manitou

It's also a function of rotation!

The satisfaction is found in the knowing of who you truly are, and the more continuously you can stay in that consciousness, the more satisfaction everything will bring to you. It is life loving life, that's all.

I don't think it means this. Any more than we can recall the past with 100% accuracy. If you're speaking of predicting the future, there is no future. It is now. We're watching it unfold now. This is what enlightenment offers. You become infused with a greater essence; it seems that it is infused from elsewhere, but it isn't. It's infused from the god-mind inside you. We become the god-mind, there is the enlightenment. There is no need to refer to websites any longer, your information is directly from the source. The god-mind only needs to be open to the answers to receive them. It does appear that time, our lives, are stretched out like a Slinky. In reality, time and space are the very same thing, and time and space is how our god-mind expresses itself. It's not really stretched out. Both metaphysical reading (metaphysics = the true dynamics that are shared by all viable religions) and having a light understanding of quantum physics, together, will explain the disparity between what appears to be true (slinky time and distant space), and the real Original Intent., The metaphysics are not found within a religious structure.) We ARE time and space.

There's another way to look at it too. Non-action toward oncoming dynamics is the operative method, but also looking at it through the lens of time is helpful to me. Science has discovered that time is not really linear. It's really all here and now, only our limited brain band width is set up to experience everything sequentially, day after day. If time is not really linear, this means that everything has already happened, but we are experiencing it in sequence. For some reason, knowing that it's already happened, whatever it is, is pretty comforting. It seems to replace anxiety about things in the future. An inevitability of sorts. Does anyone here ever wonder if 'god' and DNA are the very same thing?

As I see it, enlightenment only occurs after ego has been tamed. All inner blockages and twists must be straightened out before clarity is found. Ego stands in the way of clarity. We'll always have it, but to tame it is the mission of a lifetime. For those of us who have been on the path for a very long time, I think the human mind is capable of (and destined to) become the god-mind. The Intelligence dwells within our DNA and the DNA of all beings, human, vegetable, whatever. We are born into this world into a path of conditioning. It is only from removing the conditioning that the True can be found. You will know it when you get there, there is nowhere else to go. When I would ask myself, 'Why aren't I enlightened?', ego was asking the question. At some point in my life, not to awfully long ago, the question was no longer there. We kind of ease into it slowly. And then, one day.... It's like when the Palestinian said 'Seek and ye shall find'. I do believe he knew what he was talking about. All I know, in my case, is that I had a potent Christian experience when I was about 12, and the love of 'whatever' has been in my heart since. That experience was the catalyst for the seeking through many different ways of getting to the light. It finally, finally happened. But it didn't happen through the brain alone. The brain will only get you halfway there, the readings, the masters, the rinpoches. I was fortunate enough to have been an alcoholic in my younger years, and the 12 steps of recovery were my ego-smashers. In Freemasonry, ascension through the 31 degrees to hopefully achieve the 32nd is the way it's done. Hiram Abiff awaits you at the 32nd, and your ego is now a matter of choice for you. Transcend or engage, it's up to you.

What an incredible ride this has been. I'm getting up there in years, 77 next month. I've participated in this discussion group for 16 years, since 2008. I've observed a few things, in my time with this wonderful community. Regardless of which side of the planet we're born on, and what our 'local' religion tells us to believe, all of mankind seems to be given a thing inside of them that wants to move upward. Some humans rebel against it because that's their nature and their conditioning. But the demi urge is there, whether Christian, Daoist, Buddhist, all of us. I know, from this, that we are all the same entity. I know this because sadness in me creates a physical response; it makes my eyes cry. Sadness in you creates a physical response. It makes your eyes cry. The warm presence I feel inside, the warm void that is always there (and always okay!) is the same warm void that you feel inside of you. The more we are able to calm the mind, the less of a mess our lives are. Structures are a fabulous pathway, religious structures. It gets us so far. But only so far. The distance between the monk's fingertip and the moon, we're all on our own. It is experiential and can't be transmitted with words. (It actually can be transmitted with words, but it takes the experiential aspect to realize that it's not actually as crazy as it originally sounded) I believe the mistake many make is to believe that their structure is the best and the truest, and decide to become an expert in the ways of the structure, perhaps even make a living at being a structure expert. For a time, this is great for everybody (unless the master has lost his 'beginner's mind' and he's really enjoying the role of master). However, any given student is not able to get further than the master's capability until the student leaves the master and realizes that there is a huge process of self-realization ahead of him. The noble truth sought by the student is not found outside of himself, or within the structure of any religion, or even the words of his master. It's hidden in the last place we would ever think to look. Inside ourselves. If the student can find it there, he has surpassed the master. The only process that seems to cut through to the clarity is self-examination, as in 'the unexamined life is not worth living' (someone famous said it, I think) To see ourselves totally non - judgmentally, but with the eyes of one who is looking for dynamics. Early dynamics at their beginning, in childhood, which creates a particular reaction today. These things get in the way of clarity. So if clarity is sought after, the hatreds, grudges, and all the other reactions that get in the way have to be removed. There are ways.

It seems to me that the mind the rinpoche is describing is the meditative mind free of mental dialogue. This is why meditation is such a crucial component of enlightened thought

Nice thread. I think the most accurate detector of our own clarity is by monitoring our own reactions to things. If we are quick to anger, always having to push anger down, if we are judgmental of anyone or any group of people, the list goes on and on.....the more reactions we have to our surroundings (reactions which are based on our young conditionings) the less clarity we have. The purity and evenness spoken of above is the state in which all things are received without judgment (optimally!) and dealt with, again without the interference of our own prejudices and wrong or cynical thinking.

Wonderful paragraph. As I see it, this is the very foundation of the approach to an enlightened state. It's not talked about nearly enough. Folks love to go onto different pathways, as it says in the DDJ, but the middle way is the one that goes down through the karmic traces, through the conditioning, through everything that gives us a separate personality. We go down inside ourselves, out of necessity to remove inner blemishes that will contort the lens of our own observations. Enlightenment is the state where the inner contortions are gone and all is clarified. It's not a far-reaching knowledge that has been learned from masters and books and the experience of the great ones. It's the inner awareness that we develop; cultivating an uncomplicated awareness is the absolute predecessor. Why am I like this? Why does this make me so mad? How come I always go for the same men? Why am I so lacking of confidence? There are a million questions we ask of ourselves to get down to the real reasons for our behavior today. It's to try and remove every piece of conditioning within yourself that causes you to make judgments, and why the need for making judgments at all. So many facets to look at. And life does it for us. As Castaneda called it, it was 'tracking yourself', which was to walk in impeccability, in awareness, always keeping the Great Warrior with you. From this point on, we can start tracking our behavior, correcting it as we go along. Just partner up with life...

Time isn't linear. It's already happened

Following the inner voice of conscience. This is something that doesn't get talked about enough here, and yet it is the most important component, IMO, of attaining enlightenment. It isn't attained with the mind, it's attained by removal of traits and reflexes that get in the way of clarity. Beautifully said by the Rajini

Congratulations on the new job! Best wishes to you!

It's hard to be a genuine person unless you're in the wu-wei mindset. In that mindset, you are a part of everyone else. And as we are all part of the same Whole, you know the other person to your core, because you have the same configuration in your core. I know that you are the same as me inside, because when you are emotionally sad, physical tears come out of your eyes. The same thing happens to me. Therefore, our systems must be the same template, only with different conditionings. In doing 'not-doing' in all situations, you are going with the flow of life. You let the dynamics come to you, and the higher self inside of you will know how to handle everything that comes down the pike. And "Don't be so humble, you're not that great" will now be part of my arsenal.

It seems to me that the concept of faith includes expectations. Faith that someone is going to do something? I think the whole point of the DDJ is to live without expectation, accepting what is. The whole concept of faith seems to have left me - that was something I used to span the gap between what I was being instructed, and what my adult brain told me was true.

Blind faith is what I was taught in Sunday School. To believe something that makes no sense whatsoever when the adult brain looks at it. Faith (or hoping that something external is coming to save us?) is replaced with Knowing at some point. When you realize who the navigator actually is, there is no need for faith, blind or otherwise.

Nicely put! A leap of faith into the unknown, and by ourselves. That's the distance between the tip of the master's finger and the moon.

When BaguaKicksAss first posted this picture, I thought it was a picture of her. I asked her about it, she wasn't thrilled.

I don't think any religious structure is a complete system for enlightenment. As I see it, the most important component of enlightenment is abandoning the triggers which cause us to react, first. Things can't be seen in their reality if they are colored by emotion or anxiety. Abandoning our triggers is done by clearing out the blockages within, rectifying memories that affect our life today. That's the inner work of enlightenment. If one had a good Buddhist rinpoche that was self-aware and knew himself inside out, that would be a very helpful addition to the Buddhist teachings. Enlightenment is nothing more than realizing who you really are. It's a realization, a self-realization.

Did you know what I was talking about?

Eliminate desire. Figure out why they're there. Look at the source and understand it. It will resolve itself once you become aware, and the emotion will lessen more and more over time. If someone has a problem with too much emotion, they're giving their power away. Be like water. Let all things flow through you, have no expectations on people, don't differentiate between good and bad behavior in another.

And this would be your luminous blob!! Apech, what you've said here is so profound, and I know that people just gloss right over it. I guess it isn't until the time is absolutely right, when one realizes self-realization, that the truth is found. Enlightenment is a funny thing. You know you're there when there's absolutely no place else to go....

Or it could be said that the deathless isn't attained until the religion is dead.

I'll bet, BES, that you'll discard human teachers at some point, probably very soon. When you become aligned with who you really are, the communication between yourself and the creatrix becomes direct, and all is seen from that basis. Human personality no longer figures into it, in fact too much human personality hampers the self-realization. The further down the path of clarifying the self and purging useless prior conditionings, the more clarity we have access to, and to ask another for clarification is only to get clarification from his conditioned perspective (unless he's self-realized)

Speaking for the necessity of an 'outside' person (oral tradition of a master, etc) I think a person could use the metaphor of an AA sponsor. When someone enters the program, they get a sponsor, who is someone who will help you go through the steps of recovery. The trick to staying sober (and also, apparently, to achieve clarity of mind) is through self-examination, self-revelation, self-discovery. Because the new 'sponsoree' is not thinking right when they get to the program, they will fool themselves into thinking they don't need to cover a particular area of behavior because they don't see it. It takes a sponsor (hopefully, one who knows themself very well) to sometimes point out the areas that the recovering person is missing. Ego does this to all of us, none of us want to believe that we're flawed. It's through discovering these flaws and taking the steps to correct them (sometimes by apology, etc) that the ego of the person is broken down, and it is only at this point that headway can be made. Cynicism is left behind, judgments, sarcasm, any trait that gets in our way of getting down to the pure essence. From what I have seen over the years, is that self-realization happens in the same way. The Master, it could be said, is the sponsor. It is possible to get to the point where emotional reaction to much of anything becomes a thing of the past. The acceptance one develops after ridding one's self of the shadows of prior conditioning happens quite naturally. Slowly, but naturally.

Warp