A practice that opens you up, kind of obliterates your sense of self

[thelerner]

The above quote came from a member.  It reminds me about the problems that arise with sensitivity.  Increased awareness can have the side affect of making us much more emotionally vulnerable.  Even to the point of being swayed and highly affected by the emotions of the crowd we're with.

 

Beyond that, its been said enlightenment is the obliteration (at some level) of self.. depending on ones definition.  That the threshold crossed for enlightenment is dropping ego and/or thoughts, in any case to cross the line you must first drop much of what you consider to be you, at least the you in your head.  At some level enlightenment is death of self or at least the you, you are now.

 

Lastly to open up, has dimensional meaning.  Being sensitive means seeing things others don't.  On my side of the fence its easy to postulate others third eye, visions, entities.. gods.. are self made creations.  But straddling the fence and crossing means accepting whole new realities with a different set of rules.  Ones that can alienate you from friends, family, civilization..

 

Interesting subject to chew on.

Edited August 26, 2016 by thelerner

[RiverSnake]

Emptiness can be quite scary at first.....but it grows on you after awhile.  

[Aetherous]

In how I've learned, enlightenment requires the loss of two things: 1) bad emotions, 2) notions (such as of self and other).

 

Another way of thinking about that statement is: if we're feeling bad, and if we're operating from a point of view that causes us to feel bad, we're not going to feel blissful and liberated.

 

If there is a kind of loss of self that increases negative emotions, such as with dissociative identity disorder, that would not be the right way to cultivate enlightenment, in this definition. The entire point of losing the notion of oneself is so that the negative emotions have nothing to be tied to, and therefore fall away...with increasing negative emotions, we'd be moving further from enlightenment...even without an ego or clear notion of ourselves.

 

I would say, even "opening up", while having negative side effects from it, is not the right way. Opening up should be about freedom from being closed up...not about becoming overwhelmed by a greater reality.

Anyway...it is good to think about there being two types of cultivation. One in which we tear things down, and one in which we build things up. Or another dichotomy: one in which we're led to experience wild things, and one in which we cultivate what we think is right. Passive versus active cultivation. Negative or yin, versus positive or yang.

Edited August 27, 2016 by Aetherous

[Spotless]

One does not drop the ego as in a "doing" - it falls away when it does - it is not a process of "thinking positive".

 

Negative emotions and positive emotions are for the most part the same prior to Awakening/ Enlightening.

 

However Negative emotions make deeper furrows inside of us and we mind loop in them constantly - but much of the positive is confort food to our unconsciousness - our sleep walking daytime state. It is not so much positive and negative but rather correct thinking that should be fostered. This is a difficult concept - not at all simple - because it implicates a sense of right and wrong but that is not the point.

 

It has nothing to do with right and wrong - it has to do with actual thinking when thinking is actually necessary - which is actually quite rare. It is thinking in the present and not creating and living a thousand worrisome futures in a day or fussing over where we think we should be or how others should be acting.

 

We spend endless self hours and years constantly maintaining our fears and positions, likes and dislikes - this is what the "ego" consists of - it is the noise that envelopes us and consumes us. Our story, our past and what we will do when we have set things right. It is a frequency we have set by our resistance and it carries us on into death - this is Karma - it is not our doing of goodness or badness - it is resistance and our resistance brings us our Karma in a frequency matching that resistance.

 

There is nothing to fear in the loss of self identity - for those that miss the experience their Awakening will not last but only be an Awakening experience - which is an experience you will not forget and quite a treasure. But for those that experience it more fully and for whom the falling away is a revealer of Presence - a Presence - conscious spirit - Awakeness in stillness (without inertia), it is the continuation of something that has always been but it has been obscured in a noise that is now oddly foreign - an entire stratosphere of illusion noise in self identity - so now clearly seen as no more befitting the current life than a past life of a thousand years ago.

 

Yet nothing is lost - what fell away did not exist - and no friends have died as a result - your house has not changed - your children are still safe and by your side. A great deal remains the same - though everything has changed. And for most it will take several years to adjust - but during all of the adjustment - their is a general OKness throughout ones day and month and years.

 

As the adjustment to a sort of light free-floating comes into its own gratitude and beauty simply surround you.

[C T]

The damn problem is most people keep on harping about the wonders of the calibrator 

[roger]

The key is in ALLOWING oneself to heal, to let go, to be at peace, to love, forgive, succeed, etc.

 

Spiritual experience, in whatever form is appropriate given the circumstances, will happen automatically and naturally if it is simply allowed.

[Spotless]

"Allowing" is in a sense a doing - a perception that "we can and will step aside by choice" - this is part of the noise as well, perhaps the trickiest part. And that we "need" to be healed - we are spotless and without so much as a scratch - when the noise stops all healing takes place because it was truely always an illusion - even what anyone would consider the most aggregious torture.

 

Their is no "problem" - it cannot be summed up in a nutshell - and we are not particularly smitten by the "calibrator" so much as lost in our fabrications and fortifications - lost in the various inertias of our noise and the noises we defend. Positions - blinding positions.

 

When the noise stops and we enter positionlessness we will still have some of the inclinations to certain noises - with settling this will continue to pass though how much stays varies but it is a patina of the former inertias and noise - it is striking and there is no doubt (except when there is) We are in a different un framed Presence - naked Spirit.

 

This unfolds in an ever enlightening brightness. It is unimaginable the depth - it does not stop. You are laid flat by it - stripped again and again - completely held perfectly - gratitude pours from everywhere. Each stone is seen to be perfectly made for you - nothing was wasted - their was no angst - the illusion was as complete as a Chinese finger puzzle- no more.

Edited August 27, 2016 by Spotless

[Aetherous]

The damn problem is most people keep on harping about the wonders of the calibrator 

 

This went over my head...calibrator is a metaphor for something?

[C T]

This went over my head...calibrator is a metaphor for something?

yes yes

 

we think we are calibrators.... fine-tuning our way to enlightenment. 

[thelerner]

hmmn, we think we are calibrators,

when what we should be is mufflers. catalytic converters.

 

using the platinum in our souls

to make our emissions cleaner.

 

 

reconsidered

Edited August 29, 2016 by thelerner

[C T]

hmmn, we think we are calibrators,

when what we should be is mufflers. 

Perhaps so. 

 

Perhaps also relevant is to consider that we are indeed being calibrated by and through our practice. 

Yet most tend to heavily focus on calibrating the practice. 

 

There is a difference. 

[liminal_luke]

hmmn, we think we are calibrators,

when what we should be is mufflers. 

 

May I suggest ... spark plug.

[liminal_luke]

A few stories/metaphors about awareness that I´ve heard over the years.

 

Chi Nei Tsang teacher Gilles Marin talks about "the price of awareness," that point in the process of healing when we feel worse rather than better because we´re no longer numb: we can actually feel how crappy things really are.  Feeling crappy kind of sucks, obviously, but you can´t get rid of crap you can´t smell.  Or so they say.

 

Another old Healing Tao/acupuncturist teacher of mine, Bernie Bayard, made a similar point about clean eating.  If you´ve had a daily Twinkie for the last few months, eating one more probably won´t make you feel much different. But eat well for a month or two and then try to eat that Twinkie -- big-time stomach ache.  He likens digestion to a lake.  Throw dirt in an already dirty lake and nothing happens.  Throw dirt in a crystal clear lake and you´ll see the difference.

Edited August 28, 2016 by liminal_luke