[questions] Labeling thoughts and...thoughts on the path to enlightment...

[shortstuff]

Firstly, I asked my teacher about the Path. This: https://alohadharma.com/the-map/

I asked about this because I can relate to several stages of this at once. Not normal right? He said that link is incorrect and not to listen to it. Hmm

 

So I recently read "A New Earth" by eckhart tolle... I had not planned to read it, well I had but not yet, I bought it ages ago, read half of Power of Now, thought it was a bit tripe, and packed it away.

Somehow today ANE was lying around, I started reading it out of boredom and ended up 80 pages in (parenting advice - I am not a parent).

I will complete it later.

But what it did is properly explain the EGO. I thought I had a good idea of what the ego was but I was incorrect. I did not realise the ego can cause you to do negative things, to hurt yourself, so you can play a victim role.

I naturally started labelling all of my thoughts, feelings and emotions and I have already influenced my life today in a good way. This kind of came naturally to me - but I just googled what I did and it is common - I don't know why I did it but I will keep doing it!

So there is that. Anyone else label or note their thoughts, feelings and emotions? Does it help, long term?

 

Now on to "enlightment" and my question....

 

Surely the path to enlightenment is the ego manifesting itself again? "Oooh look at me I am enlightnened... I'm better than you" kinda thing? So why would anyone want to be enlightened, if they are trying to put the ego in the background?

Further more you are supposed to be the observer and observe the ego etc... but who observes the observer?

Yeah I know it gets really confusing doesn't it?

Do "enlightened" people walk around noting their emotions automatically? Or do they not have emotions? When enlightened people say all their anxiety left them when they reached enlightenment, what does this mean exactly?

 

Thank you

[doc benway]

9 minutes ago, shortstuff said:

Firstly, I asked my teacher about the Path. This: https://alohadharma.com/the-map/

I asked about this because I can relate to several stages of this at once. Not normal right? He said that link is incorrect and not to listen to it. Hmm

 

So I recently read "A New Earth" by eckhart tolle... I had not planned to read it, well I had but not yet, I bought it ages ago, read half of Power of Now, thought it was a bit tripe, and packed it away.

Somehow today ANE was lying around, I started reading it out of boredom and ended up 80 pages in (parenting advice - I am not a parent).

I will complete it later.

But what it did is properly explain the EGO. I thought I had a good idea of what the ego was but I was incorrect. I did not realise the ego can cause you to do negative things, to hurt yourself, so you can play a victim role.

I naturally started labelling all of my thoughts, feelings and emotions and I have already influenced my life today in a good way. This kind of came naturally to me - but I just googled what I did and it is common - I don't know why I did it but I will keep doing it!

So there is that. Anyone else label or note their thoughts, feelings and emotions? Does it help, long term?

 

Now on to "enlightment" and my question....

 

Surely the path to enlightenment is the ego manifesting itself again? "Oooh look at me I am enlightnened... I'm better than you" kinda thing? So why would anyone want to be enlightened, if they are trying to put the ego in the background?

Further more you are supposed to be the observer and observe the ego etc... but who observes the observer?

Yeah I know it gets really confusing doesn't it?

Do "enlightened" people walk around noting their emotions automatically? Or do they not have emotions? When enlightened people say all their anxiety left them when they reached enlightenment, what does this mean exactly?

 

Thank you

 

First, I didn't read the whole article you linked. I will simply say that while there are certain predictable and inevitable stages along the path, I suspect they vary for every unique individual. While we may be able to map a path, different individuals will move along it in infinite variations.

 

Labelling thoughts, memories, feelings, images, emotions, all of that has value (though perhaps not to everyone) as it helps us to dis-identify with those mental states and fabrications. It is an important step to replace "I am angry" with "I notice the experience of anger now and I know it will pass." It is over-identification with moods, concepts, beliefs, thoughts, etc... that is the root of our struggles in the Buddhist and Bön paradigm.

 

Ego does certainly manifest on the path and this needs to be dealt with. There are several skillful means to this end. The objective is not to reinforce the ego but to liberate the ego and begin to connect with that from which it arises.

 

Once we have successfully dis-identified with the mental states and formations, we are facing the question of the observer. Who is observing all of this? Who is "I"? What is "I"? This is an important exercise. We must try to find the answer to these questions and develop authentic certainty in the answers we find. It is not the answer to an intellectual question, it is not information of any sort, it is an experience of a deeper, more subtle, and pervasive sense of self. 

 

Rather than speak of the enlightened, I'll refer to those who are making progress along the path. Early on, we need to engage the intellect and the observer in moving away from programmed, habitual patterns of behavior to a more contemplative and open approach to life. Effort is needed, often forceful. Things like labelling, prayers, meditation, mantras, visualizations, and so on, are valuable tools. Dis-identification with the mental formations and patterns becomes less effortful over time. For superior practitioners it becomes fully automatic. The example is "like snow on the ocean, it instantly melts upon contact." 

 

People progressing along the path still have and fully experience emotions. Arguably they experience at a fuller, more connected and authentic level. The illusory self with all of its negative, and positive, baggage is not there (or at least less solid) to limit or distort the experience. The process is one of dis-identification with the subject of experience or dissolution of said subject. If  we no longer over-identify with the subject, we are no longer as prone to being carried away and manipulated by those experiences, be they negative or positive. If you identify with a more pervasive, less focused aspect your experience of self, there is less of a fixed, solid subject there to be threatened... or elated.

 

Have you ever taken strong pain killers while in severe pain? You know the pain is present but it isn't as threatening or controlling. You can smile and enjoy the warmth and yet you see there is pain, and it's OK. I hope I don't sound too much like a lush but I think there's some truth in that analogy. I don't mean to say that liberation is in any way a drugged state, it's the opposite, but the dis-identification with the self is a divine pain reliever. The key is your relationship with the subject of your personal narrative. That's where the magic happens.