When meditating on the breath,
it's helpful to bid your mind to pause in the spaces between the movements of the breath.
This acquaints one with a sense of quiet stillness.
When meditating on the mind,
it's helpful to invite your attention to rest in the spaces between the thoughts and feelings.
This acquaints one with a sense of unbiased observance.
When meditating on consciousness,
it's helpful to allow your awareness to linger in the spaces between inspiration and conceptualization.
This acquaints one with a sense of expansive awareness.
When meditating on awareness,
it's helpful to let your being abide in the spaces between perceiving and acknowledging.
This acquaints one with a sense of selfless space/time.
When suspended in selflessness,
meditation is no longer applicable.
Tuesday, March 27, 2012
Monday, March 26, 2012
Practically speaking
Harmonious action
doesn't have to be motivated
by morality, spirituality or lawfulness.
As a general rule,
what's best for the whole,
is what's best for the individual.
Acting for the good of others
is acting for the good of oneself
and that, of one's relations.
It's that simple.
doesn't have to be motivated
by morality, spirituality or lawfulness.
As a general rule,
what's best for the whole,
is what's best for the individual.
Acting for the good of others
is acting for the good of oneself
and that, of one's relations.
It's that simple.
Thursday, March 22, 2012
Being Without Character
When we're young, we have inclinations, but we're open to the possibility of being anything/one. We're content with just hovering in our existence and trying on different personalities to see how they fit.
But as people grow they stake claim on certain characters or roles, or settle into a habit of wearing “the same outfit”, every day. And, why not? It's easy to remember a character and play the role. No need to judge situations or people, individually. Just follow the guidelines, do it like you did it before. Morality, doesn't even require a soul check anymore, we have a rule book for that one, too. Just push the button labeled “Auto Pilot”, and kick back for the ride.
Or we can actually participate in our life, as it's happening. Dust off the “Soul Check” button. Look into people's eyes, listen to what they're saying, and feel what they're actually saying. Appreciate the shades of gray on a cloudy day, as much as a sunny sky. Recover our intuition. Befriend our bodies.
But in order to do this, we have to step out of character; and, many have forgotten that they're only acting. They believe, with all their might, that they are the part they've grown accustomed to playing. They have so much invested in their fantasies that they've cleverly blinded themselves to anything that might contradict the illusion. Their greatest fear is that of losing their script. It ranks right next to death, except the universe is constantly telling us where we've got it wrong, so it's always in their faces. Consequently, defenses are strongly fortified and guards are always on high alert.
The solution is surprisingly simple. All one need do is nurture a stronger desire to know the truth, than anything else. Mind you, simple, isn't necessarily quick or easy. It usually takes much time and perseverance to overwrite all the obsolete programing that obstructs openness.
But it's good work, it feels right in the doing, it progressively proves its own value and it actually makes the world look and react differently to us.
But as people grow they stake claim on certain characters or roles, or settle into a habit of wearing “the same outfit”, every day. And, why not? It's easy to remember a character and play the role. No need to judge situations or people, individually. Just follow the guidelines, do it like you did it before. Morality, doesn't even require a soul check anymore, we have a rule book for that one, too. Just push the button labeled “Auto Pilot”, and kick back for the ride.
Or we can actually participate in our life, as it's happening. Dust off the “Soul Check” button. Look into people's eyes, listen to what they're saying, and feel what they're actually saying. Appreciate the shades of gray on a cloudy day, as much as a sunny sky. Recover our intuition. Befriend our bodies.
But in order to do this, we have to step out of character; and, many have forgotten that they're only acting. They believe, with all their might, that they are the part they've grown accustomed to playing. They have so much invested in their fantasies that they've cleverly blinded themselves to anything that might contradict the illusion. Their greatest fear is that of losing their script. It ranks right next to death, except the universe is constantly telling us where we've got it wrong, so it's always in their faces. Consequently, defenses are strongly fortified and guards are always on high alert.
The solution is surprisingly simple. All one need do is nurture a stronger desire to know the truth, than anything else. Mind you, simple, isn't necessarily quick or easy. It usually takes much time and perseverance to overwrite all the obsolete programing that obstructs openness.
But it's good work, it feels right in the doing, it progressively proves its own value and it actually makes the world look and react differently to us.
Wednesday, March 21, 2012
Conditional Bliss
I often hear people on a spiritual trek speak of the nature of existence, as being pure light and love and joyful bliss. And while this may be great PR, it's not exactly true. This will be a tough pill to swallow, for those who derive their motivation from such claims, but the multidimensional universe is really quite neutral.
How can this be? Could so many “masters” be wrong? Well, truth can be subjective. From the plains, the foothills look quite tall, but from the mountain top, they seem notably small.
To someone whose been lost in the desert, a glass of water will offer the sweetest taste in the world. Yet water has no flavor. One whose been subjected to sound torture (like the 10th back to back playing of a “Barney” video) will think that silence sounds sweeter than a symphony of angels - even though the “tune” is the absence of sound. When a splinter is pulled, that glorious feeling of relief, is the feeling of nothing being there.
People generally live their lives engulfed in a non-stop banter of judging and worrying and scheming and wondering and the million other activities, that happen between their ears. When all that stops, even for a brief second, the open spaciousness, that is the vacuum left by thought's absence, feels like the embrace of heaven. But it's only emptiness.
It takes acknowledgment, judgment and presumption to say what “being without self” actually is. We can only know it, as an immediate experience. And as with anything else that you've experienced multiple times, “being, without doing” becomes normal, common place and matter of fact, after sufficient exposure.
Such experiences are as natural as the sunrise. Awesome and amazing, and as ordinary as air. There, for no reason, other than for the sake of just being. Obvious and apparent, as the only way it could possibly be. Perfect, just as it is, right then and there. Both magical and mundane. Stunningly spectacular and sublimely simple.
The newbie brain's bewildered and bedazzled outlook mellows, as the experience becomes more familiar and comfortable. There's no serenade of trumpets, no blinding white light, no life altering epiphanies, no accompanying permanent state of bliss – just an irrationally comforting equanimity, born of openly imbibing the universe, as it's unfolding around and throughout one, in “real time”.
If it feels like this is taking the wind out of your sails, it shouldn't. Nothing has changed. The goal is the same, as is the feeling while “there”. The only change required is in one's thoughts about, or interpretations of, it.
Now, why would anyone want to burst such a lovely bubble? Do I spend my leisure time stealing candy from babies? Not at all. I'm just pointing out that indulging in sweet thoughts isn't actually very helpful when one's trying to grow into a full and healthy being.
One of the main obstacles to “achieving” inner freedom, is the notion of what that means. People strive to have an experience that jibes with their preconceptions about what it should be like. And the more fanciful the notions, the less likely their realization will be. In fact, since it's created in the individual's mind, the whole concept involves the illusory self having an experience of awakening; when the experience doesn't happen, until that self has dissolved - for, the experience IS the dissolution and absence of the illusory self.
Fanciful notions are for the benefit of the little mind. The more tantalizing the vision, the harder it is to let go of it. And the more communally agreed upon a story is, the more difficult it becomes to accept it as being whatever it is, or may become. So, in one sense, the better the story is, the worse it is for delivering on its promise.
It's a tricky balancing act. On one level we want to motivate people and get them moving in the right direction. On another, we need to avoid filling their minds with fanciful and misleading notions, so that they can successfully relinquish their delusions and bask in the ultimate contentment that arises when we empty out enough to make room for the universe to flow through us, unimpeded.
What the mind conceives of as love and light and eternal benevolence, what it strives to define and aspires to attain, pales in comparison to slipping into the clean clear water of perfect neutrality.
How can this be? Could so many “masters” be wrong? Well, truth can be subjective. From the plains, the foothills look quite tall, but from the mountain top, they seem notably small.
To someone whose been lost in the desert, a glass of water will offer the sweetest taste in the world. Yet water has no flavor. One whose been subjected to sound torture (like the 10th back to back playing of a “Barney” video) will think that silence sounds sweeter than a symphony of angels - even though the “tune” is the absence of sound. When a splinter is pulled, that glorious feeling of relief, is the feeling of nothing being there.
People generally live their lives engulfed in a non-stop banter of judging and worrying and scheming and wondering and the million other activities, that happen between their ears. When all that stops, even for a brief second, the open spaciousness, that is the vacuum left by thought's absence, feels like the embrace of heaven. But it's only emptiness.
It takes acknowledgment, judgment and presumption to say what “being without self” actually is. We can only know it, as an immediate experience. And as with anything else that you've experienced multiple times, “being, without doing” becomes normal, common place and matter of fact, after sufficient exposure.
Such experiences are as natural as the sunrise. Awesome and amazing, and as ordinary as air. There, for no reason, other than for the sake of just being. Obvious and apparent, as the only way it could possibly be. Perfect, just as it is, right then and there. Both magical and mundane. Stunningly spectacular and sublimely simple.
The newbie brain's bewildered and bedazzled outlook mellows, as the experience becomes more familiar and comfortable. There's no serenade of trumpets, no blinding white light, no life altering epiphanies, no accompanying permanent state of bliss – just an irrationally comforting equanimity, born of openly imbibing the universe, as it's unfolding around and throughout one, in “real time”.
If it feels like this is taking the wind out of your sails, it shouldn't. Nothing has changed. The goal is the same, as is the feeling while “there”. The only change required is in one's thoughts about, or interpretations of, it.
Now, why would anyone want to burst such a lovely bubble? Do I spend my leisure time stealing candy from babies? Not at all. I'm just pointing out that indulging in sweet thoughts isn't actually very helpful when one's trying to grow into a full and healthy being.
One of the main obstacles to “achieving” inner freedom, is the notion of what that means. People strive to have an experience that jibes with their preconceptions about what it should be like. And the more fanciful the notions, the less likely their realization will be. In fact, since it's created in the individual's mind, the whole concept involves the illusory self having an experience of awakening; when the experience doesn't happen, until that self has dissolved - for, the experience IS the dissolution and absence of the illusory self.
Fanciful notions are for the benefit of the little mind. The more tantalizing the vision, the harder it is to let go of it. And the more communally agreed upon a story is, the more difficult it becomes to accept it as being whatever it is, or may become. So, in one sense, the better the story is, the worse it is for delivering on its promise.
It's a tricky balancing act. On one level we want to motivate people and get them moving in the right direction. On another, we need to avoid filling their minds with fanciful and misleading notions, so that they can successfully relinquish their delusions and bask in the ultimate contentment that arises when we empty out enough to make room for the universe to flow through us, unimpeded.
What the mind conceives of as love and light and eternal benevolence, what it strives to define and aspires to attain, pales in comparison to slipping into the clean clear water of perfect neutrality.
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