Open-Secrets

Tag: nondual

  • The Abandoned Meditator

    The Abandoned Meditator

    Does Meditation Need Me?

     Is your day ever like this?

    I wake up. Lie in bed a bit. Sense, Look and Listen.
    I get out of bed, go to the bathroom, brush teeth, put some water on hair and comb, splash some water on face…
    Now it’s time to meditate. I go to the meditation chair and get situated. I do an Om salutation and I meditate.
    My meditation practice ends. I rise from the chair, leave the bedroom and…

    I had many of those days until I looked more deeply into the process and considered a different perspective. Here is the rub with that whole scenario – ‘I.’

    Do you see it? ‘I’ wake up. ‘I’ get out of bed. ‘I’… I’m even meditating!

    My whole day begins with ‘I’ and chances are it’s going to tend to stay in that groove.

    Consider this: everything is already enlightened. This would include us. Perhaps we are not aware of this and this is part of why we meditate – to ‘do’ our part toward waking up.

    meditator meditation sittingWhat is meditation?

    From a dictionary: Meditation – the action or practice of meditating.

    Note: there is no ‘I’ in that definition. Can action and practice happen without an ‘I?’ Every nondual teacher says so. Let’s take them at their word. Our ‘I’ automatically inserts itself into any action or practice. I believe I’m needed!

    These days I think of meditation and meditating as something that is always happening, like enlightenment. In fact, I think enlightenment is meditating me. Every moment of my day, I’m in meditation – whether I’m aware of it or not. I’m being meditated from the inside out, the outside in and every other way possible.

    Waking up, brushing teeth, sitting to sit – it’s all meditation happening.

    The perspective of everything is already enlightened and meditation happening at all times helps to end the divisiveness that ‘I’ provides. With this, I can simply sit, or walk, or brush my teeth and let meditation do what it does. Meditation is more relaxed, more open to influence, more curious about mysteriousness.

    It’s true – I still wake up, do those things and wind up in that chair, but each movement has less ownership by ’I’ and more inclusion.

     

     

     

     

     

    ass meditator meditation

    My Ass

     I used to have
    The most obnoxious
    Worrisome, and stubborn
    Ass
    It was a bother and burden
    I would wish on no one
    So, I could not
    In all good conscious
    Rid my self of it
    Then, a Friend
    Told me of a method
    To break my ass
    Of all its contrariness
    So, I bought a chair
    And every day
    I made my ass
    Sit in that chair
    Oh! what fights and struggles we had
    That lazy ass so resistant to ever
    Going anywhere or doing any real work
    Now, could not and would not
    Sit still
    But, my Friend
    Had warned me of this stage
    So, I persisted
    In putting my ass in that chair
    Ignoring all of its
    Childish braying and petulance
    Slowly over time
    That chair
    Responded to the weight
    Of my ass
    Molding itself
    Into the only place
    My ass was ever
    Really relaxed and comfortable
    Now
    I could not get my ass
    Out of that chair
    It refused to be
    Anywhere else
    So, I left my ass
    In that chair
    While I went about
    My daily affairs
    Until one day
    My ass
    Disappeared
    And
    Took me with it

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

    ass stuck in meditation

  • The Nondual Duel

    Nonduality is Not the Final Word on Reality

    I recently received this email from a fan of Open-Secrets:

    http://www.scienceandnonduality.com/SAND2012-self.shtmlJohn there are many nondual psychotherapists, among them Stephan Bodian, author of ‘Wake Up Now’, and the authors of ‘The Sacred Mirror’ and ‘Listening From the Heart of Silence’.  who criticize all progressive approaches.  They say to put all ones resources into realizing oneself AS  aware Presence first and then return to embody the Realization into ones personality afterwards.  
     
    They claim that the Diamond Approach keeps one endlessly mired in one’s history and is sort of an endless treadmill that never really crosses the gateless gate.  It can be too easy for the ego to think of these states and stations as attainments for the personality, and that the direct approach cuts through the ego activity much cleaner. 
     
    I understand and agree with Hameed that this seems like pushing oneself into a condition that might not be the natural unfoldment of the souls dynamism, and that by surrendering to where one is in the moment is much more appropriate. 
     
    I only say this because they have started an online journal that looks very interesting and are asking for contributions from bloggers and others interested in the field of nondual psychotherapy.  I would personally love to see a discussion started on the benefits and shortcomings of the direct / progressive paths.  I really like your blog and would love to see someone with a background in the Ridhwan school represented in the journal.

    if you are interested the web address is  http://undividedjournal.com/    Thanks for your awesome blog. 

    I make no claim of being established in nondual realization, though I have had enough experience of the nondual to recognize it and compare that state with others.

    Here’s where my curiosity leads me in regards to the above:

    • I’m curious about why this has significance to the author of the email. It’s an interesting point that he brings up, but people have been misunderstanding and taking exception to A. H. Almaas and the Diamond Approach for years. In addition, the DA is just one of many valid teachings and paths that assist people in moving toward the truth and realization of reality.
    • My experience is that many people have experiences of the nondual, but then reify their experiences into intellectual understanding which can then be debated for the rest of time. Rumi had the same problem with intellectuals of his day.
    • I have no idea if Stephen Bodian lives and abides in the nondual and I am making no assertion about him. If he does have the position stated above, then my curiosity wonders about “nondual positions” an oxymoron in its own right, and the answer to this question – Is there no value in learning and developing skills and insight that move one in the direction of reality and help to ease daily suffering?
    • It’s true, some people become endlessly mired in working on their object relations. Some get endlessly mired in meditating, or efforting toward nonduality. Ego identity, loves the muck and the mire – intellectual debate about the merits of anything can be a mire.
    • Almaas does not see nonduality as the end-all of the spiritual journey. It is just one manifestation of the infinite potential of True Nature. No one manifestation of TN has any more or less merit than any other – except to the subjective consciousness of the experiencer. Almaas has, over the past 6 or 7 years, been teaching more and more about Total Being and Freedom. This is what he refers to as the 4th turning of the wheel of the Diamond Approach. The 3rd turning of the wheel is associated with nondual awareness.

    These are a few of my first response thoughts. Now, I am returning to…

    BTW – Almaas will be speaking at the 2012 Science & Nonduality conference in October – sounds like a reat opportunity to get his personal take on all of this.

     

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  • Nonduality – Oneness, Existence and Me

    Nondual duality

    • If it’s all one, where am I?
    • Am I here or not?
    • Do I have choice?
    • Am I separate from you?
    • Who’s speaking, thinking and breathing?


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  • Self-Centeredness vs. Selfishness

    self-centered selfish almaas instinctsMany spiritual teachings pick on the instincts equating them with temptation and “the Devil’s work.” The instincts are seen as antithetical to spiritual development and enlightenment.

    In non-dual awareness, one sees how everything is part of presence, a unity.

    Self-centeredness, inherent in the ego, is oriented around me first and what’s in it for me. At more subtle levels all experience is centered in the reference to a self. We are mostly unconsciousness.

    According to A.H. Almaas when self-centeredness is insecure, it appears as selfishness.

    Self-centeredness is an objective fact of the ego, everything is referenced to the self, one’s subjective experience.

    Selfishness is an obstacle to spiritual growth. Selfishness indicates an insecurity which means we are not being our true self because he true self is selfless in its nature. There is not a self that is separate from True Nature.

    Why does the self keep coming back? A huge factor in the resiliency of the ego self is the survival instinct. This instinct is tied to the body and the ego equates its own disolution with physical death. Mystics throughout the ages attest to the fact that life goes on when the ego disolves.

    Synthesizing the survival instinct brings toether the first and seventh chakras, the transcendent and the physical.

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