Thursday, May 23, 2013
Tuesday, May 21, 2013
Integrity: From Chaos to Coherence
Imagine This
You are awake. But you don’t exactly know that you are awake because you’ve never been asleep. In fact, you don’t really even know what “asleep” means. You’ve heard about it a time or two but have never had the experience. You just are, and it’s always been that way.
Then something happens: You fall asleep.
Many beings fall asleep with you, and you all share similar dreams. So tangible and energy-consuming is this dream state that it appears reality.
And it is… Surely, if there is something to be awake to, you are awake to it. Right?
There is reality and there is illusion. You know that what you perceive is not a magician’s trick. Nor is it that nightly thing you believe to be a mental data-processing procedure called “dreaming.” You must be awake to reality.
From time to time, a few of the characters in this reality proclaim that all is a dream and it’s time to awaken from sleep. Mostly these words go unnoticed or are clearly intended only for a select few. Many of the individuals in this disparate minority have some quite eccentric ways, too, offering minimal legitimacy to their claim.
Then something else happens. The number of eccentrics seems to rise. Perhaps even within your very family or group of friends. And although each is somewhat unique in manner, their message is still the same: Awaken, now. It is time.
This, too, will pass, you think, as you turn away with an air of knowing. And so you go about your life—consumed by reality…
…or illusion…
How would you know?
The Illusion and the Godspark
(…sounds like one of Aesop's Fables…)
It therefore happens that we seek wholly within the illusion for that which will resonate with the Godspark. But, because we don’t realize that we cannot find what is in what is not, we continually dive back into identification with what is not under the misperception that our search is leading us to reconnection.
Obviously, there’s a problem here. For the deeper we involve ourselves in the illusion, the more strongly we are identifying ourselves with what we are not. The more we attach to what does not resonate with the Godspark within, the more we disengage ourselves from being in integrity with what we truly are.
Integrity: From Chaos To Coherence
When we are caught up in the illusion, we do a lot of things that aren’t integrity-based. And each one we do both removes us further from reality and accumulates with all our other unbalanced out-of-integrity doings (i.e.: creates negative karma).
When we finally begin to awaken, to consciously reconnect with the Godspark, we realize that neither we nor life itself had been anything we’d thought. As a result, everything we’d done out-of-integrity has to be reconciled in order that we might move back into integrity; back into reality and the full awareness of what we truly are.
On the external level, this may (probably will) require a number of changes which our fears and false beliefs had prevented us from making prior. A partial list of possible changes is as follows…
Change of career path. We’re not going to see one who is invested in the awakening process working as a cigarette salesman or an arms dealer. The aim of the game becomes self-cultivation and love for all. Also, as awakening is effectively a rebirth into an expanded form of consciousness, so other interests, knowledge, and abilities may be revealed, leading one in unexpected directions.
Divorce. On religious and societal levels, actions like divorce may be thought of as “sinful" and "wrong.” Yet, in awakening, divorce must occur because one’s life is being recalibrated to the Godspark and, automatically, to what is in the highest good of both the self and the greater whole. For instance, if we are in a marriage with an abusive, “disappearing,” and/or unsupportive spouse, or if our marriage is held together only for things like lust and money, we are neither serving ourselves or the greater whole—we’re merely filling our own life with more suffering and the world with more negativity.
Physical relocation. The more one awakens, the more one will be able to tune in to their Life Purpose. One may be located where they are before awakening for the learning experiences needed to drive them into the awakening state. After those lessons are learned, well, Oh, The Places [We’ll] Go, (…sometimes I think Dr. Seuss was awakening…)
Let go of possessions. Generally, less is more. Life provides us with exactly what we need in any given moment. Awakening opens us to fully trusting that this is so and that all will be provided for—as Divine Wisdom dictates, not “me.” Possessions from an old way of life will often lose their appeal.
Change of social life and friends. There will be far less of a desire to talk. Idle chatter, complaints, and gossip decrease to zero. Also, interests and resonant energies will alter.
Leave/change religion. The mechanics behind fear-based religions become glaringly obvious. Life is a mirror, so the clarity that one creates within will be reflected in the world without. Religion will be noted as a guidepost like any other and that the True path lies within. Also, the deeper meanings of scriptural passages become self-evident.
“Lighten” diet. Food carries positive and negative energy, as do whatever is used to process it. The more live (closest to source, natural), the healthier it is; the more dead (processed and artificial) the more detrimental. Meat and dairy, for instance, carry the energy of the animals. If an animal has been maltreated and/or knows it is about to die, it releases “fear” into its bloodstream. This is a very heavy, dark, unhealthy energy to be consuming. You are what you eat—if you eat “fear,” you become “fear” (literally, and also more prone to dis-ease). Awakening drives one toward holistic dieting, which includes love of self and respect for all life.
Take up a martial art form/yoga. Laziness and "pumping iron" (even if done for health, not ego) will not seem as attractive anymore. Activities like the ("non-commercialized") martial arts and yoga keep the body in peak condition, improve mind function, purify emotional negativity, and can raise one’s spirit (kundalini yoga, for example) all at the same time. Few, if any, activities within the societal norm can stake such a claim.
The “Catch” of Life
Life exists and is so abundant because the energy that underlies it all is love. It wants life to exist. And since life/love energy and the Godspark within each of us are the same thing, we cannot be in integrity with our truest nature while concurrently supporting that which is contrary to it.
In awakening, all illusory ways must go.
So you’re trying to tell me that all this stuff is fake, a waste, wrong?
Cheer up! I’m not saying that at all.
On the human level as we’ve known it, life is as real, as concrete, as important as anything. And things will appear as right or wrong based on a dualistic perspective—which just happens to be the perspective that seems totally sensible (if not the only option) in an apparently dualistic reality.
But let’s consider…
What do we see when we look into a microscope? The whole of creation? Or just one exceedingly minute aspect of it?
So, too, is it with life as we think it to be.
The experience before us is but a tiny sample of the All. Thus it is real in the sense that it’s happening and is highly valuable to those it’s happening to. Yet it’s very unreal in the sense that the perspective by which we view life is absolutely narrow, self-ish, and impermanent in comparison to what higher awareness perceives.
No matter how we may appear dualistically, all is One, our awareness only perceiving a fractional microcosm of the unfathomable and infinite macrocosm.
All is given life and the energy to exist by God. This life energy is God. Thus, nothing can happen within all of creation that is not known to God. Likewise, there is nothing that has happened, is happening, or can happen that is not allowed by God.
Everything, ever—it’s all a learning experience; a spiritual evolutionary journey in the separation from and the return to Source; an excursion of illusory adventure where we learn what it is we are not that we might better know what it is we truly are.
Remember
We cannot we awaken unless we’ve first gone to sleep. But we cannot go to sleep if we we’re not first awake.
Remember who you are...
Om Gum Ganapatayei Namaha
“Salutations to the Remover of Obstacles.”
You are awake. But you don’t exactly know that you are awake because you’ve never been asleep. In fact, you don’t really even know what “asleep” means. You’ve heard about it a time or two but have never had the experience. You just are, and it’s always been that way.
Then something happens: You fall asleep.
Many beings fall asleep with you, and you all share similar dreams. So tangible and energy-consuming is this dream state that it appears reality.
And it is… Surely, if there is something to be awake to, you are awake to it. Right?
There is reality and there is illusion. You know that what you perceive is not a magician’s trick. Nor is it that nightly thing you believe to be a mental data-processing procedure called “dreaming.” You must be awake to reality.
From time to time, a few of the characters in this reality proclaim that all is a dream and it’s time to awaken from sleep. Mostly these words go unnoticed or are clearly intended only for a select few. Many of the individuals in this disparate minority have some quite eccentric ways, too, offering minimal legitimacy to their claim.
Then something else happens. The number of eccentrics seems to rise. Perhaps even within your very family or group of friends. And although each is somewhat unique in manner, their message is still the same: Awaken, now. It is time.
This, too, will pass, you think, as you turn away with an air of knowing. And so you go about your life—consumed by reality…
…or illusion…
How would you know?
The Illusion and the Godspark
(…sounds like one of Aesop's Fables…)
- As long as we are sleeping, we are consciously unaware that we are actually living in an illusory state.
- There is a Godspark within each of us that is ever yearning for conscious reconnection.
- Sleep veils our awareness of the Godspark's existence.
It therefore happens that we seek wholly within the illusion for that which will resonate with the Godspark. But, because we don’t realize that we cannot find what is in what is not, we continually dive back into identification with what is not under the misperception that our search is leading us to reconnection.
Obviously, there’s a problem here. For the deeper we involve ourselves in the illusion, the more strongly we are identifying ourselves with what we are not. The more we attach to what does not resonate with the Godspark within, the more we disengage ourselves from being in integrity with what we truly are.
Integrity: From Chaos To Coherence
When we are caught up in the illusion, we do a lot of things that aren’t integrity-based. And each one we do both removes us further from reality and accumulates with all our other unbalanced out-of-integrity doings (i.e.: creates negative karma).
When we finally begin to awaken, to consciously reconnect with the Godspark, we realize that neither we nor life itself had been anything we’d thought. As a result, everything we’d done out-of-integrity has to be reconciled in order that we might move back into integrity; back into reality and the full awareness of what we truly are.
On the external level, this may (probably will) require a number of changes which our fears and false beliefs had prevented us from making prior. A partial list of possible changes is as follows…
Change of career path. We’re not going to see one who is invested in the awakening process working as a cigarette salesman or an arms dealer. The aim of the game becomes self-cultivation and love for all. Also, as awakening is effectively a rebirth into an expanded form of consciousness, so other interests, knowledge, and abilities may be revealed, leading one in unexpected directions.
Divorce. On religious and societal levels, actions like divorce may be thought of as “sinful" and "wrong.” Yet, in awakening, divorce must occur because one’s life is being recalibrated to the Godspark and, automatically, to what is in the highest good of both the self and the greater whole. For instance, if we are in a marriage with an abusive, “disappearing,” and/or unsupportive spouse, or if our marriage is held together only for things like lust and money, we are neither serving ourselves or the greater whole—we’re merely filling our own life with more suffering and the world with more negativity.
Physical relocation. The more one awakens, the more one will be able to tune in to their Life Purpose. One may be located where they are before awakening for the learning experiences needed to drive them into the awakening state. After those lessons are learned, well, Oh, The Places [We’ll] Go, (…sometimes I think Dr. Seuss was awakening…)
Let go of possessions. Generally, less is more. Life provides us with exactly what we need in any given moment. Awakening opens us to fully trusting that this is so and that all will be provided for—as Divine Wisdom dictates, not “me.” Possessions from an old way of life will often lose their appeal.
Change of social life and friends. There will be far less of a desire to talk. Idle chatter, complaints, and gossip decrease to zero. Also, interests and resonant energies will alter.
Leave/change religion. The mechanics behind fear-based religions become glaringly obvious. Life is a mirror, so the clarity that one creates within will be reflected in the world without. Religion will be noted as a guidepost like any other and that the True path lies within. Also, the deeper meanings of scriptural passages become self-evident.
“Lighten” diet. Food carries positive and negative energy, as do whatever is used to process it. The more live (closest to source, natural), the healthier it is; the more dead (processed and artificial) the more detrimental. Meat and dairy, for instance, carry the energy of the animals. If an animal has been maltreated and/or knows it is about to die, it releases “fear” into its bloodstream. This is a very heavy, dark, unhealthy energy to be consuming. You are what you eat—if you eat “fear,” you become “fear” (literally, and also more prone to dis-ease). Awakening drives one toward holistic dieting, which includes love of self and respect for all life.
Take up a martial art form/yoga. Laziness and "pumping iron" (even if done for health, not ego) will not seem as attractive anymore. Activities like the ("non-commercialized") martial arts and yoga keep the body in peak condition, improve mind function, purify emotional negativity, and can raise one’s spirit (kundalini yoga, for example) all at the same time. Few, if any, activities within the societal norm can stake such a claim.
The “Catch” of Life
Life exists and is so abundant because the energy that underlies it all is love. It wants life to exist. And since life/love energy and the Godspark within each of us are the same thing, we cannot be in integrity with our truest nature while concurrently supporting that which is contrary to it.
In awakening, all illusory ways must go.
So you’re trying to tell me that all this stuff is fake, a waste, wrong?
Cheer up! I’m not saying that at all.
On the human level as we’ve known it, life is as real, as concrete, as important as anything. And things will appear as right or wrong based on a dualistic perspective—which just happens to be the perspective that seems totally sensible (if not the only option) in an apparently dualistic reality.
But let’s consider…
What do we see when we look into a microscope? The whole of creation? Or just one exceedingly minute aspect of it?
So, too, is it with life as we think it to be.
The experience before us is but a tiny sample of the All. Thus it is real in the sense that it’s happening and is highly valuable to those it’s happening to. Yet it’s very unreal in the sense that the perspective by which we view life is absolutely narrow, self-ish, and impermanent in comparison to what higher awareness perceives.
No matter how we may appear dualistically, all is One, our awareness only perceiving a fractional microcosm of the unfathomable and infinite macrocosm.
All is given life and the energy to exist by God. This life energy is God. Thus, nothing can happen within all of creation that is not known to God. Likewise, there is nothing that has happened, is happening, or can happen that is not allowed by God.
Everything, ever—it’s all a learning experience; a spiritual evolutionary journey in the separation from and the return to Source; an excursion of illusory adventure where we learn what it is we are not that we might better know what it is we truly are.
Remember
We cannot we awaken unless we’ve first gone to sleep. But we cannot go to sleep if we we’re not first awake.
Remember who you are...
Om Gum Ganapatayei Namaha
“Salutations to the Remover of Obstacles.”
Friday, May 17, 2013
A Third Experience of High Strangeness
The Cloud Ship
I saw this in the sky when looking out the front window of my house on January 26th or 27th of this year.
…Okay, well I didn’t really see a 3-color bitmap image created in MS paint. But my depiction is highly similar to what I’d seen…
As much as I could tell, the sky was otherwise cloudless. Just a lonesome, flat white, symmetrically-shaped cloud wandering southward, faded a bit on the left side… and a face… like someone took the world’s biggest ice cream scoop and carved it right out.
My immediate thought on seeing it (the cloud only) was, “It’s a cloud ship.” When I noticed the face, my thought was pretty much confirmed. But, of course, we humans need our proof two, three, and fifteen times. So I sat on the floor while looking at the “cloud” and asked that if the ship/beings are of love and light to send me energetic confirmation.
As I sat there is a state of receptivity, I felt a charge of energy run through my body, and I briefly shook.
The Other Incidents
Above is the third of my “major” ET/UFO experiences. The other two can be found here:
An Experience of High Strangeness
A Second Experience of High Strangeness
Aside from those, I’ve had a number of other UFO experiences, one of which I have a second witness for. Except for one, all were similar to each other, though I’m unable to say with any certainty what I’d seen.
Generally, on multiple occasions I’ve seen what appear as individual spheres in the sky. For a number of reasons, they were difficult to visually discern.
Some of these I will not rule out as possibly being balloons. For example, I saw one of them around sunset. I noticed it when it was already quite high and far in the distance. It seemed to fluidly continue its progression higher and more distant. Also, it occasionally became brighter (in a reflective way), which leads me to think it was one of those metallic-like, seamed birthday balloons we might find at a party store with Sponge Bob Square Pants printed on it.
The others, however, were a bit more peculiar. They were relatively small, silver/gray spheres that seemed to do their own thing, caring not about what the wind was doing. If the wind was moving east, maybe they were too. Or maybe not. Maybe they moved, usually lazily, east, then upward, then west, then seeming stopping completely for a little while, then moving downward and against the wind, then… I’m sure you get the idea.
I can’t say with any certainty what these things were. Balloons? Maybe. ET crafts? Maybe. Self-conscious machines of a secret government project? Maybe. I really don’t know. (Hence, the “unidentified” part of UFO.)
What I do know is that I’ve been witness to some highly strange things floating in our skies, several of which were much more significant than the sighting of these smaller objects. I refuse to be so hasty or closed-minded as to think there has to be a “rational” explanation for any of this.
I noted above that “Except for one ["object"], all were similar to each other…” The different one I’d seen while taking a walk on a partly cloudy day some weeks or months before what I’m here terming my third experience.
The cloud had an appearance similar to this:
This one was at a lower cloud level and about three miles away. I would estimate it was around 300 feet or so both in height and width.
Confirmation That I’m on the Right Path
When I finished what I’ve written above, I got up to change my clothes. I also took a moment to look out the window (the same window I’d seen the cloud ship with the face from) and saw this rainbow halo:
Aside from the rainbow, something kept bugging me about the right side of this picture. After horsing around with the exhaustive repertoire of color modification options in MS Picture Manager, I came up with this altered image. Make of it what you will.
Publishing Uncertainty and Criticism
I almost published a post about my third experience just after it happened but then decided against it. I’m glad I didn’t then, but I am certainly pleased to be doing so now. My inspiration for publishing can be found in this short article: I UV – Paige: Is That an Effing Ship?… “Keep Your Eyes on the Skies”
Criticism was also a thought I had: the ol’ egoic: What will the family think? What will the friends think? What will all those people I don’t know and will never meet think?
To hell with it.
To those who would criticize, I ask you:
What if these experiences happened to you?
Think about yourself… your beliefs… your fears… your self-identity… your definition of reality… your mental concept of how you need to live so that others don't judge you in ways that contradict the external image you seek to maintain…
Would you dare to do what I am doing?
Would you dare to look like the fool?
Would you dare to speak of that which the government denies, religion disregards, and science claims to know little, if anything, about?
Would you dare to exist in an atmosphere where family, friends, and acquaintances look down on those who speak of such things?
Maybe, then, there is a very good reason why I’ve been tasked to do this…
I saw this in the sky when looking out the front window of my house on January 26th or 27th of this year.
…Okay, well I didn’t really see a 3-color bitmap image created in MS paint. But my depiction is highly similar to what I’d seen…
As much as I could tell, the sky was otherwise cloudless. Just a lonesome, flat white, symmetrically-shaped cloud wandering southward, faded a bit on the left side… and a face… like someone took the world’s biggest ice cream scoop and carved it right out.
My immediate thought on seeing it (the cloud only) was, “It’s a cloud ship.” When I noticed the face, my thought was pretty much confirmed. But, of course, we humans need our proof two, three, and fifteen times. So I sat on the floor while looking at the “cloud” and asked that if the ship/beings are of love and light to send me energetic confirmation.
As I sat there is a state of receptivity, I felt a charge of energy run through my body, and I briefly shook.
The Other Incidents
Above is the third of my “major” ET/UFO experiences. The other two can be found here:
An Experience of High Strangeness
A Second Experience of High Strangeness
Aside from those, I’ve had a number of other UFO experiences, one of which I have a second witness for. Except for one, all were similar to each other, though I’m unable to say with any certainty what I’d seen.
Generally, on multiple occasions I’ve seen what appear as individual spheres in the sky. For a number of reasons, they were difficult to visually discern.
Some of these I will not rule out as possibly being balloons. For example, I saw one of them around sunset. I noticed it when it was already quite high and far in the distance. It seemed to fluidly continue its progression higher and more distant. Also, it occasionally became brighter (in a reflective way), which leads me to think it was one of those metallic-like, seamed birthday balloons we might find at a party store with Sponge Bob Square Pants printed on it.
The others, however, were a bit more peculiar. They were relatively small, silver/gray spheres that seemed to do their own thing, caring not about what the wind was doing. If the wind was moving east, maybe they were too. Or maybe not. Maybe they moved, usually lazily, east, then upward, then west, then seeming stopping completely for a little while, then moving downward and against the wind, then… I’m sure you get the idea.
I can’t say with any certainty what these things were. Balloons? Maybe. ET crafts? Maybe. Self-conscious machines of a secret government project? Maybe. I really don’t know. (Hence, the “unidentified” part of UFO.)
What I do know is that I’ve been witness to some highly strange things floating in our skies, several of which were much more significant than the sighting of these smaller objects. I refuse to be so hasty or closed-minded as to think there has to be a “rational” explanation for any of this.
I noted above that “Except for one ["object"], all were similar to each other…” The different one I’d seen while taking a walk on a partly cloudy day some weeks or months before what I’m here terming my third experience.
The cloud had an appearance similar to this:
This one was at a lower cloud level and about three miles away. I would estimate it was around 300 feet or so both in height and width.
Confirmation That I’m on the Right Path
When I finished what I’ve written above, I got up to change my clothes. I also took a moment to look out the window (the same window I’d seen the cloud ship with the face from) and saw this rainbow halo:
Aside from the rainbow, something kept bugging me about the right side of this picture. After horsing around with the exhaustive repertoire of color modification options in MS Picture Manager, I came up with this altered image. Make of it what you will.
Publishing Uncertainty and Criticism
I almost published a post about my third experience just after it happened but then decided against it. I’m glad I didn’t then, but I am certainly pleased to be doing so now. My inspiration for publishing can be found in this short article: I UV – Paige: Is That an Effing Ship?… “Keep Your Eyes on the Skies”
Criticism was also a thought I had: the ol’ egoic: What will the family think? What will the friends think? What will all those people I don’t know and will never meet think?
To hell with it.
To those who would criticize, I ask you:
What if these experiences happened to you?
Think about yourself… your beliefs… your fears… your self-identity… your definition of reality… your mental concept of how you need to live so that others don't judge you in ways that contradict the external image you seek to maintain…
Would you dare to do what I am doing?
Would you dare to look like the fool?
Would you dare to speak of that which the government denies, religion disregards, and science claims to know little, if anything, about?
Would you dare to exist in an atmosphere where family, friends, and acquaintances look down on those who speak of such things?
Maybe, then, there is a very good reason why I’ve been tasked to do this…
Wednesday, May 8, 2013
Meditation Music - Update 5/8/13
I have a Meditation Music playlist on YouTube. Did you know that?
I made it a little while back and linked to it in the menu area, but I haven’t said anything about it.
If you are aware of it, the page I originally created for it is gone. The link now directs right to the playlist itself.
As of today, I’ve added four new songs:
“Dreamer / Shadow Dancer” by Terry Oldfield
“Dancing Shiva” by Sacred Earth
“By Your Grace / Jai Gurudev” by Krishna Das
“Eternal Om” by Robert Slap
I made it a little while back and linked to it in the menu area, but I haven’t said anything about it.
If you are aware of it, the page I originally created for it is gone. The link now directs right to the playlist itself.
As of today, I’ve added four new songs:
“Dreamer / Shadow Dancer” by Terry Oldfield
“Dancing Shiva” by Sacred Earth
“By Your Grace / Jai Gurudev” by Krishna Das
“Eternal Om” by Robert Slap
Tuesday, May 7, 2013
Friday, May 3, 2013
A Unity-Duality Paradox
A Unity-Duality Paradox
God is love.
God has created us in his image and likeness.
We are love. We are God.
Love does not cause suffering.
God does not suffer.
Though One is all and all are One, we suffer.
And so we must.
For within the veiled realm of existence,
without suffering we cannot awaken;
without suffering we cannot realize what it is we are not,
in order that we might remember what it is we truly are:
We are love. We are God.
God is love.
God has created us in his image and likeness.
We are love. We are God.
Love does not cause suffering.
God does not suffer.
Though One is all and all are One, we suffer.
And so we must.
For within the veiled realm of existence,
without suffering we cannot awaken;
without suffering we cannot realize what it is we are not,
in order that we might remember what it is we truly are:
We are love. We are God.
Saturday, April 27, 2013
Sunday, April 21, 2013
Sirius(ly)
[4/23/13: "Vacuum energy," anyone? Haha. Too bad the Livestream server was bogged down (or interfered with), but at least I got a few good laughs from some of the comments. I guess I'll watch it another time.]
To order it or watch it free on Monday night (6:30PM PST/9:30PM EST):
http://www.sirius.neverendinglight.com/index.php/screenings
Of my own experiences...
An Experience of High Strangeness
A Second Experience of High Strangeness
To order it or watch it free on Monday night (6:30PM PST/9:30PM EST):
http://www.sirius.neverendinglight.com/index.php/screenings
Of my own experiences...
An Experience of High Strangeness
A Second Experience of High Strangeness
Friday, April 19, 2013
“But I’ll Die If I Stop Thinking!”
Have you ever actually listened to yourself think? Have you ever really focused on and evaluated the "sanity factor" of that which is constantly running through your mind?
What I would like to express to you, today, is that you are not your thoughts. You need not believe the majority of what goes through your mind. You need not attach to the thought stream you believe to be “who I am.” You don’t have to focus on it, follow it, agree or disagree with it, act on it—nothing.
There are people out there—yes, these are human beings just like everyone else—who have no attachment to thought whatsoever. There are people who shift from the rock-bottom of complete identification with their thoughts and a hatred of everything, to absolute detachment from their thoughts and a deep love for that same everything. There are people who begin and end at any two points between those two extremes. This can only be so if we are not our thoughts.
Think about it… If we were our thoughts, we wouldn’t have the voluntary (free will) ability to change (unless acted upon by an external force). For our thoughts would define exactly who and what we are.
Seen another way: If what we truly are is the thoughts we think, how would we ever know that there is something other than what we think in any given moment, if in any given moment we are fully identified with, if in fact we are, exactly what we are thinking?
For many people, even though we see others change and know that we ourselves change, we often neglect the possibility that with voluntary effort we, too, can change considerably; or we rationalize foolishly that others are somehow different or that certain aspects of life are “just the way it is for us.” Thus, thoughts like…
Maybe I don’t have to think this way,
Maybe I could think differently,
Maybe these thoughts I’m having are not okay.
Maybe my imbalanced reality is being created by my imbalanced thoughts,
Maybe my excessive, unchecked thinking is unhealthy,
Maybe I don’t have to attach to these thoughts at all,
Maybe these thoughts are completely impersonal and have nothing to do with me, Maybe there is, in fact, a different way,
Maybe it really is true that if I change my thinking I can change my life
…aren’t even entertained.
But that's why I'm here—to help till the mind soil and plant a seed or two.
Because we all know that we can change—be it our hobbies, our political party, our preferred style of music, our hair color, our religion, or whatever—it doesn’t matter. And we can only do this if we are something beyond anything we might believe to be “who I am.”
It might be suggested that this “something” is the ego; that if the mind is having the thoughts, then the ego is what we are because the ego is what performs the attaching; it is the ego that determines which thoughts to judge as “who I am” and “who I am not.”
This would be wrong, however, because as thought attachment shifts, “who I am” shifts. As we change the beliefs we subscribe to, our ego simply attaches to a new, alternate set of thoughts by which it creates a new self-identity.
In actuality, the ego is the very thing attaching to, or identifying with, an otherwise innocuous thought stream. The ego is the very thing defining "who I am," even though "who I am" is subject to change in any given moment.
So there must be something else, a thoughtless and neutral something else, that observes the thought stream without ever engaging in it; a something else that allows for the recognition of change without attachment to it—a witness, an “is-ness”.
I wonder what percentage individuals even realize, without external suggestion, that there is a space (or can be a space) between their thoughts? Quite frankly, I have no idea. Yet I would imagine it to be a very small number.
Why? (I’m glad you asked…) Because the majority of us are completely identified with our thoughts. We’ve wholly bought into the belief that, "I think, therefore I am," and so thinking must be a co-requisite to survival. This creates in us the perception that there is only thought; and thus, the only times we are "consciously aware" is when we are attaching to our thoughts as though they are truly "who I am."
And so the inner space goes all but unnoticed.
The still, present-moment awareness—the unchangeable that underlies whatever we think to be “who I am”—the eternal watcher, the witness—goes all but unnoticed.
A great sage once said: “Whoever seeks to save his life will lose it, yet whoever loses his life will preserve it.” (Luke 17:33)
False identity exists because we believe that the thought attachment which creates the “who I am” is simply verifying an absolute truth.
This is the world’s biggest lie.*
Instead, it is only when we allow ourselves to begin dying to the “who I am,” it is only when we begin detaching from thought and acknowledging our inner space, that we can really begin to learn who and what we truly are.
_____
*This may be a false statement. Paulo Coelho may have been closer to the truth in The Alchemist when he said that the world’s biggest lie is that at some point in our lives we lose control of what is happening to us and our lives become controlled by fate.
That is so dumb. What’s for dinner? Gosh, it seems like we’re always eating. How about sex for dinner? That would spice things up a little. I need some water. Oh, what’s that in my glass? Gotta pay the bills today. Work is going to suck this afternoon. Yesterday was so much better. Oh yeah, so what to do about dinner? Maybe I’ll make some potat—Jim has been such an ass lately. Why can’t he just—Note to self: I still have to clip my nails. I’ll do that when I get home. Didn’t I hear my phone beep? Maybe Suzy messaged me back. I like her, but she’s been kinda mean lately. Time to find a new job. Other people can be happy with their work, so why can’t I? Well, it’ll come eventually. Oh, look at those trees. But this window. It’s so dirty. Dirty like a homeless man. Time to get out the window cleaner. I’m sort of in the mood to have beans with dinner.Yikes!
What I would like to express to you, today, is that you are not your thoughts. You need not believe the majority of what goes through your mind. You need not attach to the thought stream you believe to be “who I am.” You don’t have to focus on it, follow it, agree or disagree with it, act on it—nothing.
There are people out there—yes, these are human beings just like everyone else—who have no attachment to thought whatsoever. There are people who shift from the rock-bottom of complete identification with their thoughts and a hatred of everything, to absolute detachment from their thoughts and a deep love for that same everything. There are people who begin and end at any two points between those two extremes. This can only be so if we are not our thoughts.
Think about it… If we were our thoughts, we wouldn’t have the voluntary (free will) ability to change (unless acted upon by an external force). For our thoughts would define exactly who and what we are.
Seen another way: If what we truly are is the thoughts we think, how would we ever know that there is something other than what we think in any given moment, if in any given moment we are fully identified with, if in fact we are, exactly what we are thinking?
For many people, even though we see others change and know that we ourselves change, we often neglect the possibility that with voluntary effort we, too, can change considerably; or we rationalize foolishly that others are somehow different or that certain aspects of life are “just the way it is for us.” Thus, thoughts like…
Maybe I don’t have to think this way,
Maybe I could think differently,
Maybe these thoughts I’m having are not okay.
Maybe my imbalanced reality is being created by my imbalanced thoughts,
Maybe my excessive, unchecked thinking is unhealthy,
Maybe I don’t have to attach to these thoughts at all,
Maybe these thoughts are completely impersonal and have nothing to do with me, Maybe there is, in fact, a different way,
Maybe it really is true that if I change my thinking I can change my life
…aren’t even entertained.
But that's why I'm here—to help till the mind soil and plant a seed or two.
Because we all know that we can change—be it our hobbies, our political party, our preferred style of music, our hair color, our religion, or whatever—it doesn’t matter. And we can only do this if we are something beyond anything we might believe to be “who I am.”
It might be suggested that this “something” is the ego; that if the mind is having the thoughts, then the ego is what we are because the ego is what performs the attaching; it is the ego that determines which thoughts to judge as “who I am” and “who I am not.”
This would be wrong, however, because as thought attachment shifts, “who I am” shifts. As we change the beliefs we subscribe to, our ego simply attaches to a new, alternate set of thoughts by which it creates a new self-identity.
In actuality, the ego is the very thing attaching to, or identifying with, an otherwise innocuous thought stream. The ego is the very thing defining "who I am," even though "who I am" is subject to change in any given moment.
So there must be something else, a thoughtless and neutral something else, that observes the thought stream without ever engaging in it; a something else that allows for the recognition of change without attachment to it—a witness, an “is-ness”.
I wonder what percentage individuals even realize, without external suggestion, that there is a space (or can be a space) between their thoughts? Quite frankly, I have no idea. Yet I would imagine it to be a very small number.
Why? (I’m glad you asked…) Because the majority of us are completely identified with our thoughts. We’ve wholly bought into the belief that, "I think, therefore I am," and so thinking must be a co-requisite to survival. This creates in us the perception that there is only thought; and thus, the only times we are "consciously aware" is when we are attaching to our thoughts as though they are truly "who I am."
And so the inner space goes all but unnoticed.
The still, present-moment awareness—the unchangeable that underlies whatever we think to be “who I am”—the eternal watcher, the witness—goes all but unnoticed.
A great sage once said: “Whoever seeks to save his life will lose it, yet whoever loses his life will preserve it.” (Luke 17:33)
False identity exists because we believe that the thought attachment which creates the “who I am” is simply verifying an absolute truth.
This is the world’s biggest lie.*
Instead, it is only when we allow ourselves to begin dying to the “who I am,” it is only when we begin detaching from thought and acknowledging our inner space, that we can really begin to learn who and what we truly are.
_____
*This may be a false statement. Paulo Coelho may have been closer to the truth in The Alchemist when he said that the world’s biggest lie is that at some point in our lives we lose control of what is happening to us and our lives become controlled by fate.
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