The problem with in-laws Is the concern For their family values Not you The mind’s orientation Toward the soul Is similar ———– jh
It’s impossible to judge a book by its cover if there is no comparing mind. If there is no reference point for comparison then, it’s damn difficult to find fault with anything.
Now, a comparing mind can be a good thing when it’s functioning free of the “judging mind”; “inner critic”; superego; or “junkyard dog”. It helps us to get home with a sack of oranges instead of a box of zucchini. But, unless we have engaged in specific work on this part of ourselves, it’s a given that it is running amok and causing us an enormous amount of suffering.
If we really look into the situation, we find that this junkyard dog is just plain mean and nasty. It’s being driven by self-hatred and it’s using our libidinal energy (life force) against us. I wish it weren’t so, but the situation is even worse. (more…)
I got on the spiritual path at age 19. The experience that precipitated my interest in spiritual development, self-realization, God-realization, enlightenment and such was, at that time, just mind boggling. Today, I realize that the experience involved a descent of essence into my consciousness and body, and an awakening of the point.
Like many, I have spent years seeking, searching, making half-assed attempts at meditation (daily practice), attending workshops, retreats and in the course of events spending more than tens of thousands of dollars. In the process of all of that, I matured (to some degree!) physically, emotionally and spiritually. My journey or process deepened. My orientation reoriented. My interests and curiosity started going places I could not have imagined.
Today, I find myself here – not going anywhere, no interest in changing or making something happen. It seems things change on their own and that there is an intelligence guiding it all that is more in touch with what I need to unwind than my mind on it’s best day could offer up. A real weight-lifting experience – so to speak.
I recently attended Byron Brown’s Soul without Shame workshop, a 3 1/2 day teaching on disengaging from the superego / inner critic. The superego / inner critic is one of the places of arrested development in our psyches and souls that constantly attacks and undermines our realization. Interestingly, in the beginning it actually serves us to move toward deeper realization, but then it really gets in the way. Doubt is one of it’s most effective tools. It also works through other people by producing attacks from the outside.
So there I was minding my own business two days after the workshop reading a magazine when I came upon this:
And that is where and how the words bulletproof and realization crossed paths in my brain and got me to thinking and contemplating bulletproof realization. I haven’t the time, nor inclination to share the breadth and depth of my contemplation, but I will say this – if we want to bulletproof our realization – live our realization, without goals & artifice, penness, curiosity and not-knowing are better supports and servants for orienting us.
Well at least mine is and has been. Part of the natural state of my mind and mental activity seems to be nothing more than simple, endless theft – always stealing someone else’s ideas and utterances. I offer no apology for my stealing activity, I understand it as part of themind’s mechanical functioning.
Damn, it’s a little more subtle and complicated than it appears. There’s this pesky identity that likes to assert ownership of “stolen goods.” Well, be that as it may, our minds like to gather up content, repackage it and sell it to the unsuspecting masses as original content.
No wonder we become bored and jaded with life at times. Our world is filled with stolen goods activity supplied by almost 8 billion mechanical bull-shitters. Like many of you, I love to read fiction and go to the movies. Do we ever really see or read anything new? Endlessly rearranging content to sell ourselves an “original bill of goods” requires a lot of distraction and impaired awareness.
And don’t fool yourself, I’m not about to stop. Not only is stealing masochistically and sadistically pleasing in its veiled form – I can’t quit. The identity conundrum again. The mind is going to continue to do what it does automatically and unconsciously. The thief is going to continue stealing – it is simply part of what it does.
Oh well, I guess I will just have to rely on honor amongst thieves unless there is some other dimension of mind beyond thievery.
As a continuation of my thoughts on Sensing, Looking & Listening, I must consider the senses. Seems obvious, but Sensing, Looking & Listening, if practiced and explored with sincerity, quickly leads beyond the senses.
The beginning practice of Sensing, Looking & Listening is associated with sight, sound & touch. As a first step, it is often suggested that one begin with the toes of one foot and move up the leg to the hip – slowly sensing each segment of the foot and leg. The sensing then moves to the fingers of the hand on the same side of the body and proceeds up the arm to the shoulder – again, sensing each segment as the awareness moves up the body. The practice then proceeds to the opposite shoulder moving down the arm to the leg and terminating at the toes on the opposite foot.
As one gains proficiency sensing the body, looking and listening are added. When adding looking and listening, the practice is to not “go out” to see and hear, but to allow perception to come in – think receptivity.
The art of sensing often carries a bit more emphasis as it is said that sensing is closer to how the soul perceives. So let’s look at this – what are we really exploring and developing? Our sensitivity for sure, but what does that imply? Ultimately, we are nurturing our capacity for awareness and consciousness.
The soul is the field of consciousness, the medium of experience. More basic than consciousness is awareness, so what we are is fundamentally a self-aware field of experience. It shouldn’t be too much of a leap to understand how sensing is closer to how the soul perceives.
If we are the medium of experience, then experience arises within the medium. This (us) self-aware medium perceives and knows by being “in touch” with what is forming within it – sensitive to the arising. The sensitivity is basic perception.
One really cool thing is that the forms arising in the medium are also “of the medium. In this world, what we perceive of as physical forms, thoughts, feelings, emotions and sensations are all forms of, and within, the soul. One can experience this as a telescoping of perception – think about the endless reflections you see when you stand between two mirrors – forms within forms within forms. Not only this, but dimensions within dimensions within dimensions.
An Evolution of the Practice – Sensing, Looking & Listening Beyond the 6 Senses
Now, a comparing mind can be a good thing when it’s functioning free of the “judging mind”; “inner critic”; superego; or “junkyard dog”. It helps us to get home with a sack of oranges instead of a box of zucchini. But, unless we have engaged in specific work on this part of ourselves, it’s a given that it is running amok and causing us an enormous amount of suffering.
