Ajay0 Posted May 11, 2023 Insightful article by female enlightened master Jan Frazier on being conscious and unconscious.... https://janfrazierteachings.com/2014/05/26/being-conscious/ Quote Being conscious occurs in the now. When you’re conscious, you’re aware of what’s happening in the now: sensation in your body, what your body is doing, things directly observable in the immediate scene. Consciousness is neutral, unresisting awareness of present-moment reality. There are no mental filters, no inner narrative. Simply awareness of what is, right now. Being unconscious means you’re lost in thought, in the pictures and stories your mind is producing. You have entered the made-up content of your mind and are occupying it as if it were reality itself. Your ego is invested in this content as being real and important, and very likely as a result you are experiencing some kind of emotion (stirred up by the thinking). You have forgotten that all of it is the product of your mind (even if its content appears to be true or important). As a result, you are missing actual reality, what’s happening in the now — including that you are inventing the thoughts. - Jan Frazier Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
old3bob Posted July 22, 2023 On 5/10/2023 at 11:29 PM, Ajay0 said: Insightful article by female enlightened master Jan Frazier on being conscious and unconscious.... https://janfrazierteachings.com/2014/05/26/being-conscious/ that's a good article but still not applicable to types of non-human beings who do not have human egos to be dealt with.... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Mark Foote Posted July 23, 2023 On 5/10/2023 at 10:29 PM, Ajay0 said: Insightful article by female enlightened master Jan Frazier on being conscious and unconscious.... https://janfrazierteachings.com/2014/05/26/being-conscious/ If something is going on in your mind at the moment, being conscious means you’re aware that you’re thinking. (ibid) That's not my experience of thinking. Yes, at times I'm aware that I'm thinking, but more often I am totally absorbed in the thoughts. Being unconscious means you’re lost in thought, in the pictures and stories your mind is producing. You have entered the made-up content of your mind and are occupying it as if it were reality itself. (ibid) That's not being unconscious, to me. I am concentrated in my thoughts, and that feels like a natural occurrence to me, an experience to be accepted rather than denied. Here's an approach Gautama offered to setting up mindfulness of the four applications, including mindfulness of mind, that I think is more likely to bear fruit if cultivated and developed than attempting to always be conscious of thinking: As (one) abides in body contemplating body, either some bodily object arises, or bodily discomfort or drowsiness of mind scatters (one’s) thoughts abroad to externals. Thereupon… (one’s) attention should be directed to some pleasurable object of thought. As (one) thus directs it to some pleasurable object of thought, delight springs up in (one’s being). In (one), thus delighted, arises zest. Full of zest (one’s) body is calmed down. With body so calmed (one) experiences ease. The mind of one at ease is concentrated. (One) thus reflects: The aim on which I set my mind I have attained. Come, let me withdraw my mind [from pleasurable object of thought]. So (one) withdraws (one’s) mind therefrom, and neither starts nor carries on thought-process. Thus (one) is fully conscious: I am without thought initial or sustained. I am inwardly mindful. I am at ease. (Gautama repeats the above for “As (one) contemplates feelings in feelings…”, “… mind in mind…”, “… mind-states in mind-states, either some mental object arises, or…”) Such is the practice for the direction of mind. And what… is the practice for the non-direction of mind? (First,) by not directing (one’s) mind to externals, (one) is fully aware: My mind is not directed to externals. Then (one) is fully aware: My mind is not concentrated either on what is before or on what is behind, but it is set free, it is undirected. Then (one) is fully aware: In body contemplating body I abide, ardent, composed and mindful. I am at ease. And (one) does the same with regard to feelings… to mind… and mind-states. Thus (one) is fully aware: In mind-states contemplating mind-states I abide, ardent, composed and mindful. I am at ease. This is the practice for the non-direction of mind. (SN V 154-157, Pali Text Society SN V pg 135-136) Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
C T Posted July 24, 2023 4 hours ago, Mark Foote said: Such is the practice for the direction of mind. And what… is the practice for the non-direction of mind? (First,) by not directing (one’s) mind to externals, (one) is fully aware: My mind is not directed to externals. Then (one) is fully aware:....... Clearly there's a misunderstanding. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Taoist Texts Posted July 24, 2023 On 5/11/2023 at 9:29 AM, Ajay0 said: Insightful article by female enlightened master Jan Frazier on being conscious and unconscious.... https://janfrazierteachings.com/2014/05/26/being-conscious/ https://janfrazierteachings.com/donate/ I live simply. Your donation will be gratefully applied to my living expenses lol Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Mark Foote Posted July 24, 2023 14 hours ago, C T said: Clearly there's a misunderstanding. Missing your insight, C T--do share. I find the continuation interesting: Then (one) is fully aware: My mind is not concentrated either on what is before or on what is behind, but it is set free, it is undirected. Then (one) is fully aware: In body contemplating body I abide, ardent, composed and mindful. I am at ease. The undirected mind lands in body contemplating body. Almost as interesting as the notion that relaxation of the activity of the body in inhalation and exhalation comes before the calming of the "mental factors", which calming I take to be a necessity in "straightening the chest and sitting precariously", as the Chinese classics prescribe. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
old3bob Posted July 24, 2023 (edited) . Edited July 25, 2023 by old3bob Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Ajay0 Posted July 25, 2023 12 hours ago, Taoist Texts said: https://janfrazierteachings.com/donate/ I live simply. Your donation will be gratefully applied to my living expenses lol Yes, she seems to have forgotten the fact that only military-industrial complex plutocrats, corporates, liquor barons and good-looking young celebrities have the right to make loads of money and get rich without being criticized for it. Peasants and common people like her should obviously be content with their lot and station in life and should not raise their heads too high, lest they be considered as impudent and insolent in respectable society. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Ajay0 Posted July 26, 2023 (edited) On 7/22/2023 at 9:33 PM, old3bob said: that's a good article but still not applicable to types of non-human beings who do not have human egos to be dealt with.... You might find this discourse by Vipassana teacher S.N.Goenka ( to jail inmates during a meditation study session ) useful. Goenka mentions notorious serial killers in Burma and India who had reformed with study and practice in a conducive environment. https://www.vridhamma.org/discourses/Discourse-to-Prisoners-in-Nasik-Jail-India Quote In Burma, the country where I was born and raised, there was a man in one of their jails, a man who had committed 17 murders, burnt down so many villages and all sorts of crimes. He learnt this technique from some saint and was practising it. He became a changed person. So the government decided to free him before his term expired. Now he is teaching others this technique. He has become a saint. He goes around the country teaching others. Similarly, during the lifetime of the Buddha, there was a man called Angulimala. You might have heard his story. He took a foolish vow that he would kill 1000 persons. Now how to keep count of the people killed. So he would cut off their finger and string it on a garland around his neck. He killed 999 persons and was waiting to kill the 1000th, but he could not find anyone. He was living in the jungle and no one would go that way out of fear. So he was hunting for his last victim. The Buddha came to hear of him and was filled with compassion for him: "Poor man, how miserable he must be. Not only is he hurting others but also himself." The Buddha goes to see him and Angulimala tries to kill him. But how can you kill a saint? He listens to the words of the Buddha and his mind becomes peaceful. This man who killed 999 innocent persons who may have not harmed him in any way, this man, he started practising this technique and became fully liberated from his misery. If he could do this, so can all of you. None of you have killed 999 persons. So come, liberate yourself. Like this man from Burma who killed 17 people and burnt so many villages. He too became a saint. How did he become a saint? Not by the grace of this person or that person. He became a saint through his own efforts. And what kind of effort? By external efforts you may earn your daily bread, but this effort is within yourself. If you do this internal effort then you can find real peace, real happiness. One who has managed to remove all his mental defilements, there is no one happier than him. He remains peaceful in all situations. ~ S.N.Goenka Edited July 26, 2023 by Ajay0 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
old3bob Posted July 26, 2023 we've talked about the human aspect already, but that is not about what I also mentioned... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Shadow_self Posted July 29, 2023 On 11/05/2023 at 6:29 AM, Ajay0 said: Insightful article by female enlightened master Jan Frazier on being conscious and unconscious.... https://janfrazierteachings.com/2014/05/26/being-conscious/ Enlightened master? Really? 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Ajay0 Posted August 18, 2023 On 7/30/2023 at 2:13 AM, Shadow_self said: Enlightened master? Really? Yes, you can go through her biographical summary here where her experience of enlightenment is highlighted... https://janfrazierteachings.com/about/ Quote In her late twenties, longing for hills and snow, she moved to New England, where she was active in the peace movement. But the inner peace she sought always eluded her. Then, in August 2003, she experienced a radical transformation of consciousness. Fear fell away from her, and she was immersed in a state of causeless joy that has never left her. While she has continued her life as writer, teacher, and mother, she has discovered it is possible to live a richly human life free of suffering. Her wish now is to communicate the truth that within every person is a pool of calm well-being that waits patiently to be stirred to life. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
