Don't worry about progress...

[doc benway]

I thought the community might enjoy this quotation, I like it quite a bit:

 

Don't Worry About Progress

 

Don’t worry if you think you’re not making progress. I can assure you it is virtually impossible to be in a place like this [satsang] and not make progress.

 

It is your ego that tries to fool you. Remember your mind does not wish to be destroyed. Therefore it will fight you with every breath and tell you you’re wasting your time, if it were true you would already be enlightened.

 

Your mind will tell you go somewhere else, go do this and go do that, keep searching, keep looking. It will never tell you there’s nothing to look for. It will never tell you there’s nothing to do. It will never tell you just be yourself, awaken. It will put you through all kinds of trials and tribulations. It will even make you believe that the more you suffer, the greater the value.

 

But if you’re wise, you will simply observe, and watch your mind telling you all these things. You will not fight, because your mind will always win. You will simply dissolve your mind through observation, through becoming the witness, or by asking “to whom do these thoughts come?” And the mind will grow weaker.

 

But it will really fight you. It will cause you to observe many dastardly things in this world, and perhaps some upheavals in your life also. To make you believe in your mind and its power. I guess that’s what Jesus meant when he said “Get thee behind me Satan!” In other words his mind was trying to tell him things are wrong, you’re wasting your time. So he named his mind Satan. And told it “don’t bother me, don’t come up with all these things: I don’t believe in you, you’re a liar.”

 

That’s exactly what you must do. Let the mind show us the worst. Allow the ego to do what it wants. But you be the observer, the witness. Hold on tight to the ’I’. And follow the I thread to the heart. And you’ll start laughing for you’ll come to the conclusion, there never was a mind, there never was an I, there never was an ego, there never were problems, there never was a world, there never was a personal God, there never was karma, there’s no such thing as enlightenment, there’s no such thing as awakening. You are already That. So be it.

~ Sri Robert Adams

[dwai]

How apropos. I wrote this for a friend today --

 

Quote

In the stillness of the primordial mind
Rest in awareness and you will find
Space and time do not exist
Once the thoughts cease and desist.

 

Reality is always near.
Right now and right here.
Why look for it here and there?
When it’s with you, everywhere!

 

Let go of the things outside.
Let go of the things inside.
Simply rest in your imperium
It is known as your “I AM”.

 

[3bob]

of course there is also a slippery slope to the op...

as for Om, no problemo.

Edited December 27, 2017 by 3bob

[3bob]

as in: "Allow the ego to do what it wants" etc..  thus anything goes and forget Dharma guidelines???

[Boundlesscostfairy]

I think it pays to be honest about progress (and yes I get my price-line from this)

 

A-Z all things come through practice.. you can evaluate your self and progress based on these questions..

 

Am I in pain.. Am I happy.. Am I healthy?

 

If you feel good in general than you can probably concur that your practice is going right!

[Boundlesscostfairy]

The higher mind is always seeking enlightenment..

 

When you think your not progressing it is always a koan.. a means to untie a knot so to speak!