Selflessness

Stateless = Selfless?  The Buddhists say "The self, as we think of it, does not really exist. It is an imaginary construct."  "The Advaita Vedanta Hindus say there is only One Self, and we are all It, the Pure Awareness that is experiencing all through our senses. We are not our Bodies and we never die." This foundation is Full Compassion, or True Love. The Buddhists and the Hindus are really saying the same thing.  So was Jesus. The problem is that the story of our life in our mind keeps distracting us from this Empty Bliss within. In any case, this transition seems to bode well for us all.

Once I said to God, "How do you teach us?"

"Once I said to God, "How do you teach us?"

And he replied

"If
you were
playing chess with someone who
had infinite power and infinite knowledge
and wanted to make you a
master of the game,

where would all the chess
pieces be at
every moment?

Indeed, not only where he wanted them,
but where all were best for your
development;

and that is every situation
of one's
life."

~ St. John of the Cross ~

Even the mind has a purpose - don't dimsiss it entirely

When we begin to overcome our resistance to what is, in each and every moment, we come to realize that everything that happens is exactly what is supposed to happen.  This includes the thoughts in our mind, and even our addiction to those thoughts.  We are deeply involved in a process that is in no way controlled by the "me".

We think that we are creating our own thoughts, but deep enquiry shows us that is not true.  The thoughts, and our relationship to them, are being generated by a Source that is mysterious and not fully known to any of us.  In truth, they emerge out of empty spaciousness, and return to that Source.  As preposterous as it may sometimes seem, all of our thoughts have a purpose, which is to bring us along the often arduous path toward awakening. Anything that seems negative is necessary in order to eventually overcome that very negativity (see the Ouroboros).  It is like a massive internal "waste management" process.

Upon awakening, it becomes clear that we have always been exactly where we were supposed to be, on a glorious. albeit sometimes difficult, journey toward the clearing of the channels that thoroughly connect us to the One Being of which we are a part.  No matter how negatively we have judged our thoughts and our experiences, we eventually come to realize that all of them have been part of the necessary process of disintigrating the pain of of the story of our lives.  We eventually learn to disidentify with ourselves and our stories, realizing that is not who we are, but instead we are the pure Awareness that arises within in each moment.  This is the vertical dimension of each unbounded moment of time to which we always have access, as we seemingly move through the horizontal dimension of time. 

In Truth, You can do no wrong.

Two Dimensions of Separation, manufactured by mind

I cannot say with certainty about others, but I know that I have been plagued with an addiction to the incessant monologue of thoughts in my mind since just about as long as I can remember.  This is sometimes called the 6th sense, because we can be aware of any of our 5 senses or of this mental jabbering which, for me, comes in a kind of mental audio format.  Sometimes it stuns me that this spewing of thoughts has not yet simply worn itself out.  Perhaps it is a purpose of deep sleep to give the process a rest.

What I have found, through introspection (or self-enquiry), is that these thoughts work like building blocks to create the entire story of my life, including the concept of my body, and even my "self". Moment by moment, the thoughts are constantly shifting, but they seem to follow certain patterns to create story of my life, which keeps me trapped in the illusion of separation.  There are 2 dimensions to this separation; time and space:

1. Time: My addiction to my thoughts; both the memories of my past, and the speculation about possible future scenarios, keeps me from experiencing the glory and wonder of being full present.  However, through self-enquiry I can realize that the past and future are only ever thoughts about the past and the future which always occur in the present moment.  Furthermore, in any particular moment, I am only thinking about one possible future event, or one particular memory.  All of these are inaccurate speculations and  depictions of reality, made only of the flimsy, constantly shifting, building blocks of the mind.  In fact, my preoccupation with the notions of future and past only serves to create an artificial separation in the idea of time, which prevents me from experiencing the Truth of the Unity of Each Moment.
2. Space:The idea that subject and object are separate is built right into the English language.  Most of our sentences include both a subject and an object, which are separate from each other.  This can be useful for communicating about the world, but only as symbols. 
   
   The addiction to "word thoughts" uses this feature of language to create an illusion of a self that is separate from its environment.  It does this by positing the body and also the thoughts themselves as the "self", and then separates that concept from everything else. It then goes even further to create the idea of separation of all of the objects in that environment.
   
   When we enquire within, we may realize that we are aware of our body, and our thoughts with our senses in much the same way that we are aware of "external" objects.  This begs the critical question of what is the true subject, that is, what is it that is aware of the "externals", the body, and the thoughts.  We cannot conceive of this objectively, because if we were to do so it too would become an object, and thus not the True Subject, which I Am.
   
   The ultimate result of this analysis is that everything that we perceive, including our bodies and our thoughts, are only separate from the "I Am" subject as an illusion.  All, in Truth, are composed of the stuff of the "I Am" subject, much like all of the images on a movie screen are composed of the light of the movie camera shining on the screen. The images constantly shift and change, but the basis of their true nature always remains the same. 

The problem with this analysis is that the analysis itself is made up of the same thought stuff that the rest of the story is made of, and so it can only take us as far as an intellectual understanding.  It is one thing to understand the idea of Unity with the mind, but quite another to truly break out of the trance of the mind, and experience The Truth of our Reality as it really is.

I personally am hoping that by dwelling on these ideas, my experience will move beyond thought into Reality.  In fact I have had brief moments of such a deeper understanding.  On the other hand, expecting something different to happen in the "future" is part and parcel of the illusion described above, and so this hope can become self defeating.  This is where we must come to the Mercy of the Grace of Each Moment:

"To live only for some future goal is shallow.  It's the sides of the mountain that sustain life, not the top."
~ Robert M. Pirsig ~

Chaos evolves into Beauty

From our mind's limited point of view, the world around us can look like complete chaos.  However, there are many examples of the beauty that often exists in The Reality that is hidden beneath the surface of the narrow view.

Watch the video on this page to see how elements of beautiful symmetry can seem to degenerate into total chaos, only to come back together into to new forms of beauty that had been previously invisible to our senses:

The Banyan Tree

Beginning my first blog, here is a quote
from the Acharya Mahaprajna:

“Perceive the souls through the soul and you will become the Supreme Soul . . .

There are two sides of the consciousness: the soul and the Supreme Soul . . .

One the seed and the other, entirety. 

You must have seen how small the seed of the banyan tree is.

You must also have seen how expansive the tree is.

It is difficult to even imagine that such a small seed can become so big.

The soul is the seed of a banyan tree and the Supreme Soul its development.”

This blog is dedicated to the notion that by virtue of our being alive, we are all simultaneously both the soul (or self), and the Supreme Soul, our truest nature.  Most of, however, have been brainwashed through our upbringing into a trance that does not recognize our True Identity as The All.  We are deluded into thinking we are each a separate self, when we are truly more than just connected to each other, but are that in actuality the Same One Being.

Our entire lives beomce adventures in the process of removing these blinders, and Realizing who we Truly Are.  Each of us has our own Path toward this realization, which may be sudden, gradual, or as in most cases, a combination of both sudden glimpses (in States) and gradual understanding and realization (in Stages).

The most basic and noticeable element of Realization, which is constantly slipping into our awareness is that of Love!  Our experience of Love toward All is one of the most powerful of the many clues that brings us to the Truth.

May all be Blessed with the Greatest of  Compassion!!!

"For I reckon the sufferings of the present time are not worthy to be compared to the glory that which shall be revealed within us ."

~ Romans 8:18 ~