Tao of Conscious Awareness. or why so much importance placed on 'conscious awareness'?

[silent thunder]

I don't use conscious awareness to pump my heart, regulate my hormone distribution and production, grow my nails and hair, digest meals, regrow bone material, replace/repair worn out tissue, develop organs and skeletal/nerve structures in the womb...

 

The processes of life, take place beneath the threshold of 'conscious local awareness'...

 

So is conscious awareness all that important?  Or is it an easily awareness consuming passtime with little input into the raw process of life?  Like the phones seem to be?

[Taomeow]

Interesting theme.  Got me thinking.  

 

I think it's the opposite of the phone.  

 

There's a large grey space between autonomous and deliberate regulation of our functions.  Breath, which is most often used as the focus of conscious awareness, is chosen as the number one function to focus awareness on precisely because it is positioned in the middle of that grey space, in that it can go either way -- to fully unconscious/autonomous and to fully conscious/deliberate.  So if you fail with fully conscious control and regulation or even mere observation, no biggie -- the autonomous will pick up where you left off.   

 

Try pulling that off with taiji.   

 

Other functions you mentioned are shifted more to the involuntary part of the spectrum -- if you are satisfied with how they work on autopilot, no need to intervene.  What if you're not?  Will it help to become consciously aware of the process taking place?   Conscious awareness has been shown to, e.g., increase the blood flow to the parts of your body you are paying conscious attention to.  You can't increase the blood flow to your phone though.  But if you're playing with your phone while eating, your body will decrease the blood flow to your stomach, inhibit your digestive enzymes, strain the ciliary muscles in your eyes and partially suppress the rods in charge of peripheral vision, divert 25% more oxygen from your inner organs to your eyes and your neocortex, and so on.  In other words, you will allocate a ton of resources that are yours to an object that is not part of you by taking conscious awareness away from your body.  You may also do stuff to your spinal column by sitting statically in a posture that is dictated by your phone use rather than by either autonomous or conscious choices.  And so on.

 

I believe conscious awareness is all-important but also a very generic term.  One would need to specify before we can decide what it is we're talking about.  Personally, I find taiji to be one excellent method to assess how many things you (the generic modern person, not you personally of course) are unconsciously doing wrong.  I look at a beginner and proprioception is usually a nightmare -- no conscious communication between the mind and the body, and unconscious communication all driven by ingrained wrong habits of use.  Then I look at someone who's been doing it with conscious awareness for a number of years and see how wrong unconscious patterns are being gradually replaced by beautiful, meaningful, physiologically sound ones -- perhaps psychologically too, perhaps in a wider context of life too.  Of course it's not the only activity where conscious awareness makes all the difference, but I find it most striking.  The new habit might then get transferred more and more to many other functions.  This is the beginning of freedom...  I believe the real purpose of developing conscious awareness is just that.  Freedom.  As much of it as one is able to stomach.     

[liminal_luke]

I´ve been reading a lot of psychologist Rick Hanson on the web lately (https://www.rickhanson.net/get-started/).  His big theme is that we can actually change our brains by "taking in the good"  -- spending a minute or so on a regular basis letting positive experiences sink in.  He says that if something good happens to us (or we make something good happen) we can use conscious awareness to really bask in the feeling, even briefly, and this basking will actually change us neurologically.

 

Say you want to develop the quality of grit, to become mentally stronger and more resilient.  You might spend a minute or so bringing to mind times in the past when you stuck with something difficult, when you felt determined and undaunted.  Then, whenever you succeeed at anything difficult throughout the day (maybe you resist eating donuts a "well-meaning" coworker brought to work) really take a moment to appreciate how you used to will.  Take that sense of efficacy into your body.  

 

This works with any quality we might want to cultivate in ourselves -- the sense of being cared about, feeling safe, appreciating beauty, and so on.  Rick Hanson says it´s not enough to have good experiences and move on.  To change ourselves we have to take a short break and appreciate the positive happening.  This is an application of conscious awareness.

Edited October 4, 2019 by liminal_luke

[ilumairen]

On 10/3/2019 at 3:04 PM, silent thunder said:

I don't use conscious awareness to pump my heart, regulate my hormone distribution and production, grow my nails and hair, digest meals, regrow bone material, replace/repair worn out tissue, develop organs and skeletal/nerve structures in the womb...

 

But you do use conscious awareness to eat in an appropriate manner to facilitate optimal hormonal response, heart rate, hair growth, digestion, repairment of damaged tissues.. 

 

And heart rate variability expressed by the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems is fascinating as a marker of both physical and psychological health, at which point conscious awareness of the breath (which is tied to heart rate variability) points to a host of (perhaps largely unexplored or understood) benefits - which I myself have largely not explored but find myself intrigued by. 

 

On 10/3/2019 at 3:04 PM, silent thunder said:

The processes of life, take place beneath the threshold of 'conscious local awareness'...

 

So is conscious awareness all that important?  Or is it an easily awareness consuming passtime with little input into the raw process of life?  Like the phones seem to be?

 

I think this would be somewhat dependent on what one considers conscious awareness..

[liminal_luke]

9 hours ago, ऋषि said:

 

This is all worthy of inquiry and speculation, but I do realize you are not letting on nearly as much as you already know about this topic.

 

 

I know, right? Silent Thunder has written before about doubt as a positive virtue but he´s really digging deep this time. In my book, ST is the Bum King of conscious awareness.  It´s as if Tutankamon awoke from the dead, joined us here at TheDaoBums, and started a thread asking what´s the point in owning a little gold.

 

[Everything]

 

On 3-10-2019 at 9:04 PM, silent thunder said:

I don't use conscious awareness to pump my heart, regulate my hormone distribution and production, grow my nails and hair, digest meals, regrow bone material, replace/repair worn out tissue, develop organs and skeletal/nerve structures in the womb...

 

The processes of life, take place beneath the threshold of 'conscious local awareness'...

 

So is conscious awareness all that important?  Or is it an easily awareness consuming passtime with little input into the raw process of life?  Like the phones seem to be?

Your greater non-physical consciousness does all that for you and way more. But it's ment to do that with you, for your joyful life experience that is you. So how do you receive your greater non-physical consciousness more consciously more often of the time? 

 

You are receiving always, but often for many human beings, less consciously, meaning, less fully. Because you flow your own greater non-physical consciousness through you, in self contradiction, so it is less capable by you to be allowed by you to be ever so much more fully realised by you.

 

Your emotions indicate always perfectly here and now your relativity between your physical consciousness and your greater non-physical consciousness. 

 

So the better you feel emotionally, the more your physical and your greater non-physical consciousness are in alignment and the more you are capable of realising your own greater non-physical consciousness and all of its greater knowing more fully in your life, and the worse you feel emotionally, the less these two are in alignment the less you are capable of allowing your own natural realisation evermore, for you are blocking it in that moment, not seperating, just pinching the connection.

 

Now I am not talking about physical alignment. I am talking about the alignment of your energetic thought patterns and thought streams, or your here and now perspective of your life conditions, and how these energies/frequencies play off on your greater non-physical consciousness and its perspective and its energetic thought stream. And the reason is, that your physical conditions, but primarily your emotions are a direct result of this relativity. 

 

So when you think a thought, even ask a question, you are creating a thought, and the more you think that thought, the more it expands. It becomes a habbitual energetic thought pattern. A believe, which is simply a thought that you keep thinking. And this has a certain energy, that expands, by virtue of law of how energy works, how it expands, gains momentum and thus power. So you come to certain energetic thought pattern/stream. It's like an energy grid that you allow the establishing of it around yourself.

 

As this energetic thought pattern/stream is not in alignment, with the energetic thought pattern/stream of your own greater non-physical consciousness, you feel this discord/misalignment, as your emotional indicator of negative emotion.

 

And there is a whole spectrum of emotions, from feeling very good all the way to feeling very bad. More alignment all the way to less alignment. More alignment being more conscious realisation, and less being less conscious realisation.

 

But your natural state of being is one where you are fully in alignment. So the only thing you need to do to allow your conscious realisation, is to allow it. By releasing energetic thought patterns of discord/resistance/contradiction. By meditating and simply releasing all thought. This causes your conscious awareness to naturally and effortlessly and automatically come back more fully in alignment with your own greater non-physical consciousness. Which means, you get to realise the perspective that is in alignment with your own greater non-physical consciousness more fully, more consciously. Thus feeling more joyful aswell. 

 

It is all about learning how that perspective that is true to all that you truely are, feels. And once you do, you can feel the difference also more clearly. You can also think for the purpose of feeling. So when you know how you are focused, by virtue of how you feel. Like a hot/cold game. Your emotional guidance system, works similarly in that way. Every single subject in your life, you think about it, you get your emotional feedback as your indicator of your here and now relativity of your here and now perspective of that subject, and the perspective of your own greater non-physical consciousness, about that very same subject of your thought.

 

The difference between your physical consciousness and your greater non-physical consciousness. Is that your physical consciousness is often capable of thinking in contradiction with your own true desire. So it becomes a self contradictory thought pattern of discord, that can also be emotionally felt. As pure desire is felt as joy, and self contradictory desire, as self contradictory thought can be felt as yearning. Focusing on the desire and also the absence of it. Meaning not clear allowed awareness and realisation. Contradictory focus.

 

And your greater non-physical consciousness never ever does that. When you want something, and your life has caused you to ask for it, consciously or even unconsciously, your own greater non-physical consciousness, accepts that fully, emmediately, and begins to offer pure thought about it, and expands the realisation of it for you evermore here and now. In full harmony and alignment with the Source of All Creation, the energy which creates worlds. As your greater non-physical consciousness is like the breath of the source of all creation, pure positive energy. So now, here and now, you got your relationship with your own greater non-physical consciousness. And you can always feel your emotional relativity, energy motional relativity to all of that. This is your emotional guidance system. 

 

Your greater non-physical consciousness, along with the source of all creation, does all of this, effortlessly, for you. Because it is capable of giving pure uncontradicted thought. It is unconditional love. It is your joyous being and becoming evermore, if you then also allow yourself to come fully in alignment with it, by being willing to feel better thus, emotionally, and thus also receive this guidance more fully more consciously realising it also thus then more fully. Which gives you the benefit of consciously witnessing thoughts turning into things. Perceiving the world through the eyes of Source, or infinite intelligence and eternal wisdom, or Dao  or God or whatever you wish to call your greater non-physical consciousness all the way to the source of all creation.

 

From your non-physical point of view, there is no seperation. From your physical consciousness, you can create the appearance or experience of a lesser allowed connection, all the way to physical experiences and realisations of discord, misunderstanding, by thinking thoughts which do not harmonize with your own greater knowing, of your own greater non-physical consciousness. And as soon as you sleep, you leave all of that behind. Those thoughts stop. But often you do not receive the conscious benefit of your conscious realisation of your own greater non-physical consciousness when you sleep, because you are not fully conscious. So when you meditate, you do the same as when you sleep, but you do it consciously. Which is also why often, when one meditates regularly, you experience more conscious lucid dreams. Also consciously falling asleep. With the whole experience that comes with that.

 

Often when you wake up, you instantly return to your habbitually practiced energetic thought patterns, whatever that may be, unless you meditate before sleep, and instantly after you wake up, that gives you tremendous likelyhood of waking up with full blown conscious allowed realisation, of your own greater knowing, indicated by tremendously good feeling positive emotions.

 

So you may wake up, and instantly feel like the way you felt before you went to sleep, or the way you simply usually feel. You often have similar emotions. Because there is a certain energetic momentum, behind these thoughts, that you have been thinking. And if these thoughts do not harmonize with your own greater knowing, you cannot receive your own greater knowing more fully more consciously. So you have to either let go of thinking altogether, by meditating. Or, if you can, find a perspective that feels better emotionally, step by step, and simply come back into alignment and conscious allowed awareness and realisation of and with your own greater non-physical consciousness. By reaching for the moreness of the allowed alignment, by simply finding ways to feel better, unconditionally, emotionally. By focusing for the purpose of feeling, thinking for the purpose of feeling better, to allow your own greater allowed realisation of your own greater non-physical consciousness.

 

 

[Jim D.]

Back when I was in my mid twenties I was diagnosed with being borderline Schizophrenic ( I think). The psychiatrist told me that what I  had was not treatable. This frightened me very much. The way out of this doomsday diagnosis was to work on taking responsibility for my behaviors and quit blaming other people, places, and things for my character defects and shortcomings. For me it took a long time to develop an awareness of rigorous honesty and practice it on a daily basis. For me, I only need to live life on life's terms, not Jim's terms. This is freedom for me.  I think this is a good concept to live by "analysis paralysis." My best thinking got me locked up in a psych ward. 

[silent thunder]

1 hour ago, Jim D. said:

Back when I was in my mid twenties I was diagnosed with being borderline Schizophrenic ( I think). The psychiatrist told me that what I  had was not treatable. This frightened me very much. The way out of this doomsday diagnosis was to work on taking responsibility for my behaviors and quit blaming other people, places, and things for my character defects and shortcomings. For me it took a long time to develop an awareness of rigorous honesty and practice it on a daily basis. For me, I only need to live life on life's terms, not Jim's terms. This is freedom for me.  I think this is a good concept to live by "analysis paralysis." My best thinking got me locked up in a psych ward. 

Wow my friend!  Such poignancy!  your words ring like a bell for me, through me.

Recognition and resonation of similarity and familiarity.

 

Thank you for sharing!

Edited October 7, 2019 by silent thunder
bolded for emphasis... thank you again!

[Jim D.]

I have been taking stock of my life with a look back. I can see the moments where I made a sensual decision rather than a mindful decision. As they say, "Oh, if I could live my life over again." But if I could, I would not be here sharing with you and others. I can say that if I would qualify my life now, I would give it a 9 on a scale of 10. The thing that troubles me is the finality of death. It is not transient in my opinion. We speak of Dao and our theories and  characteristics about it. Your name Silent Thunder is sort of existential and gives cause to ponder just as it is with Dao. Your name is a paradox. There is something in between silence and noise. It seems we need to organize our personal experiences in order to feel secure and safe especially through others that are like minded. I find peace in not trying to identify with the elements of the Universe. I try not to figure out the mystery. I am only ridding on this space ship called Earth for a short period of time.  I am not going anywhere and I surely cannot change this mode of transportation. 

[silent thunder]

the thunder that arises in true silence... so soul shatteringly loud... i was certain that should the roar of it not break, were it to endure moments longer, then my sense of self, surely would break.  sound beyond sound... roaring in utter silence.

 

of few things have i ever experienced such surety... but the thunder within that silence was so penetrating that were it to saturate me any further, i, as a sensing, thinkable thing, as a being... would simply cease.

 

the name derives from a description of the memory of the roaring silence my wife and i experienced,

an experience of pure, piercing silence. 

 

death is for me a lover, the most adoring... death is the ultimate giving of one's very self back to the soil.

 

life seems inherently acquisitional, almost greedy by its virtue and traits of ever imbibing and consuming other life.

 

thunder in silence

love in decay

bliss in emptiness

Edited October 8, 2019 by silent thunder

[Jim D.]

Very beautiful prose Silent Thunder. 

 

I have had the experience of the absence of self or the "other" in moments of profound intimacy with my wife. Nothing exists for a few moments. There is a sort of sensual blindness.

 

I define happiness as the absence of negativity. 

 

I wish to be cremated. I have asked my wife to spread my ashes under a tree so as to be taken up by the tree and used to nurture it. As time passes, leaves will fall to the ground and become sustenance for further growth and development. Although I will have changed in "Form," the essence of me will continue on for infinity. Even if the Earth ceases to exist my "Form" will possibly return back to the four basic elements. It is a never ending process.  

 

 

[Everything]

12 hours ago, Jim D. said:

Back when I was in my mid twenties I was diagnosed with being borderline Schizophrenic ( I think). The psychiatrist told me that what I  had was not treatable. This frightened me very much. The way out of this doomsday diagnosis was to work on taking responsibility for my behaviors and quit blaming other people, places, and things for my character defects and shortcomings. For me it took a long time to develop an awareness of rigorous honesty and practice it on a daily basis. For me, I only need to live life on life's terms, not Jim's terms. This is freedom for me.  I think this is a good concept to live by "analysis paralysis." My best thinking got me locked up in a psych ward. 

Exactly, your mind is a powerful creator mind mechanism. But your true infinite intelligence and eternal wisdom is held by your greater non-physical conscioisness, for you, evermore here and now. And as you realise, that you can always feel your energy motional relativity between your physical and your greater non-physical consciousness (of which you are an inseperable extension of this aspect of you) as your emotional guidance system. You come to realise that you got acces to infinite intelligence and eternal wisdom, through your ability to feel your own deep heartfelt emotions. As this is your unconditional deserving and worthiness, ever expandingly being and becoming evermore here and now, naturally, effortlessly and joyously. 

 

And thus, you can relax your mind, because your mind does not have to do the job that it was not designed to do. Which is to create everything all by itself. For by doing so, you become a half witt. You have great intelligence, but you flow it in contradiction with your own greater non-physical consciousness, thus feeling negative emotion, as your primary indicator, and secondly secondary conditional/manifestational indicators of this misalignment with your own greater non-physical consciousness. 

 

So co-creating together with your own heart and ability to feel emotion, this is where true allowed realisation comes from. To want to feel better, unconditionally, primarily, emotionally, first, for the purpose of aligning with your own greater non-physical consciousness. And then, when you are fully in allowed harmony and alignment, then you can think in full allowed harmony and alignment with your own ever expanding greater non-physical consciousness all the way to the ever expanding Source of All Creation of infinite intelligence and eternal wisdom, and then you can simply be, do or have whatever you want. As it is thus then ever so more fully and effortlessly and capably, and joyously and naturally and fully capably realised by you, unconditionally, energy motionally, creationally. As your true natural state of being, a fully realised being a total being, a full witt, of physical and non-physical hand in hand, converging, meeting, co-blending, co-harmonizing, co-realising, co-creating. Naturallynand effortlessly and joyously. Your positive emotions also indicating your here and now moreness of your allowed alignment with your own greater non-physical consciousness and allowed realisation of and with your own greater non-physical consciousness. So you simply allow yourself to realise and co-create all that you truely are being and becoming evermore effortlessly and joyously and succesfully and naturally here and now. As your true natural state of being in full allowed and joyously felt good feeling positive emotionally felt energy motional allowed harmony and alignment with your own greater non-physical consciousness, which holds all that you truely want to be, do or have, evermore for you, and is being and becoming the ever moreness of it, evermore here and now, for you. Suppose to also with you, as you, through you, etc. For the mere purpose of the joyous life experience that is you, as all that you truely are being and becoming evermore effortlessly and naturally and joyously and succesfully and realisedly here and now. 

Edited October 8, 2019 by Everything

[Everything]

9 hours ago, Jim D. said:

I have been taking stock of my life with a look back. I can see the moments where I made a sensual decision rather than a mindful decision. As they say, "Oh, if I could live my life over again." But if I could, I would not be here sharing with you and others. I can say that if I would qualify my life now, I would give it a 9 on a scale of 10. The thing that troubles me is the finality of death. It is not transient in my opinion. We speak of Dao and our theories and  characteristics about it. Your name Silent Thunder is sort of existential and gives cause to ponder just as it is with Dao. Your name is a paradox. There is something in between silence and noise. It seems we need to organize our personal experiences in order to feel secure and safe especially through others that are like minded. I find peace in not trying to identify with the elements of the Universe. I try not to figure out the mystery. I am only ridding on this space ship called Earth for a short period of time.  I am not going anywhere and I surely cannot change this mode of transportation. 

That which you call your eternal and infinite nature, as your greater non-physical consciousness, is not somewhere out there. It is always right here and now for you, with you, as you, through you, evermore being and becoming evermore here and now for you. And you are an inseperable extension of it evermore here and now. Regardless of any and all conditions, under any and all conditions, unconditionally, evermore being and becoming evermore here and now, for you, as your unique and joyous path of least resistance to all that you truely want to be, do or have, for the mere purpose of the joyous life experience that is you. Of all that you truely are being and becoming evermore fully allowed by you to be evermore fully realised by you evermore effortlessly and joyously and naturally evermore here and now. 

 

However, many humans often flow their own greater non-physical consciousness and all of its greater knowing of infinite intelligence and eternal wisdom, in full harmomy and alignment with the ever expanding Source of All Creation or Dao, through themselves, in contradiction with themselves. Through energetic thought patterns which are self contradictory in energy motional nature of being in contradiction with the self. And thus they don't feel so good emotionally, energy motionally, and so they don't fully allow themselves to come to full blow evermore effortlessly greater allowed realisation of true being and becoming evermore joyously and effortlessly and freely here and now in full allowed realisation and alignment and harmony with their own greater non-physical consciousness, as your true natural state of being and becoming, as all that you truely are being and becoming evermore here and now, physical and non-physical hand in hand. In full allowed harmony and alignment and co-creation and co-realisation with your own greater non-physical consciousness. 

 

And so, all I can say, is just feel better. Just be all that is who it is you truely are. By simply feeling better. Feeling the energy motional relativity between you and You. And simply closing that gap, by feeling better emotionally, and thus you allow your own greater allowed joyous realisation of all that you truely are being and becoming evermore here and now.

 

So this also applies to how one thinks about death. If one cannot find a way to think about something that is fully in harmony and alignment with their own greater knowing of their own greater non-physical consciousness, then that usually means that it is simply completely irrelevant to you here and now to think about that subject. Because you are not here to solve any problem, as there is no problem. You are here simply to enjoy your evermore being and becoming, as all that you truely are being and becoming evermore here and now. And nothing in all of existance is ever worth sacrificing your own alignment with your own greater non-physical consciousness for it, ever. For you never have to feel bad about anything, as that is also not how you allow your own evermore effortless greater allowed realisation of all that you truely are being and becoming evermore effortlessly and joyously here and now, in full harmony and allignment and realisation with your own greater non-physical consciousness, which aspect of you is always unconditionally, evermore here and now fully involved with you and every single detail of your life experience evermore here and now, and knows your path of least resistance to all that you truely want to be, do or have, evermore for you, and offers you your unique path of least resistance to you evermore here and now as your own evermore greater allowed realisation of all that you truely want to be, do or have, as your emotional guidance system. 

 

For when you truely are ready to think about death in a way that is fully in harmony and alignment with your own greater non-physical consciousness, then you will joyously think about it and even beyond it, thoughts that are fully in harmony and alignment with your own greater non-physical consciousness and all of its greater knowing. And it is about as relevant as walking from this door into a next environment. And that means, that you are making more non-physical decisions at that moment, which means, you will joyously and effortless allow yourself to withdraw your consciousness out of your physical awareness, and come back to full allowed realisation of all that you truely are being and becoming, evermore here and now, as all that is being and becoming evermore here and now, in full harmony and alignment with tye ever expanding Source of All Creation. 

 

But while you are here and now, focused through the lense of your physical extension of all that you truely are, what is of interest to you here and now, is what your joyous life experience is all about for you. For your own greater non-physical consciousness is fully here and now, focused on all the aspects that is of you, here and now, and offering you inspiration evermore as your unique path of least resistance to your evermore here and now effortless allowed realisation of all that you truely want to be, do or have, as your unique path of least/lesser resistance as your emotional guidance system, as your unconditional deserving and worthiness of your own eternal and infinite nature of being and becoming evermore effortlessly and joyously and naturally in full allowed good feelingly positive emotiinally felt harmony and alignment and realisation of and with your own ever expanding greater non-physical consciousness in full unconditional evermore allowed harmony and alingment with the ever expanding Source of All Creation, of infinite intelligence, eternal wisdom and unconditional love. For the joyous journey of evermore being and hecoming evermore joyously and effortlessly and naturally evermore here and now. Fully allowed by you to be good feelingly emotionally felt allowed realisation of your own natural state of being as all that you truely are being and becoming evermore joyously and freely and effortlessly and lovingly and blissfully here and now. 

 

Then you can simply allow yourself to be all the answers to all the questions that you have. For it is all here and now evermore for you, with you, as you, through you. And you can allow all of it to be ever more so fully and effortlessly and joyously realised by you. Unconditionally, regardless of any and all conditions, under any and all conditions, emotionally. Feeling betterly. Releasing resistancely. Allowing alignment between you and You and evermore effortless and joyous co-realisation and co-creation, for mere purpose of the joyous life experience that is you, as all that is who it is and what it is that you truely are being and becoming evermore here and now. Evermore effortlessly and joyously and freely, etceteraly. 

Edited October 8, 2019 by Everything

[Jim D.]

There seems to be a touch of Jungian Psychology and Psychocybernetics (Maxwell Maltz, 1960)  in your last two responses. 

[z00se]

It is very paradoxial. Live mindfully, have everything but feel nothing. Or feel deeply but lose things in the process.

 

I live mindfully when i have to, the rest of the time i live sensually, because thats what I enjoy. I think as i age the body becomes weaker and i am getting forced to live more mindfully.... forced to live more mindfully for periods so that i can enjoy sensual living for a time thereafter haha.

 

Living mindfully for the sake of living mindfully becomes incredibly boring. However living sensually too much is very destructive.

 

 

[rideforever]

When a human being wakes up in the morning he enters a waking state, like the other animals on this planet.

But this is not the state of "Awareness" or the state of "Consciousness" that is spoken of in the Eastern traditions.

 

Is it good to die ?
Of course not.
 

Buddha's story is very concise.  He encountered death and disease and decay when he left the walls of the palace.  He was shocked at the suffering.  He had lived in a comfortable dream but now the stark reality shook him.  Then he returned and a banquet was in progress; but he was no longer hungry.  He felt there was something insincere in banqueting in a world of suffering.  And for him, this game was over.  He then sought an answer.  And he found one.

 

Should you do something ?
It's up to you.

Who knows who anyone is, or where anyone is, or what anyone should do.

[dwai]

Entirely IMHO, so caveat emptor...

 

I think what you're posting about has to do with the mind, which is in essence the reflected light of awareness rather than awareness itself. It is the mind that has a conscious and a subconscious. Awareness is always just awareness. 

 

The mind is like the moonlight, which is reflected sunlight. It can illuminate somethings (we call this aspect the conscious mind), and not illuminate others (we call this the subconscious mind). The so called autonomous functions are basically result of aspects of our life-forces. In the yogic tradition, there are five aspects to what is loosely categorized as "prāńa". These are called the pançavāyū, or five-winds. Each of these has a role to play in the functioning of the bio-mechanical vehicle we call our physical body.

 

https://www.himalayaninstitute.org/amrit-blog/yoga-wisdom-worldview/balancing-energies-5-prana-vayus/

 

The article above sheds some light on the function of the five vayus or winds. These operate as they are meant to, quite naturally, without any active participation by the mind, though when they are out of balance, the effects are known in the mind.  

 

Also, a Yogi who has mastered the prāńa, can control these five functions with active volition -- such as stopping the heart from beating for minutes at a time, etc etc. 

 

The problem you articulated is a result of  the modern model of the human being, considered to be a swirling mass of matter which happens to generate consciousness. The reality is actually the other way around -- Awareness/consciousness is what we are, and the matter is just an appearance within our field of access.

 

Here's a nice visual of the model I am referring to --

 

Nice blog too (haven't read it in detail, but seems to be talking about the same topic) -- 

http://unurthed.com/2010/06/

 

So, answering your original question --

 

Quote

So is conscious awareness all that important?  Or is it an easily awareness consuming passtime with little input into the raw process of life?  Like the phones seem to be?

We have to transcend the mind entirely. That which knows both the conscious mind and the sub-conscious mind, as well as knows when the mind is blank (deep sleep) is what is important. It is the most important. Without it, there is nothing.

Edited October 11, 2019 by dwai
added context

[silent thunder]

'woke' this morning with these successive thoughts floating in mind,

before coming to da bums here and being re-minded of this thread...

 

the qualities of the external experiential world
are dependent entirely upon the organs of perception
through which the interpretation of the range of energies
these organs accomodate and relate to are processed...

 

the world as thought about, as talked about,

is not the world as it is

 

conscious mind, sensual awareness is not the world as it is

but the world as related to.  It is the world as it relates to our sensing and interpretational processes

 

it is relational

 

as a skin on a drum conveys sound when struck is relational to the skin, the hand and the ear that hears...

 

without the skin, no amount of force will bring noise

without striking, no noise

without ears...

 

reflection, relational of the primal

love or despise, all seems to arise from one source

the differences lie in the interpretation

and depend in large part

on the method of interpretation, or the nature of the organ

through which the relation of the nature of experience is acquired/interacted with

drum skin, hand and sounds

blood, organs and sensations

life, forms and awareness

[Jim D.]

13 hours ago, rideforever said:

Buddha's story is very concise.  He encountered death and disease and decay

This reminds me of the story where Adam and Eve were forced out of the Garden of Eden to only encounter death, disease, decay, pain, etc. In that moment they became conscious of themselves and their nakedness which I understand to be vulnerability. 

 

I read a book on Zen and was able to apply the state of mind suggested. I did not like the feeling of separateness from my wife who is my companion and friend. It was if I was observing her behaviors...like watching a movie, not interacting at a practical level.  It was like being a "fool on the hill." Totally inner directed...unmoved...answering comments with what seemed to be perfect comments.  She was not aware of this change in affect, but I was. I stopped it. This is not how I want to live. I suppose if I was in a monastery it would work...but not in a relationship. 

[Everything]

9 hours ago, silent thunder said:

'woke' this morning with these successive thoughts floating in mind,

before coming to da bums here and being re-minded of this thread...

 

the qualities of the external experiential world
are dependent entirely upon the organs of perception
through which the interpretation of the range of energies
these organs accomodate and relate to are processed...

 

the world as thought about, as talked about,

is not the world as it is

 

conscious mind, sensual awareness is not the world as it is

but the world as related to.  It is the world as it relates to our sensing and interpretational processes

 

it is relational

 

as a skin on a drum conveys sound when struck is relational to the skin, the hand and the ear that hears...

 

without the skin, no amount of force will bring noise

without striking, no noise

without ears...

 

reflection, relational of the primal

love or despise, all seems to arise from one source

the differences lie in the interpretation

and depend in large part

on the method of interpretation, or the nature of the organ

through which the relation of the nature of experience is acquired/interacted with

drum skin, hand and sounds

blood, organs and sensations

life, forms and awareness

You cannot allow your realisation of anything ever, fully entirely eternally and infinitely and unconditionally, of your true being and becoming evermore here and now, physically or conditionally.

 

And the reason is simply. Your physical consciousness is just a small part, of your greater non-physical consciousness. It is the leading edge time space reality extension of your greater non-physical consciousness. So just a tiny small part of all that you truely are being and becoming evermore here and now is focused here through the lense of your physical extension. 

 

Your physical extension is designed to work in conscious harmony and alignment and co-creation/co-realization with your own greater non-physical consciousness. That is your true natural state of being and becoming evermore here and now, as all that you truely are being and becoming evermore here and now, physical and non-physical fully in harmony and alignment, converging, co-blending, co-harmonizing, hand in hand, meeting, co-fusing, co-expanding, co-being and co-becoming. 

 

But your thoughts, that you think, is simply the result of whatever you have been used to thinking, and thus believing. You cannot surpass that, with your mind alone. You can only ever come to full realisation, by allowing your greater non-physical mind to flow more fully through you, more freely, by being in alignment with your own greater non-physical consciousness, to allow your natural allowed realisation of true ever expanding infinite intelligence and eternal wisdom and unconditional love to flow more fully through you, as you, with you, for you. As your true natural state of being and becoming evermore here and now, in full joyously felt alignment and allowed to flow and be realised realisation. Ongoingly more effortlessly and joyously. 

 

As it is expanding evermore here and now. Through you, with you, for you, suppose to also as you with you, realised by you, by feeling better to allow this co-harmony and co-realisation and natural joyous co-realisation, evermore here and now. 

 

That is why meditation is so easy, because you don't have to do anything to allow your greater knowing to be naturally and effortlessly realised by you, as your true nature of being and becoming evermore here and now. You just have to not think self contradictory thought, which blocks it. That's all there is to it. 

 

So you focus on anything meaningless like a mantra like ooooohmmmmm for example. Untill it becomes your only experience, and then in that moment, you no longer think a thought and you also thus no longer think a contradictory/resistant thought, and that means, your greater non-physical consciousness can be allowed by you to be realised by you in that moment. Meaning you feel joy/love/freedom/knowledge/empowerment, as you thus then think pure allowed to be fully flowed purely realised uncontradicted, fully allowed by you to be fully realised by you pure positive thought of your own greater non-physical consciousness, in full harmony and alignment with the ever expanding Source of All Creation, of infinite intelligence, eternal wisdom, unconditional love, as that which you call ever expanding infinite God consciousness or Dao. 

 

You can feel your more allowed alignment or less allowed alignment with all of that, energy motionally, emotionally. For your emotions always perfectly indicate your here and now energy motional relativity between your physical and your greater non-physical consciousness. As it is your unconditional deserving evermore, to also naturally be able to allow yourself to feel better thus evermore, as you are an inseperable extension of your own greater non-physical consciousness. 

 

And the reason I say all of this is because you cannot talk about it, it is a higher more fully realised allowed to be more extra NATURAL dimensional experience. Meaning the full spectrum of ALL THAT YOU TRUELY ARE BEING AND BECOMING EVERMORE HERE AND NOW. You can only point at it and say it feels like bliss. But these words are just words. The important thing ro remember is that you can feel your emotional guidance system and you can know how you feel better or worse, as your indication of your more or lesser allowed alignment and realisation of and with all that you truely are being and becoming evermore here and now.

 

And also as important to know and realise that it is natural for you to be in full alignment and realisation, as it is of your true natural nature, which is also why it feels better evermore emotionally, as it is compatible with your true nature evermore being and becoming evermore here and now. 

 

So knowing this, you also know, you do not have to think your way into allowed alignment. If your thoughts are not ALREADY in alignment. Because if you think, while not being in full allowed to be realised by you connection, and thus you don't feel very good in that moment, you just delay your conscious allowed realisation of all that is you truely are being and becoming evermore effortlessly and joyously and freely and blissfully here and now. So when you meditate, you open a door, that your alignment WILL happen and WILL be allowed to be realised by you, naturally and effortlessly, it is simply normally your natural nature. And you then have to consciously acknowledge your emotional guidance system that you do truely feel very good emotionally when you allow such a moment of allowed realisation for yourself. For through that moment, EVERYTHING THAT TRUELY EVER HAS MATTERED TO YOU, MATTERS EVERMORE HERE AND NOW, OR WILL MATTER EVERMORE HERE AND NOW FOR YOU WILL BE ALLOWED BY YOU TO BE FULLY REALISED BY YOU, JOYFULLY, EFFORTLESSLY, FULLY, SUCCESFULLY, TRUELY, REALLY, LOVINGLY, FREELY. Untill you think a thought again, that doesn't allow it to flow again, you block it and it's not gone. You just pinch your connection, and so you feel less good again, emotionally, to let you know that younare think self contradictory thoughts, so that you can let that go more easily and effortlessly and allow your natural allowed realsiation evermore here and now again and again ongoingly more fully and effortlessly and joyfully and better feelingly emotionally evermore here and now. 

[Everything]

12 minutes ago, Jim D. said:

This reminds me of the story where Adam and Eve were forced out of the Garden of Eden to only encounter death, disease, decay, pain, etc. In that moment they became conscious of themselves and their nakedness which I understand to be vulnerability. 

 

I read a book on Zen and was able to apply the state of mind suggested. I did not like the feeling of separateness from my wife who is my companion and friend. It was if I was observing her behaviors...like watching a movie, not interacting at a practical level.  It was like being a "fool on the hill." Totally inner directed...unmoved...answering comments with what seemed to be perfect comments.  She was not aware of this change in affect, but I was. I stopped it. This is not how I want to live. I suppose if I was in a monastery it would work...but not in a relationship. 

These stories are translated over and over and over again, so what you think about is most likely 0.0000000001% of the entire truth that you have acces to, if you were to soften the need to look in the past for them. 

 

For what was, is not as it was, before it was now. And more fully, what you think is back there, is not back there. It is right here and now, fully with you, being and becoming evermore here and now, for your evermore capably allowed realisation of it evermore here and now. As your unconditional worthiness evermore here and now. Regardless of any and all conditions and under any and all conditions. Through you, as you, with you, for you. As the whole of all that you truely are being and becoming evermore fully allowed by you to be evermore fully and effortlessly and joyously and naturally realised by you, evermore here and now. Physical AND non-physical. Together hand in hand, converging as the whole of all that you truely are being and becoming here and now.

 

By allowing it, by feeling your way to your allowing of it, by feeling your way emotionally, energy motionally, to your allowed alignment with your own ever expanding greater non-physical consciousness all the way to the ever expanding source of all creation, of infinite intelligence and eternal wisdom and unconditional love.

Edited October 12, 2019 by Everything

[rideforever]

5 hours ago, Jim D. said:

I read a book on Zen and was able to apply the state of mind suggested. I did not like the feeling of separateness from my wife who is my companion and friend. It was if I was observing her behaviors...like watching a movie, not interacting at a practical level.  It was like being a "fool on the hill." Totally inner directed...unmoved...answering comments with what seemed to be perfect comments.  She was not aware of this change in affect, but I was. I stopped it. This is not how I want to live. I suppose if I was in a monastery it would work...but not in a relationship. 

 

I like that you want to honour your relationship with your wife and want to be real.

As for this state of mind you applied ... well I am not sure what you did, but the fruit of Zen practice takes many years.  So you might have tried to coldly stare at things ... but that is not actually Zen practice.

There surely must be a way for you both to bring some depths and spiritual light into your lives, if that is what you wish.  Surely it would be of great value.

 

[Jim D.]

5 hours ago, rideforever said:

bring some depths and spiritual light into your lives, if that is what you wish.  Surely it would be of great value.

 

My wife is perhaps the most honest person I have ever met. I think that she was born into it. I on the other hand, have to work at being rigorously honest. 

[liminal_luke]

If I´m remembering my Freud correctly, the whole point of psychoanalysis is to "make the unconscious conscious."  The parts of the psyche that hide behind the childhood couch tend to cause trouble for the other parts; life runs smoother when all our subpersonalities come out into the light of conscious awareness. 

 

Conscious awareness is important for more than just mental health -- we need it for our physical health too.  Thankfully, we don´t have to consciously command the heart to beat to stay alive (most of the time) but it is possible to become much more aware of our bodies than we customarily are.  Awareness begets good function.  Just as the parts of our mind play nice when each part is "seen" by our larger SELF, so too the parts of the body.  Much sickness results from a lack of communication and cooperation between our various physical parts.  

 

(I´m making the usual distinction here between mind and body and saying conscious awareness fosters the health of both.  In reality, there´s no difference.  The mind is the body; the body is the mind.  But there are two doors into the temple and some people find one entryway more convenient than the other.)

 

Of course all this is just preamble to the crowning spiritual jewel of consciousness: awareness of awareness.  This is a topic better addressed by Bums who are, umm, aware of such things.  Not me.  People tell me that awareness of awareness is important and I believe them. 

 

Postscript: awareness of awareness of awareness of awareness...

 

 

Edited October 12, 2019 by liminal_luke

[Everything]

14 hours ago, liminal_luke said:

If I´m remembering my Freud correctly, the whole point of psychoanalysis is to "make the unconscious conscious."  The parts of the psyche that hide behind the childhood couch tend to cause trouble for the other parts; life runs smoother when all our subpersonalities come out into the light of conscious awareness. 

 

Conscious awareness is important for more than just mental health -- we need it for our physical health too.  Thankfully, we don´t have to consciously command the heart to beat to stay alive (most of the time) but it is possible to become much more aware of our bodies than we customarily are.  Awareness begets good function.  Just as the parts of our mind play nice when each part is "seen" by our larger SELF, so too the parts of the body.  Much sickness results from a lack of communication and cooperation between our various physical parts.  

 

(I´m making the usual distinction here between mind and body and saying conscious awareness fosters the health of both.  In reality, there´s no difference.  The mind is the body; the body is the mind.  But there are two doors into the temple and some people find one entryway more convenient than the other.)

 

Of course all this is just preamble to the crowning spiritual jewel of consciousness: awareness of awareness.  This is a topic better addressed by Bums who are, umm, aware of such things.  Not me.  People tell me that awareness of awareness is important and I believe them. 

 

Postscript: awareness of awareness of awareness of awareness...

 

 

Your physical consciousness is an inseperable unconditionally loved, valued and worthy extension of your own ever expanding greater non-physical consciousness, all the way to the ever expanding Source of All Creation, of infinite intelligence, eternal wisdom and unconditional love. 

 

So yes, you feel your alignment and thus fully allowed realisation of all of it, as your valuable emotional guidance system, to allow yourself to come back to full allowed realisation and co-creation in full harmony and alignment with the ever expanding source of all creation to simply be do or have whatever you want, as you are an eternal and infinite being and becoming evermore here and now. To allow this realisation for oneself, one doesn't have to do anything accept allow it. By focusing on it because it feels better, to do so, because thats how you allow it, by enjoying it more fully ongoingly, by allowing your conscious allowed realisation of it. For the joyous life experience of evermore being and becoming that who it is you truely are, evermore being and becoming.

 

So meditation is just how you let go of those habbits of thought which don't allow your conscious realisation of all of it evermore naturally and ongoingly more effortlessly evermore joyously and freely and truely and succesfully here and now. Naturally effortlessly! As your true natural state of being in full allowed to flow connection and conscious realisation of your own greater non-physical consciousness. Which feels like full joy and bliss and feeling better evermore. This is your true nature, a blended being, allowed converging and realisation of your own greater non-physical consciousness. A fully allowed by you to be fully realised by you being. Feeling very good unconditionally, and under any and all conditions, always fully tapped in, turned on, tuned in, in full inspired inspiraling inspirations, being in the vortex of all creation, the convergence of all that you truely are being and becoming evermore here and now fully allowed by you to be fully realised by you, as you co-create all of it evermore here and now in full alignment and harmony with the Source of All Creation.