neti neti

One should be cognizant throughout one's practice of indicators which imply one is: 1) not as "far along the path" as one may have imagined. & 2) "much further along" than one truly is. The pendulum only seems to swing both ways... it is its very own center which anchors the momentum in either direction. These are nuanced milestones, and nothing to neither beat oneself up about nor engage in self-aggrandizement. On the contrary, such impressions, once treated with the correct degree of... egoic separation so to speak, are as tools of revelation exposing the equanimity inherent to one's path itself.

Lol, well at least you're blessed with rhythm!

Excellent, you've met yourself, and attended to the tapdance of spontaneity. I only pray you become dull enough to afford yourself some modesty, since all your multitasking is on autopilot. Do you need to think to move your feet ?

This old thread may shed some light. While my posting occasionally smacks of confrontational tasteless satire, I seem to have been able to get those thoughts across rather clearly there. @dwai managed to squeeze a thought or two in too, but just skip all his deep and quick-witted laser-like accuracy. Read my long-winded quotes and dull droning on about the mind instead. Thx.

But, but, what if my thoughts emerge as images?... by necessity!

Mods: new thread, please: The necessity of GMO's.

@Apech comedy... Ftw? I love this game.

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"Mind/ego" generates thought for a reason in its myriad of purposeful roles. There exists only one "Mind/ego", adept at providing us with the experience of separation. Impressive to say the least. Babies don't make distinctions, they are in oneness and recognize only themselves in mother's face. Peekaboo and get a smile, since seeing oneself in form is pleasing and thoroughly amusing. It isn't until the child is exposed to enough conditioning that it begins forming this essentially false but extremely useful sense of individuality. Consciousness seems to have a spontaneous split of sorts, self-objectifying such that it may discover what it is in that mirror of "mind". And so, this One and the same ego sets up an encounter for this One and the same observer looking out of both your and my eyes, to assimilate precious life experience. The universe is within, its projection is all that is without(ego). One is exploring the depths of the grand spectrum between good and evil in this sandbox of duality. The forbidden fruit. This experiment has necessarily required that some of us take one for the team, so to speak. The absolute best way to discover why it's wrong to murder someone, is to Actually experience being a murder victim... And the murderer. Hence, in your example, the perceived other in need is brought to one's attention, and the choice is placed before us by ego. Sympathy? Indifference? Disgust? But Ego is SO impressive of a tool, it's able to convince us it's actually in charge of the decision, that he is the hero in the story, that he is really us. But really Self runs the entire show, and we are That. The observer observes. And so one is made to help the other, and naturally in so doing helps oneself... the reward is the very act of sympathy, that opportunity for selflessness, our true nature. There is positive consequence, contentment, clarity ensues, peace and love and joy... ease. OR one is made to look upon the other with disgust!, such that in turning away ego may set us up for some negativity! A wonderful learning tool! One fails to see the need as one's own! A denial of truth. The very act of disgust is its own reward, negative consequence. There is suffering, distress, mind darkens, hate and torment... dis-ease? Since Ego so loves center of stage spotlight (vanity), he strives to "protect" himself(but really is protecting the observer) by repressing negative experience, shoving it deep down, thereby cluttering the observer's perception of wrongdoing, for Ego can do no wrong see? Because he's in charge and always needs to look good, he's always right. These things can be ignored to the degree that we can even forget we forgot about them!, thereby causing deep-seated unconscious trouble and extremely unharmonious lifestyles. Ego paradoxically "punishes" the observer for the purpose of remedying the confusion. Suffering increases until these life lessons are brought to the surface, properly confronted and processed as necessary. Our word is our bond. For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. Whatever ego wants bad enough is generally held away from it, unless of course that Cheese is meant to be taken from the trap.

Could you elaborate on why you believe such learning of oneself is painful?

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"Everything is most wonderfully inexplicable!" ~Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj

"To lose entirely all interest in knowledge results in omniscience. It is but the gift of knowing what needs to be known at the right moment, for error-free action." ~Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj

From, Nothing is Everything, Dec 29, 1979 V = Visitor M = Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj

I thought so too, dawn!

Agreed. Interestingly enough though, any model is a working model... thus amalgamations of apparently different schools of thought can be successfully integrated into one's practice to much effect. Chaos Magick comes to mind. But just as a tried and tested way can lead one to the goal, a 'pathway' of confusion may also be sufficient for, at the least, pushing one past certain thresholds.

Just wanted to add as a side note, that neither do Vedantins. As is with most feebly attempted descriptors of the Absolute, consider the following to be equally inept, however much it may appease the mind's inquiry: ParaBrahman is epitomized impersonality.

From a quick search... My first inclination as to why is in agreement with this assessment... and is much more clearly written than I could aspire to. Hope this helps. And another interesting perspective...

"A man is not fit to live unless he finds something worth dying for." ~Martin Luther King, Jr.

... I Doubt that.