The real meaning of "all is within" is purely contextual?

[Non]

Why is it that for everything people talk about the answer is always "look within"?

 

I mean.. honestly, I think it's a START but why is it EVERYTHING?

 

If all that is without is also within, and all that is external is ALSO YOU then why the sole emphasis on the within? WHy isn't there a blending?

[Sloppy Zhang]

From the other thread:

 

Well perhaps it's not so good to get caught up with the semantics

 

If the outside is also within, then looking inside will tell you what's outside.

 

Conversely, looking outside can lead you to what is inside, since the inside is reflected on the outside.

 

So you can go:

 

Inside: I am inherently distrustful of people, where is this on the outside?

Outside: I don't have any friends

 

Or

 

Outside: I don't have any friends- why?

Inside: I am inherently distrustful of people

 

Of course, to do this you MUST be able to examine and appraise yourself AND your external environment honestly.

 

As for this:

 

 

 

That and what you are doing all depends or your framework or what you are trying to do. For me, it's healthier and more effective in the long run to work WITH things, rather than against them. Acceptance does not automatically lead to allowance.

 

So it's not that you sit there desperately wanting to fuck something, but then tucking it in because you have to try, or are still in the midst of trying, to transcend. It's more like you don't even think of it as a big deal, and you move on with your life.

[Aaron]

Why is it that for everything people talk about the answer is always "look within"?

 

I mean.. honestly, I think it's a START but why is it EVERYTHING?

 

If all that is without is also within, and all that is external is ALSO YOU then why the sole emphasis on the within? WHy isn't there a blending?

 

 

I don't believe all that is without is within. I encourage people to look within because it is (imo) an integral part of understanding one's self for who they really are. Lao Tzu said, "He who knows others is clever, He who knows himself is truly wise" or something like that. I really can't argue with him, but I will just clarify that there's nothing wrong with knowing others or knowing "stuff", just that true wisdom begins with knowing yourself.

 

Aaron

Edited May 6, 2011 by Twinner

[exorcist_1699]

Not all ways ask you to " look within", only some/most ways do.

 

" Look within " is a mediocre method, in fact, it is problematic because it leads you to some kind of attachment.

 

Maybe you should adopt a " look nowhere" method,it is more interesting , more challenging ...

Edited May 6, 2011 by exorcist_1699

[Marblehead]

Okay. I will admit that I use this phrase now and again.

 

I have been known to say, "Look inside and you will find the answers."

 

And this is true in a way.

 

The reason we are looking for something is because we have a question or a problem.

 

So, in my mind, we first look inside in order to clarify the question so that we might ask the proper question.

 

We also look inside when we feel we have a problem so that we can really determine if that whatever truely is a problem, and importantly, if we can do anything about the problem in order to make conditions better.

 

Then, after proper definition, we can begin to look for a resolution. Hopefully we can find a number of different ways to resolve these whatevers. Some of the answers may be found inside, that is, we need an attitude adjustment. But other answers might need be found outside because the cause may be outside.

 

Then we go back inside, make adjustments and see what happens, This might be reflected externally or internally so we may be looking both inside and outside. If the adjustments were effective we can move on. If not, back inside for new choices and actions.

 

So yes, it is a process of harmonizing the inside with the outside in many cases. Other times it is only an inner exercise.

 

And I do agree that knowing thyself is very important here because if we do know know what we are seeking after we will likely never find it.

Edited May 6, 2011 by Marblehead

[deci belle]

Why is it that for everything people talk about the answer is always "look within"?

 

I mean.. honestly, I think it's a START but why is it EVERYTHING?

 

If all that is without is also within, and all that is external is ALSO YOU then why the sole emphasis on the within? WHy isn't there a blending?

 

Hi Non! It is good advice for one who is habituated to looking outside. If you don't naturally look to externals, then developing a vocabulary to harmonize inside/outside is good advice. But habituation to milking projected psycho-emotional potential in situations sucks!

 

Being proficient in response techniques allows harmonious relationships with conditions while maintaining equipoise and independence: ie, you already operate with psychological autonomy. If that sounds calculated, it is only in terms of strategy— enlightening response is radiant spontaneity.

 

I'm pretty rough around the edges and often make things hard to swallow, but I mean no harm to others. Harmonizing the unequivocal isn't a matter of spoon-feeding. It's not just "all is within"— it's "The real meaning of "all is within" is purely contextual". I just talk about what's within.

 

The best reason for looking within is because that is where you are going to find it— that and autonomy. You won't find that outside.

 

Finding autonomy within enables you to authentically share yourself with everything outside by choice rather than psycho/emotional dependency.

 

If you don't develop the will to stand alone at all costs, then how can you transcend externals in order to audaciously transcend your conditioned identity? Being habituated to autonomy is the next hurdle in self-refinement— The matrix of ego is a glue that has hardened. That glue must become characteristically fluid. Self-refinement isn't a matter of destroying ego. It really is a process of re-introducing spiritual nonspychological subtle concentration in place of the once sticky-turned-hard psycho/emotional ego-bound glue.

 

"All is within" is a teaching of high order. If it has become a trite expression for you, it is not the fault of the ancients. The context is in terms of ultimate realization. People simply don't look deep enough. Even if you wanted it yourself, just wanting it isn't enough. You actually have to do it to find out what is meant by "all is within" for yourself.

 

The context is inconceivable. Even considering your body: when it does what it does, it offers no reasons. Medical sciences have developed around the miracle of the body. Wisdom teachings have developed sciences around the miracle of awareness. People habituated to spoon-feeding have to have reasons that satisfy shallow value judgements and, sorry to say, inconceivability has no reasons~ only mysteries.❤

 

Only after seeing within thoroughly and completely, one gains a real grasp of objectivity, because only within yourself is the source of your own being, which is impersonal— sameness without borders, which is harmonized within difference by enlightening beings. It is impossible to find anything of real power outside yourself. Taoism calls this taking over creation. Maybe some day you will come to terms with that.

 

Only after a realization of impersonal perspective is it then possible to accomplish the blending of which you speak. This blending is actually a sort of "wizardry" which has nothing at all to do with conventional notions of "compassion" or being "nice" and "safe". This is because the blending you speak of is done secretly in everyday ordinary affairs unbeknownst to anyone— it's not that you make a show of self-satisfying social emotionalism to coddle others. Real compassion is ruthless.

Edited May 11, 2011 by deci belle

[Seth Ananda]

Within is where you will find your answers.

 

If for Instance you are harboring serious hurt and rejection feelings, from how you perceive the wonderful Females of our species, and then because you see them that way, in your Interactions with them, you then come across as a misogynistic needy jerk, then of course 'Look within' is your only option.

So get in there, deal with your fears of not being Manly or Alpha enough, deal with your underlying dislike of women, [yes you despise them for liking the 'bad' guy] and then get on with having your life and the meaningful relationships that it brings.

 

Really Non, looking out will only show you your own BS perceptions, as those are the glasses you view the world [and females] through.

 

If you don't go within, you go without. [without Women in your case]

 

Sorry If I come off as harsh, but Shaktimamma was right in the other thread. You come across [to me at least] as a woman hating AssHole. This does not mean you actually are an A'hole, but just how you sound. You seriously need to clear your shit around Women.

All your posts go like this:

 

Women - projection - projection - projection, I am a victum, waaaa!

 

All the reply's go: thats just your shit, see it for what it is, deal with it and you'll get clear in your relating...

 

To which you reply: 'No it really is the way I see it, women really are - projection - projection - projection, so your brilliant advice would not work or change anything, at least in me, Waaaa!'

 

I hope you can get free.

Seth.

[deci belle]

[Non]

well I guess one of the main reasons I made this thread is that people tend to use the whole "look within" stuff in blaming another for something that is not even their fault.

 

I can obviously look within sure, but why overemphasize it. I get what you're saying, look within because habitually people have had the tendency to look without. And besides that looking withni is very important. But it shouldn't be overemphasized right?

[exorcist_1699]

Actually this is the dope deal!!!❤❤ hahaa!! Look nowhere, see nowhere. Highly recommended! If you are serious in a cheeky way, exorcist~ it's a matter of seeing through phenomena without negating it. I hope yours was a sincere statement— if so, that's brilliant.

 

"Nourish a Buddha Heart by paying attention to nowhere" (from "The Diamond Sutra").

Similar Taoist saying: " Using an empty mind to nourish something out of the void" ( "以虛練虛" ) . Both talk about the same thing.

 

You can find thousands records of such similar sayings in Taoist classics/ Buddhist Sutra.

 

So, it is something serious. People , more precisely some Westerners, think that I am making fun of them , which is definitely not. It is their ignorance of such a legacy , a way and those related writings, not my talking about something big but void of meanings.

 

Nor am I making some kind of philosophical gossips as some broad-minded people look at me with their sympathetic eyes. No, I am , in reality, talking about a concrete way of entering another dimension of our existence( not using the term "Spirit/Mind" is because such a dimension also generates big physical changes in us ).

Edited May 12, 2011 by exorcist_1699

[Smile]

Why is it that for everything people talk about the answer is always "look within"?

 

I mean.. honestly, I think it's a START but why is it EVERYTHING?

 

If all that is without is also within, and all that is external is ALSO YOU then why the sole emphasis on the within? WHy isn't there a blending?

 

You are a filter made out of your experiences, "past" and present. How can you perceive outside as Truth if all your perceptions are shaped by this filter of experiential energies? So by resting your attention within you slowly release the energies of this "filter" until it's no longer there. Then, if you look outside of yourself, you see the world as it is, not as a projection of your mind.

[deci belle]

[Otis]

I think that both look within and look nowhere are great complementary strategies. Look within is a yang practice, look nowhere a yin one.

 

What is probably not useful is look outside, because it is an illusion. There is no "outside", not that the "I" can directly experience, anyway. The "I" is only tuned into the simulacrum of the exterior world that my habits have created inside my head. The "outside world" is a falsehood, because I only experience my brain/habit's reconstruction of what my senses take in.

 

"Look within" as a practice studies my habits, so I can tell how and why I create the simulacrum. It exposes the ways that I have been creating, imagining, forcing, and believing thus far, so I can leave those habits behind, and embrace freedom. If I don't see it, I can't surrender it. As has been stated excellently above: I don't blame the external world; I merely learn from its effect on my system.

 

"Look nowhere" as a practice steps into the new realm of living, that of surviving without the training wheels of habit. Look nowhere plugs the ego's attention function into "the void" (a phenomenon which can be experienced, but not easily explained), which seems to be where the attention is really supposed to go. When the ego "plugs in", then it also folds up and gets out of the way. At that point, the ego is no longer driving the organism. The organism is living its own (full, free) life, without the petty interference of the ego.

 

Because the organism has been under the sway of the ego/habits for so long, it doesn't know how to live a life yet. It is like a man-child, whose growth has been retarded by the overly-zealous ego acting as puppeteer and micro-manager. So the organism experiences both freedom and clumsiness, when I look nowhere. That is why look within continues to be such a potent complementary practice; because it helps transition the organism from ego to full self, from habit to wu wei.

[ShaktiMama]

Within is where you will find your answers.

 

If for Instance you are harboring serious hurt and rejection feelings, from how you perceive the wonderful Females of our species, and then because you see them that way, in your Interactions with them, you then come across as a misogynistic needy jerk, then of course 'Look within' is your only option.

So get in there, deal with your fears of not being Manly or Alpha enough, deal with your underlying dislike of women, [yes you despise them for liking the 'bad' guy] and then get on with having your life and the meaningful relationships that it brings.

 

Really Non, looking out will only show you your own BS perceptions, as those are the glasses you view the world [and females] through.

 

If you don't go within, you go without. [without Women in your case]

 

Sorry If I come off as harsh, but Shaktimamma was right in the other thread. You come across [to me at least] as a woman hating AssHole. This does not mean you actually are an A'hole, but just how you sound. You seriously need to clear your shit around Women.

All your posts go like this:

 

Women - projection - projection - projection, I am a victum, waaaa!

 

All the reply's go: thats just your shit, see it for what it is, deal with it and you'll get clear in your relating...

 

To which you reply: 'No it really is the way I see it, women really are - projection - projection - projection, so your brilliant advice would not work or change anything, at least in me, Waaaa!'

 

I hope you can get free.

Seth.

 

 

Thx but I want to say I was initially responding to BOL, or starhawk or one of the other guys but Non jumped in and made the thread more about himself and his problems. I think that Blasto or someone made a comment that these guys are like brothers of another mother. Or maybe I just wished he had.

 

but, you are right, I can erase one name and substitute another...same old shyte, different day, different person. Totally unappetizing dating material let alone being a lover material.

 

I would have to say advice is not always one size fits all but lately I am wondering.

 

I hated my 20s. I was an a$$hole and a bitch of the first order. Why? Cause I hated myself inside but I didnt know it. I thought men were jerks who just wanted to get laid and be gross.

 

In my 30s I started to see a glimmer of hope of getting my act together. Shakti was a big help in helping me see within and heal the hurt and darkness that was there. Qigong will do the same too if one focuses on healing the heart, the spleen, the lungs, the kidneys, and liver. Once the healing begins there, everything else starts to heal up in the outside life. My projections get healed.

 

Now I only believe that to be an misogynistic a$$hole you have to be at least in your 20s. Ok..just a joke.

 

yesterday I left to go to a meeting in down town Denver. Spring is fully awake and that energy has a positive effect on my attitude and my libido. yum...

 

I love living in Denver. People are happy and healthy. Driving past washington park all the lacrosse and volley ball games were in full swing. Everyone was out jogging, or cycling or skateboarding... The lilac trees were in full bloom. The air was fragrant with scent of spring and life.

 

Ecstasy swelled through my body into my heart as I zig zagged thru rush hour traffic to get to downtown. My heart was literally singing with happiness.

 

I found a parking place at the hotel. went in inside to find the event was tomorrow night. I looked at the desk guy in this luxurious hotel. i said to him with a big smile..."well, it is obvious I don't make any mistakes so everyone else must be off by one day." He started laughing so hard and said "you have a great evening." I laughed and said "you too!" with a lot of love

 

So i went sailing out into the evening laughing and smiling to myself, with the radio on high, I think "Bad to the bone" was playing when I rolled out of the parking garage. Went to some gardening centers and bought even more plants. Made even more people laugh and smile. That's the kind of shaktipat i really like giving.

 

I came home and it started to rain. It was beautiful as I grilled my steak teryaki bobs. LIFE IS GOOD!

I am so grateful to be alive.

 

This does not come about by positive affirmations, psychology, or NLP or whatever. they are nice incidental tools but the real power comes from having transformed your (my) inner landscape, my inner eyes in my heart with my kundalini shakti practice and qigong.

 

If you are doing your practice your problems shall be resolved in time. Mine are. I got newer ones to work on now.

 

much love,

s

 

 

 

How about that it really works...having an internal cultivation practice.

 

 

Embrace your Shadow Side and become whole and leave the A$$hole behind.

 

[Jetsun]

well I guess one of the main reasons I made this thread is that people tend to use the whole "look within" stuff in blaming another for something that is not even their fault.

 

I can obviously look within sure, but why overemphasize it. I get what you're saying, look within because habitually people have had the tendency to look without. And besides that looking withni is very important. But it shouldn't be overemphasized right?

 

Well it's not the answer to everything, if someone is threatening you or your family then looking within for answers won't help, if you are hungry and your politicians are ruining the place you live then looking within won't help most people. So yes it's contextual, but the key I think is to work out what you can have power over and what you don't because the only option when you are powerless over something is to make peace with it by looking within and letting go.

[C T]

well I guess one of the main reasons I made this thread is that people tend to use the whole "look within" stuff in blaming another for something that is not even their fault.

 

I can obviously look within sure, but why overemphasize it. I get what you're saying, look within because habitually people have had the tendency to look without. And besides that looking withni is very important. But it shouldn't be overemphasized right?

Yes, its unwise to over-emphasize, in general. This has a tendency to sow immeasurable seeds of fixation, giving rise to unforeseen, complex, often imaginary agitations which fuel further unease in a person.

 

An interesting attitude to habituate is to go about daily life with as much mindfulness as possible while simultaneously retaining/resting the mind in the vast expanse of space-like non-conceptual view. The essence of mind is space. What arises from space naturally returns to space. Fixative and aversive tendencies are traits that set off causal and reactive intertwining chains, and precisely these are the stagnating 'hooks' which creates karmic consequences. Once caught, life churns up an unfortunate series of reactive, often compensatory scenarios, so that the one caught cannot do anything else but spend every microgram of available energy and time to try and make sense of things, which only lead to more problematic (but avoidable) scenarios. No wonder chronic tiredness is such a common dis-ease nowadays.

 

Training in mindful awareness, a painstaking process to say the least, helps one to remove these hooks one by one. This unravelling process, however, takes time and unrelenting honest self-appraisals, plenty of it, which could be very unnerving - yet, as the hooks disengage, imaginary wounds heal, like beautiful magic. As this begin to manifest, the associated sense of being is one of fulfillment, lightness, humor, spaciousness, gratitude, humility, enjoyment of stillness even as the peripheral world clamor for activity and distractiveness, and.... last but not least, one uncovers, in the interim, what is meant by a gradual return to sanity.

 

The comfort i derive from following a specific path of mindfulness is the enjoyment i get from learning that i need not expend energy on the anxieties of life, but this very same energy can be channelled, in a grateful sort of way, to the simple things that make life worthwhile, and all it takes is a bit of direct attentiveness to what is at hand. The more attentive one is, the more omniscient one becomes. Life is short - tis good to indulge in a long, hard look, once in a while, to see where one's priorities lie.

 

Someone once said, "There are 200 million poor, starving souls in the world who would gladly take the vow of poverty if only they could eat one square meal a day, go to sleep without parched throats, have a home like myself and many others who loudly profess the vows of godliness". This is not being over-emphatic.

Edited May 11, 2011 by CowTao

[Marblehead]

well I guess one of the main reasons I made this thread is that people tend to use the whole "look within" stuff in blaming another for something that is not even their fault.

 

I can obviously look within sure, but why overemphasize it. I get what you're saying, look within because habitually people have had the tendency to look without. And besides that looking withni is very important. But it shouldn't be overemphasized right?

 

I think you have the right idea.

 

Much that happens to us is from the outside. If there is a problem it should be a given that we must look outside in order to see the source of the problem.

 

But nearly all of our emotions have their source within. We can't look to our mother or whoever and try to find out why a particular emotion is experienced what might be considered too often.

 

Nearly all those personality things that make us 'us' are rooted within. We need to look there in order to understand ourself.

[stan herman]

I think you have the right idea.

 

Much that happens to us is from the outside. If there is a problem it should be a given that we must look outside in order to see the source of the problem.

 

But nearly all of our emotions have their source within. We can't look to our mother or whoever and try to find out why a particular emotion is experienced what might be considered too often.

 

Nearly all those personality things that make us 'us' are rooted within. We need to look there in order to understand ourself.

 

Seems to me "looking within" needs further clarification to be useful. If one takes looking within to mean psycho-analyzing ones self, i.e. head-tripping back to infancy to find the causes for one's reactions and feelings, that is seldom useful and sometimes counter productive. If, otoh one practices 'noticing'-- observing the sequences of ones patterns of both physical and emotional reactions in given situations (e.g. when my friend says so-and-so I get tensed up in my shoulders, and then I get angry) without trying to analyze motives or placing blame, one is more likely to eventually change unwanted behaviors.

 

Re inside vs outside, Just about every interpersonal problem I can think of has 3 basic elements: I, the other(s) and the situation. It is useful to consider each of these in determining how best to deal with the problem.

[Marblehead]

Hi Stan,

 

Important thoughts, I think. I agree with all you said except I place higher value on the below quoted concept than you apparently do. Hehehe.

 

If one takes looking within to mean psycho-analyzing ones self, i.e. head-tripping back to infancy to find the causes for one's reactions and feelings, that is seldom useful and sometimes counter productive.

 

But yes, we can create illusions and delusions during this process and therefore I would agree that it would be counter-productive.

 

I do think that it is important that we understand why we have the emotions we have under varying conditions.

[ShaktiMama]

Why is it that for everything people talk about the answer is always "look within"?

 

I mean.. honestly, I think it's a START but why is it EVERYTHING?

 

If all that is without is also within, and all that is external is ALSO YOU then why the sole emphasis on the within? WHy isn't there a blending?

 

You can call what I shared with you as Looking Within. Or you can call it what I did...your external reality is the projection of your fears and hope or your internal landscape.

 

So while you describe to us your external world, your viewpoints, you are sharing with us a very accurate description of your internal, within beliefs. So don't look within. Look at how people treat you and respond to you. People will only treat you with the expectations you have of them.

 

In fact you say this ALL the time if I am not mistaken.

 

If you want to feel better about yourself, change those beliefs you have about others and yourself.

 

Yes...that is looking within. Change your internal landscape and your external landscape will change.

 

You think that people believe Everything is look within for the answer. That's what you believe. That doesn't make it so. What one believes and what is so is often not even close.

 

did you do your Qigong practice today? That will change your internal landscape and heal your outer world projections quickly much quicker than mental inquiry.

 

s

Edited May 11, 2011 by ShaktiMama

[stan herman]

Hi Stan,

 

Important thoughts, I think. I agree with all you said except I place higher value on the below quoted concept than you apparently do. Hehehe.

 

 

But yes, we can create illusions and delusions during this process and therefore I would agree that it would be counter-productive.

 

I do think that it is important that we understand why we have the emotions we have under varying conditions.

 

Hello Marblehead, yes I understand your assessment of higher value on past history and understanding of how that influences one's present behavior. For me though, the question "Why?" (when applied to psychological matters) has become less meaningful, even distracting. Seems to me there are always multiple reasons "why", from among which one can choose, and all are always subject to the rememberer's interpretation. But then, my view stated here is also subject to such interpretation

[JohnC]

Why is it that for everything people talk about the answer is always "look within"?

 

I mean.. honestly, I think it's a START but why is it EVERYTHING?

 

If all that is without is also within, and all that is external is ALSO YOU then why the sole emphasis on the within? WHy isn't there a blending?

 

Because you experience everything inside.

 

John

[Marblehead]

Hello Marblehead, yes I understand your assessment of higher value on past history and understanding of how that influences one's present behavior. For me though, the question "Why?" (when applied to psychological matters) has become less meaningful, even distracting. Seems to me there are always multiple reasons "why", from among which one can choose, and all are always subject to the rememberer's interpretation. But then, my view stated here is also subject to such interpretation

 

Have you read much of B F Skinner's work?

 

I like Carl Jung (what little I remember of him). Let's go really, really deep and way, way back in time.

[Marblehead]

Because you experience everything inside.

 

John

 

Talk about going directly to the bottom line!

 

Hehehe.

[Birch]