s way of thinking, before one could decide that one’s idea is the absolute.
They are hung up on the concept that real life is an idea, and that the everyday truth is we are not different individuals, but just that – the same awareness.
-=-
The nature of your question alone is worth investigating.
Those who are aware of nonduality will not have to ask
another of what one thinks cause you’re non-dual in the
first place isn’t it?
And if you don’t have a passion for society, you’re
passionate for only yourself? – such is the behaviour
of most spiritual believers.
They take a teaching and make God of it, when the
real lesson is to serve people better in all sense.
My passion isn’t for society.
It is for free society – for truth, happiness and choice.
This is hard when the cycle continues where spiritual
believers impose unconscious ideas on others, creating
a situation like other religions have – which cannot be fully
proven and is only based on mere perceptions or belief.
Not reality.
Labels are easy to attach.
Truth isn’t.
By altering truth, one doesn’t change the truth.
By naming an idea truth, one still doesn’t make it one.
Not unless by universal nature, we can accept it fully by
means of observation and proof.
Spiritual teachers of the Hindhu and Buddhism religions
often scold their followers when they try to seek truth
out of what they were told.
They say, stop thinking and just accept it.
Followers tend to have a weaker mind, thus easily
receiving what they were told.
The spiritual sensation they experience eventually comes
from a relieve of stress, of their mental attachments -
But that solves only the way of thinking, not the problem itself.
People who put an end to life at the “spiritual sensation”,
or at the thinking part, are thus stuck in a delusion where
they can perceive things differently in almost everything
they see.
This brainwashing can be easily done by anyone with
authority, rendering the world unequal, and repeats the
cycle of mind control, where real problems cannot be
solved because people are stuck in their heads, and
not aware of what IS on the outside.
The reason for my ‘objection’ raised in this thread -
Is to remind readers that the means is not the end.
Believing that it is still doesn’t make it the end.
Maybe it could to one who believes it fully in perception,
but when the story ends, only a lie was lived – and chances
are this would result in nothing but pain.
What kinds of pain?
1.) A general dissatisfaction with life whether in health,
wealth or relationship
2.) A feeling of waste, of doing nothing worthy or useful
in the world
3.) A sadness that is too late to be exchanged for the better
Life has to be lived through a genuine way.
Most people run from it because they are either
lazy, they fear society as it is today (all the more
the reason for people to be aware, so we can actually
improve upon things), or they have a negative hate
for something in life – and instead of coming off on
top of it, they deceive themselves of the challenge
and avoid it as long as they can.
So to the person concerned:
I embrace society because it is part of what IS.
Because I prefer to accept the world as a whole
instead of filtering things off based on my internal
beliefs and perceptions.
Life is best lived when it is genuine.
Not deluded.
I stand passionate for a life lived from an open
view on life – unfiltered by thoughts, ideas or
concepts.
That is when our heart’s true feelings can be
fully expressed.
And when we will feel most ‘spiritual’ despite
the outcomes in life because when can do that,
we are most connected and is most one.
This is part two of a two-part post. Monday’s article explained that you are not your mind or your body, but the aware space in which your mind and your body (and everything else) exist. You’ll have to read the first part to understand the context of this post.
So if you are in fact the space in which all things happen, how come you don’t always notice this space? Why does it often seem like it’s just the things that exist? If the space is you, wouldn’t it always be apparent?
Not necessarily. Think about it: you are that space, so when you are not aware of that space, it only means the space is not aware of itself. But it can still be aware of the things happening in that space, without seeing what it is that is aware. It’s a major oversight, but it is also the normal state of human existence — complete identification with form, with things.
We usually don’t recognize the space in which the tangibles of our lives happen, so we figure we must be one of those tangible, perishable things, or some combination of them. The thing, or collection of things, that we normally think we are is called the ego.
When you lose sight of the space that contains all things (including your ego) you are lost in things. You have lost sight of yourself, and the play of things seems to be all there is. Things become supremely important, because they’re all you have.
That’s a shame, because all of those things are doomed by their very nature. They’re nice when they’re around, but they are fleeting and perishable. So it’s no wonder that when we become identified with things we feel a persistent uneasiness. They are all fleeting — very certainly, inarguably, on their way out, and some part of us knows that. When life is only a race to manipulate material things into the most preferable arrangement possible before you die, it feels like a losing battle. It is.
This is how most of us live, utterly identified with our thoughts, under the impression that life is nothing but things, and that we are nothing but one of those things.
Any time you are aware of the ego, you are disidentified with it. When you don’t recognize the ego as the ego, you have mistaken it for yourself and you are again unaware of who you really are.
What is really happening is that you experience thoughts that say they are you, that say you are only a creature, and so you remain unaware of the space in which they (and all other thoughts and forms) happen. So you take at face value whatever those thoughts say, because they appear to be you. This is a major sticking point for many people: they cannot accept that they are not their thoughts. They cannot imagine that the voice in their head isn’t them, and that it isn’t necessarily trustworthy.
It actually is the voice of the ego, a self-perpetuating, free-associating collection of thoughts that tries to define you with concepts — I am 29 years old, I am a mid-level office worker, I’m not as good as Jim, I am better than Al, I have big plans but I fear I won’t realize them, I embarrassed myself at work today, I never get a break, I am really good at driving in reverse in my car, I am awkward with people I don’t know, I am a terrible dancer, I eat healthy, I don’t have enough money, I do have enough money but I spend it poorly, my kids are well-behaved, I look good in these jeans and I look frumpy in those ones…
It’s nothing but thoughts of I, Me, and Mine all day long. It changes throughout your life as you continue to think, and becomes hideously complex over time. Managing it is a nightmare. Impossible really, but we are doomed to spend our lives trying if we cannot become aware of the ego as it is: a transient collection of thoughts. When you become aware of it as such, you are regarding it from a distance, and you can’t remain identified with it.
Meditative adepts and people in the habit of self-examination learn sooner or later that the mental chatter in their minds is not who they are. When you observe it for a while, you quickly realize it is an uncontrolled, impulsive source of opinions that never shuts up and cannot be depended on to give you an honest appraisal of your situation. Many call it the “Monkey Mind.” It doesn’t take too many meditation sessions to see that it is something you can observe just like you can listen to sounds or watch your own breath. It is something “out there” in your field of awareness which can be watched like any other form, and thus cannot be you.
This is not about changing beliefs
People have known this for a few thousand years. Those best able to teach it to others have become some of the most well-known people in history.
Here’s Eckhart Tolle, talking about one of those people:
What you see, hear, feel, touch or think about is only one half or reality, so to speak. It is form. In the teaching of Jesus it is simply called “the world,” and the other dimension is “the kingdom of heaven.”
As far as I’m concerned Tolle has compiled the clearest, least cryptic description of the teachings dealing with form, space and the human condition caused by our evolving consciousness. If this post holds any interest for you at all, read his books if you haven’t yet.
There is a lot we could learn in this vein from religion, if only we could avoid becoming lost in its forms — its stories, dogmas and symbols. Religion has become so mired in form it is difficult to find this teaching in it. But it’s there.
Don’t worry about convincing yourself that space is who you are. It’s quite contrary to the conventional explanations of who we are and not everyone is going to find it immediately meaningful. That will happen automatically when you are aware of it. There is no convincing that needs to happen. It’s not a matter of changing your beliefs. It’s only a matter of becoming aware more often. Most people will flip back and forth between awareness and identification with form, with the periods of awareness gradually lengthening and becoming more frequent.
When you are paying attention to space, rather than becoming preoccupied with the objects in that space, everything suddenly appears to be in its right place. The whole arrangement of things takes on a faultless beauty. When you are lost in things, you can’t help but see them in terms of what they mean to the interests of your most treasured thing — your ego.
In the article Die on Purpose, I hinted at what happens when you look at the moment as if you aren’t there. You become able to see the moment just as it is without evaluating it in terms of what’s in it for you or not in it for you. This is egoless awareness, and a moment of egoless awareness is always a moment with which you can find nothing wrong, because there’s no “you” to suffer from any unpreferable circumstances. This is the intrinsic beauty and perfection of the universe talked about by mystics and seers, which sounds like mumbo jumbo to anybody who’s never experienced it.
This is not a metaphor
In the last post I likened the space between the stars in the sky to the aware space that is your true identity. The space out there between the stars sounds like the perfect analogy for the aware space we are. But it is not an analogy! It’s no metaphor at all, it’s the same thing. It must be. There are no qualities in which it differs, because it has no details in which it can differ. It is empty, it can contain all manner of forms, it remains unchanged and undamaged by the forms that come and go within it. It is eternal and timeless.
And, evidently, it has the capacity to be aware. Not just aware of the things in it, but eventually, of itself.
This sounds a bit far-fetched. We tend to think of space as dead, inert, lifeless. How can space be aware of itself?
Through form.
Space gave rise to form. The current scientific theory for how this happened is called the Big Bang, but we don’t know for sure. It’s taken billions of years, but here on earth, form has given rise to consciousness. One of those forms is what you see when you look in the mirror. Human beings are conscious forms, and humans have the capacity to be aware of space itself.
Using form as its tool, space is becoming aware of itself. And that brings us to today.
Almost all of us are unaware of space — our true nature — most of the time. We are at the stage in our evolution where individuals are beginning to become aware of space in bits and pieces, here and there. Some people have been able to completely disidentify with form and we describe them as enlightened or liberated. I would guess some of these people were: Jesus, Lao Tsu, and the Buddha, to name a few, but many other regular people become aware in smaller intervals, even if they don’t know what is actually happening.
Religion’s Role
“The religions of the world are the ejaculations of a few imaginative men.”
~Ralph Waldo Emerson
Religion is the (often misleading) collection of forms that have come to surround this teaching: stories, institutions, rules, mythologies, conventions, political ideas, idols and symbols.
The world’s religions have a poor track record of bringing people to awareness of who they really are, even though I honestly believe that was their shared original purpose. Because of our very strong tendency to identify with form (and overlook the emptiness in which form happens), the major religions have become preoccupied with beliefs, moral codes, political allegiances and other thought-forms, and the message has been all but lost.
As the teachings spread, institutions developed. Like all institutions, they became heavily focused on form, as evidenced by the elaborate ornamentation found on cathedrals, the immense wealth accumulated by medieval churches, the completely unenlightened focus on punishment and threat, the characterization of God as some kind of supernatural dictator, the demonization of questioning one’s beliefs, and the willful antagonism of scientific progress.
Churches have become a fantastic model for accumulating material, worldly power. More than anything, they have encouraged people to identify with their beliefs and their thoughts, making it much more difficult for them to become aware of anything but the world of form.
You are the Subject, not an object
Tolle again:
The arising of space consciousness is the next step in the evolution of humanity. Space consciousness means that in addition to being conscious of things — which always comes down to sense perceptions, thoughts, and emotions — there is an undercurrent of awareness. Awareness implies that you are not only conscious of things (objects), but you are also conscious of being conscious.
Douglas Harding’s method is a simple way to become aware of the Subject, rather than only objects, as we normally are. The face in the mirror is that of your ego, an object. The clear, aware space that you are looking out of is the Subject. It is who you really are.
Unconscious behavior is what happens when we are unaware of space, and become identified with things, with form. When a person is only aware of things, and not the aware space in which things happen, their life becomes a hopeless attempt to manipulate the play of form, of concepts and material things. Money, power, status, gratification and other forms become the only recognizable reasons to live. But they are only part of the picture.
We’re lost in thought, lost in form. Without awareness of that vital dimension of space, we have no perspective. That lack of perspective is responsible for all of humanity’s problems. What else would cause people to invest so much energy finding more efficient ways to kill each other and decimate the planet’s ability to support us?
Evil? Some mysterious quality of “badness” that infects (mostly other) people? The concept of evil is a weak, baseless explanation for why humankind causes itself horrendous problems as efficiently as it does.
Our lack of perspective is the human condition, and we are very gradually getting past it.
***
I realize this is another long, heavy, mind-bending post, and it if you find any meaning in it, it may take a while to internalize. I have received an overwhelming response to this series in comments and emails from people who want me to keep writing about this topic. I know it’s not everyone’s cup of tea, so from here on in I’ll approach it in smaller pieces, and space it out.
You may also notice I didn’t describe any techniques for actually cultivating awareness in this post. That’s a huge topic and I’ll talk about it in the future, but I do encourage people to investigate it on their own. Nobody who is only interested enough to read a few blog posts about this is really going to benefit much, but I hope I have piqued some interest in a few people.
Eckhart Tolle’s books are brilliant, plain-language treatments of this teaching, and are a good place to start. Email me for any other suggestions, or ask questions in the comments.
One more thing. Reader Tom K linked a brilliant lecture in one of his comments that explains this far better than I have (though he goes much much further with it.) It blew my mind and I’m sure it will do the same for some of you. It’s in six MP3s:
Thank you for following along in this series, I hope you’ve gotten something out of it.
(Him: It is official. This website fully endorses David from Raptitude.com’s teachings. It is not only concise, the author’s expression is also genuine. He makes effort to state as much facts closest to his examination. And makes no strong effort to influence others to his thinking. Here is a writer who allows his readers to make a judgment by themselves. I can’t ask for more. If you do feel like learning more from the author, kindly visit http://www.Raptitude.com.)
Okay, this post is the last thrust in our trip down the proverbial rabbit-hole, which so far has looked at what the ego is, and how the late Douglas Harding can help us answer that big, big question — who are you, really?
I had no idea what I was getting into. Back in October, I arrived at an island retreat called Hollyhock, to take what I thought was a five-day course on Buddhism. I didn’t know we would spend those days in uninterrupted mindfulness, without speaking, and that we’d spend about six to eight hours a day in formal meditation.
After the initial welcome at the main hall, our teacher led my group up the pat to our meditation hut in the forest. On the way there, he stopped us and told us to look up. It was a still and clear night, much darker than we city dwelling visitors were accustomed to. I had never seen stars like that.
“Please be aware,” he said, as we all stared silently, “that you are seeing.”
He repeated himself. I was transfixed on the stars, but I remember thinking, “Well, duh,” when his comment registered. Of course I’m aware I’m seeing. How can you see without being aware of it?
His comment echoed again in my head a moment later, and I realized what he meant. For the first time, I recognized that I was normally only aware of what I was seeing, and had taken for granted that I was seeing at all. My awareness had become preoccupied with the content of existence, not the fact of existence itself. Suddenly, it struck me as so peculiar that there was stuff out there to see at all, and especially peculiar that there was something present — me, evidently — to see it. I don’t know why it had never occurred to me there was anything odd, or at least curious, about this arrangement.
In that instant, the stars became more real, more imposing, though I can’t say their appearance changed. It was something like admiring a photograph of a tree, and then realizing you were looking at a real tree. This experience definitely had an effect on me, but I didn’t grasp its relevance right away.
Sitting lessons
A day later I would. Our group was sitting in a warm, circular hut in the woods, in total silence, the evening of the second day.
Sitting for hours is tough work. The idea is to simply watch what’s happening, and there is quite a bit going on. Without the regular distractions of music or traffic or television, you can’t help but notice how much the body and the mind are really up to.
Your awareness fills with the chaos of dozens of sensations happening at once: the aching of your knees, the pressure of your bum on the cushion, the rising and falling of the breath, itches, tingles, weird digestive processes you never paid much attention to.
And thoughts! They come out in full force. They’re loud and pushy, and they just won’t stop coming.
There’s so much going on it’s hard to stay aware of it. You easily lose yourself in the stuff that’s happening. Suddenly you find you’re in the midst of an imaginary argument loosely based on a real argument you had a week ago with your friend. Your mind is saying what it wishes it said then.
Then you snap out of it. Whoops. Stay aware. You return your attention to the breath. For a moment or two, you’re fully with it.
Then your knee-ache gets more demanding, so you direct your attention to the feeling to try and observe it. You’ve been sitting too long on a hard surface, and the knee is tightening up. You know it will throb later, like it did after last session. You notice the intention to adjust your position, and flinch as you almost do it automatically. But you know you should stay put. You think about getting a good meditation cushion when you get home. You also make a mental note to remember to keep the thermostat down, it’s getting hot in here…
…and like that, you’re lost again. You return the attention to the breath, vowing again to stay aware.
After not too much of this you can’t help but notice all these feelings and thoughts are constantly coming and going, and it never stops. Whatever arises seems to come into your awareness from nowhere, and it changes a bit in its texture in intensity as you watch it. Then it eventually recedes, or gets crowded out by something else, until you can’t detect it anymore. It leaves no trace, and by then there’s a new thought or a new feeling, or many, and you forget about it.
During an hour-long meditation session, a whole load of weird stuff parades across your awareness. It’s just a big, maddening show with no plot, and this insidious tendency to keep changing its form.
From my week of meditating in Hollyhock, I learned two major realities about life:
#1: Your whole experience in life is a only a constantly changing arrangement of thoughts and sensations. There are unlimited forms it can take and all forms are constantly giving way to new ones. Whatever it is at any given time is just a combination of the five senses and thought.
#2: It is incredibly easy to get lost in the details of all those things, which makes you forget #1.
All of life seems to be just a constant turnover of “stuff,” in this way. As Winston Churchill said, “Life is just one damn thing after another.”
When you sit with your eyes closed, this is very apparent. It’s like you’re watching all sorts of things happening on a blank screen: thoughts, bodily feelings, sounds, emotions, and it’s so busy you forget you’re watching it. There is so much chatter, particularly from the mind, that it’s really hard to sit and watch it at all. It really makes you want to get up and read a magazine, or grab a beer.
But now and then, you catch a space between the thoughts and sensations, even if it’s really brief. You actually see (or sense, somehow) the blank “screen” on which all of this stuff is projected. It doesn’t take too many meditation sessions to get a glimpse of it. So you know it’s there.
And it makes sense. You can’t watch a movie without a screen. You can’t have “things” without some space for them to happen in.
What is the screen?
It’s pretty clear that this combination of sense perceptions and thoughts is constantly rotating, constantly turning over, constantly giving way to other things, throughout your entire 70- or 80-year existence in life. It’s just one big moving scene, not unlike a movie, only that it’s three dimensional and it includes tastes, smells, feelings and thoughts, in addition to sights and sounds.
But the space in which all the action happens — and the fact that there is a space in which all those things happen — does not change. It’s always there. It is the only constant in life. It is the only part of your experience that is present all the way through from birth to death.
Think about it… there is no thing that stays the same throughout your life. Even if you look down at your body, can you honestly say it is really the same body you had 10, 20 or 30 years ago? We all know that the cells that make up the body are renewing themselves constantly, and you have to admit you don’t look like you did ten years ago. Sorry.
Clearly your body is a thing too, coming and going throughout your life. You can call it yours, and you are in charge of it, but it isn’t exactly you. Which is a good thing, because clearly it’s just passing by, and going downhill for most of the ride. In this sense it’s no different in any fundamental way than a car that drives by you on the street, or a loud sound that comes out of nowhere, and fades. The only real difference between them is how fast they come and go.
Thoughts are things too. They have no mass or visible features, but they arise just like other sensations. They have a form. They have details, therefore they are things. If you sit and pay attention to them, they arise in very much the same way as aches, tingles, sounds and tactile sensations do.
All things — all forms — whether we’re talking about thoughts, sensations in your body, the bark of your neighbor’s dog, or a bird flying by the window, all arise in awareness, in a boundless space. There has to be space for these things to exist. This space has no form of its own.
Think for a moment about the stars out in space again. The stars have form: they have color, they emit heat, they have size and shape and mass. They do stuff, and eventually they change into other forms, red giants, black holes, supernovas. They are contained by space, which is empty.
It seems like a paradox. Space isn’t a thing, it’s an absence of things. It’s no thing at all. But it is there. It is real. You can perceive it; you can be aware of it. But your mind can understand it only in terms of what it is not. The stars occur within that space. If there was no space for them to happen in, they could not exist.
But the space itself has no features at all. Yet it persists, and its presence is 100% necessary for the existence of all things.
Life is full of things, but it is more than things. It’s space too. Space permeates every corner of life, because no things can exist where there is no space. That means it permeates your body. As we talked about previously, if you could keep zooming in on your body, you would see cells, then molecules, then atoms, and eventually empty space.
Who you really are
So if life is just impermanent things arising and fleeting in space, what are you?
The conventional way of thinking of yourself is as a body, with a mind attached to it somehow. But experience shows us that both the body and the mind change completely, many times over throughout life.
The only constant in life is the space in which all those things happen. It’s the same emptiness from which thoughts emerge, the emptiness in which stars sit and burn, the emptiness that accommodates everything you’ve ever seen, heard, or touched. Every sensation, every perception, every thought, comes and goes. The space in which they happen is featureless, boundless, has no taste, smell, or texture of its own. It looks like nothing. Like space. It is timeless and imperishable, which you could describe (if you happen to like the word) as immortal.
So who are you, in the Big Picture?
You are the screen.
You are the empty, 3-dimensional screen on which this greatest of all shows is projected. You are the space in which all of this happens.
When you consult spiritual or religious sources about what you are, the answers are remarkably consistent. Ancient and contemporary sages seem to agree, and the answer to that question is always something like, “You are awareness,” or “You are consciousness,” or “You are emptiness.”
My experiences, both in and out of meditation, lead me to the same conclusion. Sitting there watching what happens, I can’t help but notice that only the background to all that “stuff” — the space in which that stuff exists — is constant throughout my life, so what else could I be? How could I be any of the fleeting, changing, arbitrary things I have been aware of?
It is clear to me now what is meant by “You are awareness,” though it was once just a cool-sounding concept. I’m not trying to convince you of this, only suggest that you might discover the same thing (perhaps you already have) and in the mean time you might want to look into it for yourself.
(Him: David from Raptitude.com still hasn’t cease to amaze me with the clarity in his writing. Because of how clear he can express upon a subject, even some of the most sophisticated subjects we have on philosophy/spirituality/personal development can be easily understood by the average person. If you would like to read more of what he writes, please kindly visit: http://www.Raptitude.com.)
Here’s to the crazy ones.
The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers.
The round pegs in the square holes.
The ones who see things differently.
They’re not fond of rules.
And they have no respect for the status quo.
You can praise them, disagree with them, quote them,
disbelieve them, glorify or vilify them.
About the only thing you can’t do is ignore them.
Because they change things. They invent. They imagine.
They heal. They explore. They create. They inspire.
They push the human race forward.
Maybe they have to be crazy.
How else can you stare at an empty canvas and see a work of art?
Or sit in silence and hear a song that’s never been written?
Or gaze at a red planet and see a laboratory on wheels?
While some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius.
Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can
change the world, are the ones who do.
- Steve Jobs
-=-Additional Quotes-=-
“Every man dies, but not every man really lives.” — Mel Gibson from Braveheart
“Nature is about balance. All the world comes in pairs: yin and yang, right and wrong, men and women. What’s pleasure without pain?” — Angelina Jolie in Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life
“For just one night let’s not be co-workers. Let’s be co-people.” — Will Ferrell in Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy
“It’s not about the paycheck, it’s about respect, it’s about looking in the mirror and knowing that you’ve done something valuable with your day.” — Kevin Kline in Dave
“Whatever you fear most has no power over you. It is the fear that has the power.” — George Clooney in The Men Who Stare At Goats
“Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don’t matter, and those who matter don’t mind.” — Dr. Seuss author of Cat in Hat
“We can’t retract the decisions we’ve made. We can only affect the decisions we’re going to make from here.” — Jamie Foxx in Law Abiding Citizen
“Sometimes the truth isn’t good enough. Sometimes people have got to have their faith rewarded.” — Christian Bale in The Dark Knight
“We’re going to live like we’re telling the best story in the whole world. Are you ready?” — Rachel Weisz in The Brothers Bloom
When people talk, listen completely. Most people never listen.
~ Ernest Hemingway
For a long time I didn’t feel like I had a lot of people to relate to. Being shy, I didn’t find myself in a lot of conversations with people I didn’t know, and when I did, I was uncomfortable. Bonds did form, deep ones sometimes, but it was always a product of circumstance. I made friends with people I was in class with or worked with, because some interaction is bound to happen in those places. But to actually form a relationship without the help of circumstances was something I had never experienced.
I’ve shed much of my shyness through deliberately speaking up more and other forms of comfort-zone-pushing, but I eventually made a discovery that really opened the floodgates for me. I see the potential for connection in just about everyone now; I no longer feel bound by differences of age, interests, cultures, or opinions.
The secret to connecting with people is this:
Always try to understand what people really mean when they speak.
It doesn’t sound like a huge revelation. Many of you are probably thinking that you already do that anyway. But chances are you don’t, at least not very well. Certainly we know what the other person is saying, but most of the time, we don’t particularly care for the topic, or if we do, our minds are already busy forming a response. Sometimes we take the liberty of finishing the person’s sentence, or even beginning one of our own before they finish. This is fairly normal behavior, at least in my culture, and as such, it isn’t considered terribly rude in most circles.
Next time you’re out, try watching an exchange between two people. In most conversations I witness, each person appears to clearly hold his own opinions as being of primary importance, and the other’s as being worth considerably less, though each might pretend otherwise. It’s not that we’re arrogant, it’s just human nature. Each person is usually waiting for their turn to talk, perhaps tossing in some polite remarks and nods so as not to appear rude.
However, things do flow more smoothly when one person’s opinion matches the other’s. That’s when real listening happens without any effort, and conversation is unhindered. But because of this human tendency to revere our own opinions, many people find they can only really connect with people who carry similar views. With friends and family, we’ve already established some common ground, so it’s easy to really communicate with them.
But that leaves only a small segment of the population with which we have the potential to connect. Most people will hold no interest for us. I think part of the problem is that we think that the other person’s message is what they say.
What they say, in terms of what words come out of their mouth, is just a tiny fraction of what they are communicating. The real message is not what they say. The real message is why. Where are these words coming from? That why is what tells us who they are and what they value.
The speaker is rarely just trying to relay basic information to you. Almost always, they are speaking up because there is some visceral desire to express what they are feeling right now. Speech is always triggered by a passion, a worry, a judgment, a realization, or some other internal encounter with an emotion of some kind. If your friend suddenly brings up her job, it isn’t because she wants you to be well-informed about her situation at work, it’s because her job is on her mind and she wants to get it out of her mind. Respect that need and she will not only be grateful, but suddenly she’ll be much more likely to take an interest in what’s on your mind.
If you want to connect with people, make this your social mantra:
Always let the speaker be the star.
Whatever their performance is, whether it’s a story about something their kid is doing in school, a trip to Europe they’re planning, a complaint about what so-and-so said to them earlier — be the most respectful audience you can be. The chair they are sitting in, the doorway they are standing in, wherever they are — that’s their stage, their pulpit. Let them say their piece, no matter what you think of the story, or what you would do in their place.
Really, really listen to what they say, and recognize that they are saying what they’re saying because it is important to them. In every single thing every person says, they reveal what they value. When you can get a glimpse of what people value, you can see the humanity in them. And that is how humans connect: by understanding each other’s values. You don’t have to share those values, though you’ll certainly find you share something with everyone.
I am not into hunting. I have no interest in shooting a deer or a goose for fun. But I do know some who do, and in my more conscious moments, I can genuinely appreciate everything a friend tells me about hunting. The specifics of his anecdotes are not so important; it’s the glint of excitement in his eyes, and more importantly, the enthusiasm that swells in him when he realizes somebody is actually being receptive to his story. I reserve my judgments; there’s no need to batter anyone over the head with my own stances. There would be no communication at all if I did that. Judgments just get in the way and do neither party any good.
To simply know what it feels like to hold something dear, and understand that we all know that feeling — that means you can understand anybody. But only if you genuinely make a point of seeing where they’re coming from. Our failing is that we’re usually much more concerned with being understood than with understanding. Those who reverse those two priorities are very effective communicators and will never have a shortage of friends.
The Barrier
Distraction, in some form, is what typically prevents understanding. Distraction is letting your attention wander from the other person’s performance. It could be captured by what they’re wearing, a TV screen, a book in your hands, anything around you. But the most common place for it to go is into your own (the listener’s) thoughts. Most people are distracted by what they themselves would like to say. Sometimes they want to respond before the person is finished, other times they simply have their own opinion locked and loaded to fire off as soon as there is a break in the dialogue.
Forget what you want to say, just drop all thoughts about yourself and your interests, and let them speak their mind. Think of it this way: when you are listening, the most important thing in the world is to figure out where the other person is coming from. Make it your entire purpose on earth — for the thirty-seven seconds it takes for them to tell their little story — to understand what feelings are behind what they say. If, when they stop speaking, you still don’t understand where they’re coming from, ask a question.
All it takes is putting your own interests on hold until they are able to get their point across to you.
The habit of really listening to what someone is saying is a rare one. And the people who do it can connect with anyone. I’ve understood the value of being a good listener for a long time, but I didn’t really know what it meant to be one. I know now: it means to cherish other people’s desire to express themselves more than your own desire to express yourself. Really, just completely defer your interests for as long as it takes for you to understand them.
That idea might scare some people. Surely our own opinions are important too!
Relax. You don’t have to worry about being understood, and here’s why: when you make a point of dumping your own thoughts to make room for understanding, people are so grateful that you are trying to see their perspective, they’ll be happy to listen to you afterward. By then, what they wanted to say is no longer on their mind, so then they won’t be distracted by it while you are speaking.
In other words, take turns understanding each other, but insist on going first. Let the other person have the privilege of being the first one to be understood. The biggest distraction to understanding someone else is self-importance. Needing to say something means you have to be thinking about it, and thinking about it means you have very little mental capacity left for empathy. Free up yours, and it will free up theirs.
Imagine what the world would be like if everyone did this.
That’s all anyone wants, to be understood. Give it to them. Give the greatest of all gifts, every time you have the opportunity. Unless the building is on fire, give yourself permission to let the speaker be the center of your universe, just for a minute. It won’t hurt, I promise. Forget what you were going to say. Forget how you might wish to respond. You can do that all later. Abandon everything else in the world for the few seconds it takes to let the other person finish their thought.
At first, you will probably experience some angst at the thought of abandoning what you were going to say. Drop it anyway, and see if your life suffers. (It won’t.) So what if you didn’t get to make the wisecrack you had saved up? So what if you don’t get to tell them about your upcoming trip to Europe?
Once you resolve to let all that baggage go, it’s actually a tremendous relief. It’s like dropping an armload of textbooks you’ve had held against your chest. You no longer have to struggle to keep track of your thoughts. You can safely let them all go. Let them drift away, unfinished and unfollowed. 99% of them never needed to be said anyway. And don’t worry, the truly important thoughts will be persistent enough to come back to you when nobody else is speaking. You will get your chance to make yourself understood, just don’t try to be first in line.
There is such a strong compulsion to make our own opinion known, that even the most courteous among us will often practically ignore what the person says, or even interrupt them. Most of the time the hurried remarks we do make are just little indulgences, self-important grabs at approval or admiration.
I know that I personally have a history of saying things for the sole purpose of sounding clever, or arousing the fondness of others. I built my whole identity on looking smart, for years and years. I didn’t know who I was without that approval, so I was constantly digging for it. It’s really just a bad habit, to grab at the little ego boosts those self-indulgent remarks provide. I would even call it an addiction, but that’s a whole other post. For now let’s just say many of us are very strongly drawn to seeking approval by pointing out certain things or telling certain stories, and it impedes understanding others considerably.
The truth is, your opinions probably aren’t that important. And neither are the other person’s. Opinions will come and go, they speak mostly to our emotional state at the time we declare them. There is usually very little logic behind them, just feelings. And that’s okay. There is a brilliant Zen saying: Do not seek the truth, only cease to cherish opinions. This is not a prescription for dismissing what the other person is saying, only for cherishing the human being behind the words, rather than the back-and-forth play of semantics and mental positions.
I’ll be the first to say I’m really not all that good at this yet. I’ve been getting better and better at relating to people, but old habits do indeed die hard. But I now understand clearly where I went wrong so often, and I know what to do instead. The specific concept of letting others be the star only came to me fairly recently, and I’m astounded at the results so far. My friends and family suddenly became ten times more interesting, not to mention strangers, clients, clerks and passers-by. I no longer have that bubble of angst growing inside me when someone else is speaking, because I know I can safely drop whatever I was going to say. More and more I get to witness that wonderful sense of gratitude that washes over people when someone makes a genuine effort to understand them.
And when you do get your chance to speak, their eyes will be glued to you, and you’ll probably have the best audience you ever had.
(Him: David, the author from Raptitude.com is amazing at delivering very educational content. His articles seem to cover two major subjects: philosophy & spirituality. Combined, they become personal development. Make no mistake – he is not just a writer. David had personally gone through the obstacles of life to teach what he learned. If you prefer diamonds amongst the mud, consider reading his articles: http://www.Raptitude.com.)
I heard this story for the first time on FinerMinds.com. They recently published a video of Anthony Robbins describing Stallone’s personal story – one that was exchanged in a conversation between the two greats. After watching it, I couldn’t help but wonder how strong of a level of passion or determination Sylvester Stallone had kept to keep pushing on during the lowest moments in his life.
To hear Stallone’s story gives my blood even more confidence, energy and motivation in fulfilling my goal.
What do you think?
I hope you’ll find its message to be inspirational:
(Him: Many contents I post on this blog contradict with each other. Two posts before, I promoted a passion to live life with more effort towards the good. On this post, as you’ll soon find out – the article promotes the idea that there is nothing to actively ‘do’. So where do I stand really? My answer: Where I’m supposed to. In life, I adapt to different situations with different actions & perceptions. Where is the fine line? It’s your call.
As people say, find the balance. The only thing they didn’t say is that the balance has to be entirely, equally spread, because that’d be pretty unproductive for many. When I devote just enough time, attention or effort to each part of my life that my entire life heightens in positivity, that’s where the balance is for me. The same applies to learning. I keep an open mind and learn what I observe is able to make me a better person. What doesn’t contribute to my wellbeing, I either lay it far away or turn it into a positive source of wisdom regardless.
This article below describes who we are is more than the separate identities we think we are. It talks about how everything is an illusion. But look – if you are an illusion person, and you disturb an illusion dog, you’ll still experience an illusion bite. So just understand what the article is talking about. And allow that understanding to be with you. There is no need to force that understanding into your daily life. I guess the point is when we can grasp what this article is trying to express, life will just be lighter in general. May you find it to be a pretty cool piece to read.)
On “This” and “That”
‘That which you already are, pure awareness’ – Sogyal Rinpoche
‘Awareness of awareness – the first factor of enlightenment’ – The Buddha
‘Effortless Choiceless Awareness is our Real State’ – Sri Ramana Maharshi
Overcome fear… by seeing what’s Here!
Let go of all fear and anxiety, for awareness is always present as you are effortlessly, and choicelessly, aware of your thoughts and sensations. This awareness is a constant subjective presence, whereas these thoughts and sensations (mind/body) are ephemeral objects coming and going within this awareness. Therefore this awareness is the deepest level of our being, the unchanging presence that we intuitively feel we are, and have always been, that which has never been absent and has witnessed the pantomime of our lives. This very awareness, the home which we have never left, and can in fact never leave, is the very peace and security that we seek.
Forget about church… Just give up the search!
To enjoy this peace and absolute security we do not need any dogma, belief systems, rituals or practices. All that is necessary is to abandon the external search for this. We must stop ‘seeking for love in all the wrong places’; just recognize, and totally relax into, that pure awareness that we already are.
No need for a prayer mat… Already you are That!
For this to occur there is no need to appeal to any external ‘deity’, for this awareness is itself the ‘hidden treasure’, the Absolute Reality lauded by all religions, and is always present at the deeper (and surface) level of our being. At the deeper level as That in which thoughts/sensations (mind/body) appear/disappear, come and go, arise and subside; and at the surface level as this very awareness of these thoughts/sensations.
No Me, No you! There’s nothing to do…
In reality there is no separate individual entity (me or you) we are both just expressions of the same pure awareness, and there’s nothing we need to do to achieve enlightenment as we are already ‘That’, i.e. awareness is already present.
Nobody, No mind! There’s nothing to find…
There is, in reality, nobody, i.e. separate individual; and no entity called the mind which is just a flow of ephemeral thoughts and images. There is also nothing to find in that we cannot lose that pure awareness that, in essence, we always are; we just need to stop overlooking this.
No effort, No sweat! There’s nothing to get…
There is no need to make any effort to achieve enlightenment, just stop and turn your attention to that pure awareness that you already are. You cannot ‘get’ this as you already ‘are’ this!
Wow! There’s only Now…
In reality there is always only now as the past has already gone and the future is yet to be. If you see ‘what is’ in the ‘now’ with no reference to past (including acquired knowledge or imaginary ‘individual self’) or future, then everything seems much more vivid and alive (Wow!) than when filtered through the mind and its opinions, judgments, attitudes and ‘knowledge’.
Cheer! There’s only Here…
Also you are always ‘Here’, at any given moment, and can only see ‘what is’ here (and now). What you think is going on anywhere else is only speculation, which will take you away from the direct experience of ‘here and now’.
How? Just Here and Now!
How to be ‘enlightened’ (i.e. unburdened) and at peace? Just be totally here in the present moment and see ‘what is’ (here and now) with no reference to the past, future, mind, or what might be happening anywhere else.
Just This! That’s Bliss….
This seeing ‘what is’ with a still mind, from pure awareness, is Bliss. The other name for Brahman (The Absolute) is Satchitananda which can be translated as: ‘What is’, the awareness of ‘What is’, the Bliss of the awareness of ‘What is’.
Just Cease! That’s Peace…
Just cease identifying with the mind (and all of its activity to get anywhere, or attain anything) and the result is instant peace.
Just Being! That’s freeing…….
Just ‘Being’ moment to moment , with no reference to past/future or any illusory separate ‘self’, is in itself totally freeing…
Accept what is … Then feel the kiss!
Always accept ‘what is’ at the present moment with no resistance and life becomes more enjoyable as the mind stills. This does not mean that we cannot plan to change things, only that we need to accept ‘what is Now’ as it is already here and therefore cannot be changed. This lack of resistance liberates tremendous energy, and relaxation, allowing us to ‘feel the kiss’, and wonder, of Reality.
Live life with no ‘story’… Then all reveals its glory!
If you live life with no personal ‘story’ then the mind stills and everything in manifestation appears more vivid and alive, i.e. more glorious…
Each moment is enough… The end of all (mind) Stuff!
If you check you will find that Pure Awareness never needs anything to change and is complete whatever is happening. In this ‘each moment is enough’ and no mind activity is necessary to change, or seek for, anything.
This is an amended and expanded version of chapter six from Beyond the Separate Self which aims to provide a framework for direct investigation of our moment-to-moment experience. When fully accomplished this reveals that we truly are ‘pure awareness’ at the deepest level of our being. The book is available at: http://nonduality.com/btss.htm
When a person finds something he truly believes in, sometimes it is so immense, so vast, so expansive, that it can hardly be put into complete words.
It is only unfortunate that most people have never delved into this strong level of intensity before. If they do, work in general will be inspiring, exciting, and anticipated. Life in general would be filled with passion, love and exceptionality.
Why don’t they?
There are three reasons: Fear, Selfishness & Ignorance.
They fear how great they would become, and in return how big their responsibilities would be. They are selfish, so they control others and dim down the lights in people’s passion to fulfill their own agendas. They are ignorant, as pain has never taught them lessons on appreciating life the way it should be appreciated.
The ones who are aware pushed through despite these obstacles, because they know there is a worthy cause in what they’re doing.
Eventually their actions shined through the surface of people’s eyes, and successfully touched the minds, hearts and blood in people with their passion.
You basically live without having to put effort into worrying.
Instead, you stay at peace with it.
Perhaps not even at peace. You just live. Without focusing your energy into overthinking thoughts that create negative feelings.
In the past few months, I learned yet a lot more lessons about being a human.
Through making mistakes, through experiencing bad feelings constantly, through the comfort of friends and family, I was finally able to take another step in living life better.
Sometimes, I wonder how much of life I have picked up on the way, instead of being taught of them properly on my way growing up.
I lacked knowledge and real life encounters.
Partly because I was brought up in a purely Christian family, and have been conditioned with thoughts of not being too involved with the world.
This caused me to turn into a very bland, devout person, who gets nothing he wants, and gets in the way of having the things he wants.
Trust me, life turns out much better when we can enter it with an opened mind.
After all, how much of what we truly believe, is real?
Concepts fall and shatter away with the slightest of shaking from reality.
Ideas prove themselves to carry much less weight as they are experimented for effectiveness in the real world.
Thoughts turn out to be fleeting nothingness that happens only within one self.
I eventually learned how important it is to be grounded with the real world.
It helps one to see the world for what it truly is.
It lets you see reality, clearly.
And of course, all of us appreciate a real diamond more than a plastic one duplicated after the real one in essence after all, don’t we?
So many of times, we worry so much about something we’ve done, we haven’t done, or will do.
But until they do happen, none of those images or feelings we conjure in the mind means anything.
In fact, as we embrace life with a more positive attitude – it not only affects us well, its infectious quality pulls others into a better place as well.
I have to admit, I kept holding on to worries because I thought they’d help me in life.
But as I grow to learn from experiences, they do more harm than good.
And you can measure their effects distinctly from how it changes your interaction with people, your affect on reality, and almost every avenue of your life literally.
It does a lot more harm than good – perhaps I could go as far as to say they do only harm.
Worry exists in us for good reasons, to prevent us from making mistakes that’ll harm us.
But as we mature, there is little reason in having to keep them within our minds.
It’s like taking off your leg from the brakes as you accelerate.
There is no point to press on the brakes when you know there is a straight road to drive and you can maneuver through them.
If you can’t, practicing with a calm mind than a scared, worried or fearful one surely does help more as well, doesn’t it?
A life without grasping to worries can propel a human being to great heights.
Especially when one has strong, positive & considerate goals to aim for.
As we understand this, many more problems that exist day to day can also shy away by themselves.
I realized life leads a plot of its own with every each of our lives.
As much as we want to control it, put it into a rigid grasp, when the time comes nothing we do actually makes much difference.
Life happens anyway.
I don’t mean to advocate irresponsibility.
The main message here is, we could always live life without worries.
And this way of life can enhance our quality of experience a lot more.
It could make us much happier in general.
Then all that needs to take place, is our honesty, our genuine expressions, and our effort in making things better.
It can be done.
Why not start now and see what differences it makes?
What’s done is done.
What needs to be done now can be done now.
What you’re going to do in the future is of no relations to your worries right now, if you can make as much good decisions as you can now.
After reading this piece, I thought, “Might as well.”
See conscious spirituality/non-duality has always taught similar things.
Sometimes, they are expressed differently, other times the same.
After reading this article, I thought, “Might as well – it is expressed to the extreme, in a way that may not be accepted by most people’s minds. But considering how it can alter a person’s state for the better in certain situations (interpret the piece however you want), I’m sharing it here.”
Some of you after reading will think, “Hey I got something out of this.”
While others, “Man, this is over the top.”
I think either way is fine.
Seen through spiritual spectacles, this is great.
Seen through a materialistic pair, and this may seem mad.
Question is, is there a correctness that stands between them?
Enjoy:
===
Author: Robert Adams
Think of the things that have happened to you in your life now. You appear to be getting older and older. Things come into your life, as it appears. You try to exchange wrong for right, good for bad. Yet you refuse to acknowledge that this too is a dream. You want to continue playing the game. You want to play hide and seek by believing there is a God somewhere, and if you find this God, all your problems will be over. So you keep searching.
You can never find your reality by searching.
Reality is where it’s always been, right where you are at this moment. It is you.
There is not reality and you. You are not in the body of God; God is not in you. For there is no you. There is no body. There is no God. You are perfect pure awareness just as you are now.
There is really no thing you have to do. You simply have to wake up. Why will you not awaken now? Even while I’m talking to you, many of you are thinking, thinking, thinking. Can’t you see by now, that this is what is holding you back from your freedom, from your bliss, from your joy? It is your thoughts.
Where did your thoughts come from? They really didn’t come from anywhere, for they do not even exist. Yet unfortunately most of us believe that thoughts exist, for we are bombarded by them day and night.
So sages come along and invent methods, means, in order to obliterate the thoughts. Meditation was invented for that purpose. Self-enquiry, all of these yogic exercises, pranayama, mantras, kriya, they’re really used to stop your thoughts from blossoming, to keep your mind from thinking.. All of these procedures are to make your mind quiescent, quiet, still. If you’re able to do this without the methods, then you would be realized. You would be your self. You would be liberated. But you refuse to do this. You want a teacher to give you methods to wake you up.
But I say to you, wake up now. Awake. The methods will keep you back because you get stuck with the methods. But it makes no difference what I say. You are still going to identify with the world, with conditions, with your body, with your mind. We therefore have to think of a way, the quickest way for you to awaken. Of all the methods I, know, self-enquiry is the fastest if you are mature enough to be able to handle it. You begin to understand that the I is only a thought; it is an idea called the I-thought. It is the I-thought that dominates your existence. True?
How many times have you said “I” today? “I” am going to hear Robert. “I” am going to eat breakfast. “I” am going to take a nap. “I” don’t think I feel too good. “I” feel great. “I” need this. “I” need that. The first person pronoun I, dominates your entire existence.
Yet it has been known by Sages, if you were only able to annihilate the I, destroy it, kill it, you would be free. The I is attached to all of your thoughts. Therefore, begin to follow the I to its source. I have to tell you in truth and in reality, there is no I and there is no source, but you will not believe me. You want to play with I. You therefore follow the I to the Source, and when the I has been dissolved into the source, you become free.
You do this of course by enquiring “to whom do these thoughts come?” Or, whatever is disturbing you, you enquire “to whom do they come? Who is experiencing this? Who is going through this? Who thinks they are human? Who feels depressed? Who feels discouraged? Who feels there is a difference between birth and death? – I do.” Can’t you see now, that if you get rid of the I, all those feelings, depression, and worry would disappear?
So you ask, “Who am I? Where did this I come from?” You never answer that question. When thoughts come to you, you enquire “To whom do they come? To me? I think these thoughts. Who am I?” You do not answer. As you continue to do this process, you find that your mind is becoming quieter and quieter. The confusion stops. You begin to feel happier and happier. You are no longer reacting to person, place or thing. You become spontaneous in everything you do.
You live in the now, but you’re not doing that. It’s doing you. In other words you have not decided, “I’m going to be spontaneous from now on. I’m going to live in the now.” As you are aware, how many times have you tried that without avail? You can’t make up your mind that you’re going to be spiritual, that you’re going to be consciousness, that you are absolute reality. How many times have you tried to do that, and the first thing that comes into your life, you become upset? You react. Something bothers you. Or something good comes into your life and you become elated. You react in a positive way. They’re both impostors.
Remember you’re not trying to change bad into good. You want to transcend everything, and become absolutely free. See how you’re thinking? Your mind won’t stay still, will it? Whose mind is it that won’t stay still? Do you really have a mind? Are you the mind? Who told you this? There is no mind, there is no body, there are no thoughts. Accept this if you want to. All it can do for you, is liberate you. We listen to the birds, we see the beautiful trees. Who sees? Who listens? Why, I do. You’re caught in the trap again. For many of you believe, if I behold the beauty of the world, that’s good. It’s better than beholding death, I suppose.
But the world is an illusion. It is not real. The so called beauty is here today and gone tomorrow. Change is the only permanent thing of the relative world. Everything changes continuously.
Therefore as you go through the vicissitudes of life, and you get rid of your dogmatic thinking, you open your heart, you begin to feel something different. You begin to loosen up.
The first thing to understand is that everything that has transpired in your life has been necessary. No matter how it looks. No matter what has happened. Everything has been necessary.
The second thing to understand is, everything has been preordained. In other words, everything was supposed to happen the way it happened. There were no mistakes.
The third thing to understand is that the first two things are a pack of lies. For these things don’t even exist in reality. Everything is preordained, as long as you believe you are the body. Everything is karmic, as long as you identify with the world and believe you are the doer.
(Him: Watched the movie “Inception” by Christopher Nolan? Perhaps this piece can appear more understandable if you connect the subject of ‘I’ to a dream main character. As real as the dream character is to you, it is just a dream character. It doesn’t exist. We think the characters have a body, mind, emotions and can be happy, sad, fearful, etc. but they really are just played out automatically in a dream. It seems like it has a sense of ‘I’ to its body. But does it really own that ‘I’? Or is it played out somewhere else?)
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“Give up defining yourself – to yourself or to others. You won’t die. You will come to life. And don’t be concerned with how others define you. When they define you, they are limiting themselves, so it’s their problem. Whenever you interact with people, don’t be there primarily as a function or a role, but as the field of conscious Presence. You can only lose something that you have, but you cannot lose something that you are.”
- Eckhart Tolle, from A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life’s Purpose
(When asked whether he’s watched his movie “Public Enemies” by David Letterman, Johnny Depp answered that he doesn’t watch his own movies. Johnny would act on a scene, finish his job, and walk away from it. Yes, that includes Pirates of Caribbean, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Alice in Wonderland, etc. Chances are if you’re reading this right now, you’d probably be surprised. Here’s one of the greatest actors of all time, one whom people go to the cinemas for, and he never watched his own movies. Why?
My guess is, great people like Johnny mostly don’t do things because of mental concepts conditioned from the outside. He doesn’t care how he was perceived on the surface – he was only interested in acting to his best, expressing himself as a character to the fullest, and being genuine. More can be learned about how great people are great, the poem below for example can be invaluable in that sense to the reader who can read between the lines.)
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The Passionate Professional By Clyde E. Gumbs
Born into a world
With expectations ready-made
A culture and society
Where I am told to make the grade
To have a good and worthy life
Is what I’m always told to seek
Find good work and a vocation
Is what I always hear them speak
But what is the point of work in life
How can I know what I should choose
What can I now profess to be
Where in the end I will not lose
Get good education and good training
Protect my status in all ways
Money I make also important
I hear these things so many days
Focus on benefits some will tell me
And all the perks offered to some
Focus on how I feel about my tasks
So days can be easy as they come
Others may say work is a sacrifice
A burden I am compelled to bear
It’s what I must do in life to make it
Whether or not I feel it’s fair
Some say it’s about my natural aptitude
And the good things that I can do
Some say it’s about what I have studied
And what I did and what I knew
But none of this can really help me
As through the wilderness I roam
At best it offers hopeless hope
But can never really get me home
But I was not born for validation
Or for what my ego says I need
I was not born to prove I’m worthy
I was not born to live in greed
I was not born to live from fear
Or to prove that I can survive
Not born for what is hard or easy
Or to be flattered while alive
I was born for blessed purpose
Reflected in all I do and be
I was born to fulfill purpose
I was born to fulfill destiny
I was born to be inspired
Blessing all alive and yet to be
An instrumentality of purpose
A gift to all humanity
I was born to profess passion
Inspired passion plain to see
Born to contribute all I am
Born to be merely what is me
I was born for self-expression
Not just to make it and survive
I was born for contribution
Merely because I am alive
I am inspired talents and intentions
Divine gifts designed to flow through me
The conduit for eternal blessings
The Passionate Professional that is me
A Compelling Sense Of Purpose And Destiny By Clyde E. Gumbs
There are times I have felt as if I was given the pieces of a jigsaw puzzle representing the life I was born to live. This might seem to be an exciting opportunity to experience my life coming together as an unfolding accomplishment. Unfortunately, I also have felt as if I was given the pieces of the puzzle, but not the box that it came in with a picture representing the assembled puzzle. Imagine the task of putting together a jigsaw puzzle with thousands of pieces while lacking a clear sense of what it was intended to look like. Welcome to the experience of my life.
I have always thought that I must have been born for some purpose. In fact, I have always thought that I was born for some inspired and inspiring purpose. The issue, for me, was what was the purpose that I was born to fulfill. Most of my life has represented a quest for the fulfillment of my purpose and potential without any clear sense of what that purpose and potential were intended to be.
Like so many others, I was told that if I had a good education, then I would be on track to fulfill the purpose and potential of my life. Despite undergraduate, graduate and professional degrees from one of the great institutions of higher learning in the world, I still lacked clarity about what my true purpose and potential were. I even lacked clarity about where to go to find clarity.
Like so many others, I was told that if I had a good job, then I would be on track to fulfill the purpose and potential of my life. Despite working successfully in the highest realms of business, I still lacked clarity about what my true purpose and potential were.
Like so many others, I was told that if I had a spouse and children, then I would be on track to fulfill the purpose and potential of my life. Despite having a devoted spouse and wonderful children, I still lacked clarity about what my true purpose and potential were.
Like so many others, I was told that if I had a strong religious background, then I would be on track to fulfill the purpose and potential of my life. Despite growing up in the culture of Christianity, attending Sunday School as a child, attending church as an adult, listening to countless sermons, singing countless hymns, and reading countless scriptural passages, I still lacked clarity about what my true purpose and potential were.
Finally, like even so many others, I was told that if I did things to help people, especially those less fortunate than myself, then I would be on track to fulfill the purpose and potential of my life. Despite countless acts of kindness, generosity and charity; I still lacked clarity about what my true purpose and potential were.
To my overwhelming disappointment, I found myself in the darkness experiencing myself as a soul lost in the wilderness despite having a “good life,” having a “better and more positive life” than most people, and having done so many of the “right things” that I had been told to do. What I didn’t have was an inspired and inspiring life and a life with a clear and compelling sense of purpose and destiny. What I didn’t have was “my life.” What I had was the life I was told I should live, not the life I was born to live.
After so many years of striving for “success,” I gave up. I gave up seeking to be a better person with a better life. I gave up seeking to be the person that people thought I should be with the life they thought I should have. Out of a sense of hopeless frustration, resignation and despair I gave up my attachment to the life I had. All that remained were questions. What was the life I was born to have? Who was the person I was born to be? What was the purpose of my lifetime? What was my destiny?
From beyond any place I knew to look and beyond any place that I had ever seen, arose a vision of a world where people are inspired, inspiring and passionately living the lives they were born to live. Imagine a world where people are unleashed to be all that they are born to be. Imagine a world where people are at peace and honor the dignity of nature and humanity. Imagine a world where love and joy and miracles abound. Imagine a world where people have a compelling sense of purpose and destiny.
That is the grandest vision that I have ever imagined. That is the vision I was offered when I gave up my attachment to the life I had. That is the vision that I am willing to give my life to fulfill. A life lived fulfilling that vision is certainly a life worth living. A life lived fulfilling that vision is certainly the life I was born to live.
Imagine if I can be a demonstration of what everyone is born to be. Imagine if my lifetime can be lived as an offering to the miracle of what life can be for all humanity. Imagine if my every failure can show others and myself the way to greater opportunity. Imagine if out of pointlessness and hopelessness I can light people’s path to victory. Imagine if I can be an instrumentality of purpose aligned with, and sourced by, the universe and all divinity. Imagine if I can rise each day with such a compelling sense of purpose and destiny. Imagine if all that takes is merely being the person that I am and was always born to be. Imagine that.
An Inspired and Inspiring Life is Not a Better Life By Clyde E. Gumbs
Moment after moment and day after day people experience life. If you ask them what they seek they may say many things. Although there may be some people who say they are content with themselves and their lives just the way they are, most people will tell you they seek to be a better person with a better life. If only they were more intelligent, more knowledgeable, more attractive, more physically fit, healthier, more skillful and more focused. If only they had more money, more status, a better home, better cars, and all of the best stuff of life.
They may believe that the way to the “promised land” requires devotion to being good, better, right and positive as contrasted with being bad, worse, wrong and negative. This reflects the common societal view of life through the contexts of good versus bad, better versus worse, right versus wrong, and positive versus negative. They may believe that they are more good, more right, more positive and better than they were in the past. They may also believe that there are more good things, more of the right things, more positive things and better things in their lives than there were in the past.
Unfortunately, despite what appears to be demonstrable improvement, they find that either they never quite accomplish what they seek or that when they accomplish what they sought it wasn’t as fulfilling as they had expected. Naturally this can be a very frustrating, disappointing and uninspiring experience.
What if people gave up their quests for better lives? What if people gave up their quests to be better people? What if people merely sought to live the lives they were born to live? What if people merely sought to be the people they were born to be? What if people were born for inspired and inspiring purposes? What if people were born to live inspired and inspiring lives? What if the opportunity of a person’s life was to evolve in fulfillment of the purposes they were born for? What if all this took was a new level of awareness?
When I look back upon this spiritual journey that I call my life, I am amazed at how difficult I made things. I was born into a family with many hard earned and inspiring accomplishments. My parents were intelligent, well-informed, and hard working. They were also successful entrepreneurs and passionate community servants. My siblings similarly have used their gifts and talents for the benefit of our family and the communities where they have lived. I never doubted that I had been blessed with a wonderful family and would have a great opportunity to live a fulfilling life.
My challenge was to identify what it would take to have a fulfilling life. I hoped that I had been born for some great purpose, even though I had no idea what it might be. I knew what I liked to do. I knew what people thought I did well. I knew what people thought I should do and expected of me. I was always encouraged to do “good” things, “positive’ things, “better” things, and of course the “right” things.
Despite many noteworthy achievements along the way, for decades and decades, I experienced a recurring sense of frustration, boredom, failure and disillusionment, which, at times, led to indulgence, escapism, recklessness and wreckage. Inevitably, the indulgence, escapism, recklessness and wreckage led to shame, humiliation, guilt, despair and resignation. To my great surprise and as if by an act of divine grace, despite the shame, humiliation, guilt, despair and resignation, I was still alive and still standing. Despite it all, a new day would dawn, and a new opportunity for redemption and to live a fulfilling life always remained.
Ultimately, what became very clear to me was that focusing on what other people or even I expected me to be or do did not create a fulfilling life. Similarly, focusing on my own or others judgments about what was “good,” “positive,” “better” and “right” did not create a fulfilling life either. What was not clear to me was that there was a simple, if not initially obvious, alternative. What fundamentally different way was there to look at life other than: good versus bad, positive versus negative, and better versus worse? For most of my life, I had never thought to ask myself that question. It never occurred to me until one day when I realized that my heart’s desire was to have an inspired and inspiring life. I desired a life where I could fulfill the purpose I was born for and my potential inside that purpose. My true desire was to be able to live with a compelling sense of purpose and destiny. I had never been clear about that before and had never lived with the clarity of that intention.
I was not concerned about whether an inspired and inspiring life was a good, positive, or better life. I was concerned instead about living a life where I fulfilled my purpose, potential and destiny. I was not concerned about what others considered to be the right life for me. I was concerned instead about being the person I was born to be living the life I was born to live.
From that perspective, I could see very plainly and simply that there were only two fundamentally different ways that I could experience and relate to life. In any moment, I was either, “inspired, on purpose and authentic” or “uninspired, off purpose and inauthentic” By inspired, I mean “in spirit,” spiritually connected, and in spiritual alignment. By on purpose, I mean in alignment with the purpose I was born for. By authentic, I mean being the person I was born to be fulfilling the purpose I was born for.
Imagine if living an inspired and inspiring life fulfilling my purpose and potential was my birthright. Imagine if all that required of me was to be nothing more than the person I was born to be. What a revelation!
