Tip on how to do enquiry

[Yasjua]

I'm not sure where this conversation is going, but my tip for how to do effective self-inquiry is to stop doing it immediately. All you're doing is forcing your mental activity into a corner from which it can't escape, while holding the expectation that doing so will produce some kind of mystical result. Your expectations will shape your various "epiphanies," but you'll always return to ordinary functioning - the brain doesn't just submit to or adapt to the will of its "owner." It's a biological tool that nature spent millions of years developing, and you can't coax it into not doing what it does. There's a reason there's only one Ramana Maharshi and only one Nisargadatta Maharaj - they're anomalies, not idols to imitate and revere. Yeah they're brilliant, but you don't have to be anything like them to have what you want. Can you imagine if Nietzsche or Kierkegaard or Einstein taught that people should perform this or that mental exercise continuously so that they could be more like them? They'd be considered narcissists and cult leaders. Study the masters to know them, to understand their historical significance. Don't do what they say. Think for yourself.

[forestofemptiness]

Actually, it does. I would advise taking a look at research in neuroplasticity. Rick Hanson, for example, has proven that one can modify the brain's inherent negativity bias through applying a set of simple principles. The idea that the brain is somehow fixed or unchangeable after a certain point is a discredited view developed in the early twentieth century before scientists had access to brain imaging tools. 

 

There are many, many others other than Ramana and Nisargadatta who can testify to the efficacy of the methods that have been developed over thousands of years. The problem with "thinking for oneself" is that we often come up with faulty conclusions based on bad reasons. If you want to see this in action, look at some of Plato's dialogues. You will see many common sense assumptions shown to be faulty under the analysis of logic and reason.

 

Vivekananda once compared the mind to a monkey, who's nature of excitable, who is also drunk, stung by a scorpion, and possessed by a ghost.  The mind is unstable to begin with, filled with desire and jealousy, and centered on pride. It needs help.

 

 Your expectations will shape your various "epiphanies," but you'll always return to ordinary functioning - the brain doesn't just submit to or adapt to the will of its "owner." It's a biological tool that nature spent millions of years developing, and you can't coax it into not doing what it does. T

[Lataif]

I don't consider "Inquiry" to be primarily a matter of thinking . . . at all.  Thinking and awareness are not the same.

 

Inquiry, at its best, is a multi-faceted curiosity about what's happening in our experience  -- physically, emotionally, intellectually, whatever . . .

 

Of course, if we think we already know what's happening . . . we're not going to be very curious.

 

Sophisticated Inquiry requires a lot of different capacities.

For example:: 

 

-- energy (to do what it takes)

-- confidence (to keep doing it, sometimes)

-- a sense of fun (to enjoy doing it)

-- compassion for yourself (when you're having a tough time doing it)

-- relaxation (not doing a certain thing, sometimes)

-- absorption (not being detached from what's happening)

-- balance (of all the other capacities) 

-- etc.

 

Inquiry assumes that our experience unfolds in a purposeful, meaningful way . . . that we can become aware of that purpose and meaning . . . and that we can become more and more attuned to it.

 

It's a way of Life . . .