manitou

And that's also why it's such a luxury to be able to dwell in no-thought. Letting the world come to us. It is when we are free of controlling wishes or dynamics that we're able to field all dynamics coming our way. If seen with clarity because we have done the inner work, the dynamics that made us who we are are seen for what they are....pretty much the input of others. It seems that the only way to clarity is to unravel this mass of conditioning.

Mentally on the cushion. That's good! I'm finding that once the Awareness has settled in, it's a matter of discovering and wearing the ramifications of the realization. It's not difficult to stay on the cushion post-Awareness. I discovered a simple thing last night that brings me to awareness instantly. Telling myself "I'm all caught up!" (even if I'm not) takes edginess and anxiety out of the equation. My default setting seems to be Hurry Up! Like there's something I need to do that hasn't gotten done. Just a general life anxiety, nothing specific. I realize this has nothing to do with spirituality or enlightenment, but in a strange way it does, if it can quell the vibrations. Once the vibrations are gone and I'm in balance, the spiritual dimension seems to appear on its own.

Devotion to what?

I think the most comprehensive way to accomplish what you want, is to start with where you are at this moment. The first thing that comes along that ruffles your feathers - rubs up against your ego - this is the very thing that will guarantee results. Look at yourself in those moments. Understand what part of your ego is being tweaked. Look at why it's being tweaked. Pay attention to any childhood memory that comes to mind at that moment. It'll probably be one that you flash on over and over as things disturb you. Understand exactly what part you are playing in any disagreement. Once you see your part in it, apologize if it is required. Through this procedure we become aware of our personality foibles. The things other people can see, but we can't because they are part of us. To use 'life' as a mirror of our inner self is to triangulate our current manifestations. We have manifested exactly what we are programmed to manifest. But with awareness, we can change that. Life gets easier and easier.

It might be helpful to start with the entire concept of victimization. Refuse to wear it. Realize that everyone was just doing the very best they could at the time. Which may not have been too good at all. We're all victims of victims, we're all brought up the way our parents were brought up (or sometimes, exactly opposite). My dad was a jerk, his dad was a jerk, and so was his. Ad infinitum. Unpacking it shouldn't be difficult. All of this has brought you to exactly where you are, to a pretty darned good place. If you've found your way here, you're an unusual person - one who pays attention to their own behavior, one who cultivates self. From here on in, just enjoy the ride. You're right where you're supposed to be. With the rest of us that went through horrible traumas and extricated ourselves. I, for one, am really glad you found the Bums. 😊

There's one thing that helps me with this, the neurotic self reflection and how others are viewing me. The Nazarene said it. Judge not, lest you be judged (or maybe it was 'ye') What this says to me, and what I've learned from experiencing it, is that if I feel judged, it means that I am judging others. This really works for me. When I start feeling self conscious about anything, I know it's because I'm making unwanted judgments of my own. Even the smallest ones can turn into a large ball of twine. So, I say, start with self. Realize the Is-ness of everything - and remember that the pupils of the eyes you are looking into, you are looking into 'god's' eyes. No judgments of anyone. They are all god. I guarantee this will help, TT. It's a lovely morning in the desert.

It is a space that is rare at first but gradually becomes more and more of your day. It's a dawning awareness that continues blossoming. People will come in and out of your life because you answer truthfully when asked. People pleasing is behind you. I look at these phenomena as ramifications of enlightenment. Enlightenment is the awareness of who we really are. Living with those ramifications and acting from that place is the path after that. It becomes more natural all the time. But in some ways it's like having to learn all over again. When we become able to transcend our ego, it gets easy. I did this very thing a couple days ago. I was sitting on a bench in a restaurant in Colorado, waiting for a table, next to a lady also waiting. I remarked on hearing that the food was good here. She responded, and we got onto the subject of politics, for some reason. She started talking about Trump, and when she did that, I thought I'd try an experiment. Transcend all ego and just listen to her. She went on with the usual stuff, and I encouraged her to keep talking. She kept talking so much, in fact, that she started getting into the Qanon stuff about the child molesting ring and eating babies. I couldn't believe it - I was actually talking to a Qanon person! Something made her suddenly stop. She asked me 'Are you a Democrat?' I smiled and said yes. She apologized for any offense she may have caused me. I told her that she hadn't at all, that I was wanting to hear her opinion about these things. She started to run off quickly, jumped up from the bench. I grabbed her hand and said 'We HAVE to talk. We're going to lose our country if we don't start listening to each other'. She ran off. I don't know if that does any good or not, but I sensed that she was happy to be able to explode the hateful stuff about the child eating dems, and to have someone listening to her without interruption (after transcension of ego, of course!) Maybe that's a big step, just to listen to someone who thinks totally opposite. Maybe that's all they really want. I'm starting to see it as people who have never had much power, perceiving now that they are aligned with a very powerful person. Like they've joined the Power Club. It actually felt pretty good to do that.

I'd like to add to this, that in her state of no-mind, there is a feeling that all entities are one. It can be felt. You feel your heart open to every person you pass on the street, you realize that they are you. You realize what Love your Brother as Yourself really means. You realize that to give a gift to someone is a gift to yourself. It doesn't matter who has the money, it's only stuck energy. To give to a homeless person is to give to yourself. As I see it, this is the sense of Oneness that becomes available to us in no-thought.

That is adorable! Thank you, Jesse - yes, I have asked Silent Thunder to be my kazooist. I think he's ready.

Elvis has left the building. I can't remember what I was going to say. Men, never leave knockers waiting.

KNOCK KNOCK !

Good. So he's waiting.

That is quite beautiful. The teacher leads you to the realization. How simple. Who is who in this photo? If the man on the right is the rinpoche, his eyes say that he is waiting to see if the student has caught on. If the man on the right is the student, he is clueless.

knock knock

Something strange and wonderful happened to me the other night. I became spontaneously K-active maybe 20 years ago. It was an overwhelming experience involving the sound of a train or a hurricane right inside my bedroom. My third eye developed after that, I turned into a seer. But that doesn't mean much. Two nights ago, I had an old radio station on - songs from the 40's and 50's. I was eating a bowl of ice cream at the time, and "Chantau d' Amore" (ra-ta-ta-ta-ta!) came on. I started dancing around the house with my bowl to that beautiful melody, so nostalgic. I started to experience a build-up of joy within my spinal column, radiating out as feelings of love and joy like I've never experienced before. It was sheer joy. The joy that eminates from one who has done the inner work, removing dark and unwanted dynamics. The joy eminating from someone who has had one focus in life for years and years: to be an enlightened one. It was sheer Oneness with the creative force of the universe. The I Am. Thank you, Self.

Interesting thought. In other words, is virtuous conduct alone all that's needed for enlightenment? This is only my take on it. I barely made it out of high school, so FWIW: If meritorious conduct is as a result of having a life well lived, and is a natural outflow of the entity's conditioning, then I believe that by the time that fine individual gets to the place of Full Realization, his conduct and his nature will have merged. So in a case like this, I think the answer would be yes. But if someone starts with a rotten core and forces meritorious conduct for the purpose of enlightenment, no. The ego of this entity will be too thick to penetrate, or it will fall in on itself of its own weight. The path to the Realization is inward. The enlightened one becomes as transparent as glass because they have dealt to the best of their ability with their inner dynamics that have caused unenlightened behavior. Through a glass darkly. It is not until they know who they really are that enlightenment dawns. Once that has happened, it then becomes a question of dealing with the ramifications from day to day the rest of your life. You know that everyone you see is really you. You will truly understand that.

And this came out this morning: What Is Consciousness? The basic definition of consciousness intentionally leaves a lot of questions unanswered. It’s “the normal mental condition of the waking state of humans, characterized by the experience of perceptions, thoughts, feelings, awareness of the external world, and often in humans (but not necessarily in other animals) self-awareness,” according to the Oxford Dictionary of Psychology. Scientists simply don’t have one unified theory of what consciousness is. We also don’t know where it comes from, or what it’s made of. However, one loophole of this knowledge gap is that we can’t exhaustively say other organisms, and even inanimate objects, don’t have consciousness. Humans relate to animals and can imagine, say, dogs and cats have some amount of consciousness because we see their facial expressions and how they appear to make decisions. But just because we don’t “relate to” rocks, the ocean, or the night sky, that isn’t the same as proving those things don’t have consciousness. This is where a philosophical stance called panpsychism comes into play, writes All About Space’s David Crookes:

Excellent post IMO, AjayO. The practicing patience thing is invaluable. I've had some success in diminishing the ego that gets in my way. I had to do it to stay sober. The way I go about it, is that every time I feel upset about something, or angry at someone, etc - I realize that that's my ego that's been jostled. I've done this for so long now that it's automatic. I look for the thing inside me that it's rubbing up against. Fear of failure? Fear of another person? Fear of lack? It's always a fear, and oftentimes there is a memory that accompanies it. If the childhood memory can be seen and understood, then the awareness of that tendency will diminish the ego bit by bit. Awareness alone will do it, if you are ernest about diminishing ego. The reason ego needs to be diminished is because it colors all of our thoughts, our attitudes. To achieve the kind of clarity that most folks on this forum are seeking, this must first be dealt with. It's part of the necessary elimination process.

Perfect, Steve! Thanks!

The whole concept of form is amazing to me. Matter is the same regardless of what shape it's in - and without some sort of awareness as to its shape, how do all those molecules stay together? As The Intelligence is either all or it's nothing, it seems right to me that all matter has the capacity to keep its form because of an inherent intelligence that remembers. For a while, at least, and subject to physical influences. What if the idea of a table was the very thing that attracted all the actors to make it? What if there were a pretty little invisible table that tried real hard to manifest itself into existence, and finally did it because the idea attracted someone to make it? I mean, you could really turn this whole thing inside out...

Great metaphor. An ice cube choosing to remain an ice cube. Didn't Guan Yin do this? Quite a push-pull between Newtonian physics and the organizing principle of Mind. If the ice cube remained in the cubic form by choice - assuming the ice cube has enough awareness to remain square - this sets up a physical/metaphysical conflict. The ice cube would think it was all over when he loses his shape. But nothing has changed! Just the shape. Ice Cubes 'R Us

It is a Mason correlation. If you read Morals and Dogma (Pike), which enumerates all the qualities one needs for each degree (and the qualities one needs to lose), the 32nd degree is the last written chapter in the book. That's as far as words can take you. The 32nd degree is the last rung on the ladder before the I Am consciousness is realized. That's the 33rd.

That would be the 32nd degree.

I think it's never easy to go through yourself to find the real thing. But that's how the real thing is found. More reading doesn't get it. If we start from where we are now, it's possible to ride in to yourself with everyday things. If traffic makes you impatient, take the time to realize why it makes you uncomfortable. If you get into an argument with someone, as soon as possible examine yourself and see what button he's pushing, something from your young life that still sways your behavior. And the behavior is usually more developed because it's taken hold for years - the trick is to find the button and turn the memory around. However you can, turn it around. Making apologies for bad behavior is just about the best thing you can do to lessen the ego. Trying to go back and fix tendencies will pay off. But the trick is in being honest with ourselves. Welcome those times that you find yourself in an argument, because this will provide a big clue as to which dynamic needs tweaking. Developing humility is something that happens naturally when you're able to own your mistakes, see them for what they are, see why you did it, etc. Making amends. It hurts, dammit. But it works every time. Once you've gotten to the place of self-realization by removal of all the contortions inside, the light shines. Being in awareness of who you really are is its own reward. You know that all time and space is yours.