Why do otherwise sane people read huge roadside billboards? Because their minds want to be spun. Not because there's any pertinent info there.
All people, to believe they're doing anything useful with their lives, must believe they are part of some great tradition, religious, philosophical, metaphysical, etc. Which is, spinning.
Whereas, to see what's really going on, you CAN'T be part of some tradition, because if you are, you're seeking to be spun.
Now, there is a reality to these traditions, it stirs something in all people - as all traditions are, admittedly, about 'waking up', 'mindfulness', 'living in the here and now'; but notice, none include the missing term, 'mentally'. Waking up mentally; Living in the here and now mentally. That is the Direct Way to experience.
If 'mindfulness' (or 'self remembering') strikes you as being IMPORTANT, because it has a known, long tradition, with many extant and easily obtainable books, and groups of people following them, would it still strike you the same way even if you did not know about it's tradition? Is it the historical tradition that strikes you genetically, or is it the idea itself that strikes you?
The 'tried and proven' seems to be the reason why such ideas strike people, but it's so much more than that. People get lulled, after considerable time 'on their ways', into being somewhat satisfied with their results - meager as they are - and it becomes detrimental to them. When you find some 'method' that seems to work - whatever they called it (notice, it's always named by someone else...) - wear that sucker out, and then look for something else, directly. Of course, that means you have to be at the point of being able to invent your own (you can't be looking around for someone else's billboards.)
When you get good, you can sometimes be done with certain methods in a day or two, and really start movin'.
(an "escape hatch" for those so-inclined to squeeze through.)
First, you must "get really small,"
then you can pass through anything,
even "death" and "life."
But always remember, a "back door" is NOT an "escape hatch."
Everything produced here is
© "Praybob in Nirvana"
Friday, December 26, 2003
Doing
The only place doing has any importance or significance is between the ears. You can do many things, and not do many things, with the body - you can raise your right arm right now (see?), you can lower your arm too (see?), but what you can't do, and what you'll likely never be able to do, is do your thinking, the way you can do your breakfast, do your drive to work, do your christmas shopping. That which comes out your mouth or fingers, happens in the same way balls roll down hills. (Until, you can remember the First Story.)
Why is waking up so difficult for so many? It's not so difficult for the body, at 7:15 a.m. when the clock radio alarm goes off to that noisy rock station. Once it "learns" how to set the clock, and the alarm time, and the station number, and push the start button, it can literally and totally forget about it - and even a forgotten alarm clock works perfectly every day. (The body knows it's First Story, that's why it can learn.)
Yet, a person hears about, gets excited about, changing his mental state, acquiring a state of mindfulness, mentally - from being asleep up there, to being awake, mentally - and can't get past the initial realization that "I was asleep right then." This is like the body, hearing the alarm go off, but going immediately back to sleep - such a body, would never get out of bed. Such a mind, operating as described above (self-observation), goes immediately back to sleep -as such, the mind never gets out of itself.
There is nothing pulling the mind out of itself, the way a big, foreboding "something" pulls the body out of bed - dying, starving, freezing, etc. The physical world pulls the body out of bed, because the DNA knows it's own First Story - "without food/shelter you die!!"
There must be created something to pull the mind out of itself, in an exactly similar way - to remain conscious. And that, is knowledge of the First Story - not the body's, but a new one (that bears repeating, a NEW ONE!!)
Why is waking up so difficult for so many? It's not so difficult for the body, at 7:15 a.m. when the clock radio alarm goes off to that noisy rock station. Once it "learns" how to set the clock, and the alarm time, and the station number, and push the start button, it can literally and totally forget about it - and even a forgotten alarm clock works perfectly every day. (The body knows it's First Story, that's why it can learn.)
Yet, a person hears about, gets excited about, changing his mental state, acquiring a state of mindfulness, mentally - from being asleep up there, to being awake, mentally - and can't get past the initial realization that "I was asleep right then." This is like the body, hearing the alarm go off, but going immediately back to sleep - such a body, would never get out of bed. Such a mind, operating as described above (self-observation), goes immediately back to sleep -as such, the mind never gets out of itself.
There is nothing pulling the mind out of itself, the way a big, foreboding "something" pulls the body out of bed - dying, starving, freezing, etc. The physical world pulls the body out of bed, because the DNA knows it's own First Story - "without food/shelter you die!!"
There must be created something to pull the mind out of itself, in an exactly similar way - to remain conscious. And that, is knowledge of the First Story - not the body's, but a new one (that bears repeating, a NEW ONE!!)
The First Story
Spin. The First Story, is spin. This Universe has a spin. Someone telling conscious stories - as only a Human can - is always completely aware of the First Story. And it is the First Story that spins the tale, just as a spiders' web is it's own First Story. One is, one's own, First Story. Spin.
Now, it's called many things by the audience - from essence, to personality, to false personality, to real I, to Self - but it remains what it is, Spin.
All people are born, having been told, whispered to, by Life, the First Story... and, one's genetics begin the spinning process; and is the way DNA spins around the First Story - "It self" - emerging sometime later, as bug, buffalo, or little boy, each perfectly capable and willing to tell the tale.
--------
Teachers, are those with direct access to the First Story, and do not reveal that First Story to anyone living or dead. It remains, in actuality, a Secret, and is the source of all human-based ideas regarding, "secrets" - secret codes, secret words, secret rites, secret teachings, secret groups, secret societies.
It is the failing of all who would hear their teachers, to attempt to devote precious energies, to discovering their teacher's Secret (his, First Story), and the only success available to such devotees, is hearing their own First Story - and keeping it entirely secret, which, by their continual failure at such, is the source of all human-based ideas regarding, "new information", "new teachings", "new systems", "new ideas".
Teachers, do not have, nor teach, NEW anything. They keep the NEW internal, unrevealed. Only their audiences repeat, write down, and re-transmit what they hear, and call it, "The Teaching, System, Religion, Philosophy," etc., and is the source of all human-based ideas regarding, Christianity, Buddhism, Fourth Way, Advaita, they-named-it-so-they-can-talk-about-it.
Now, it's called many things by the audience - from essence, to personality, to false personality, to real I, to Self - but it remains what it is, Spin.
All people are born, having been told, whispered to, by Life, the First Story... and, one's genetics begin the spinning process; and is the way DNA spins around the First Story - "It self" - emerging sometime later, as bug, buffalo, or little boy, each perfectly capable and willing to tell the tale.
--------
Teachers, are those with direct access to the First Story, and do not reveal that First Story to anyone living or dead. It remains, in actuality, a Secret, and is the source of all human-based ideas regarding, "secrets" - secret codes, secret words, secret rites, secret teachings, secret groups, secret societies.
It is the failing of all who would hear their teachers, to attempt to devote precious energies, to discovering their teacher's Secret (his, First Story), and the only success available to such devotees, is hearing their own First Story - and keeping it entirely secret, which, by their continual failure at such, is the source of all human-based ideas regarding, "new information", "new teachings", "new systems", "new ideas".
Teachers, do not have, nor teach, NEW anything. They keep the NEW internal, unrevealed. Only their audiences repeat, write down, and re-transmit what they hear, and call it, "The Teaching, System, Religion, Philosophy," etc., and is the source of all human-based ideas regarding, Christianity, Buddhism, Fourth Way, Advaita, they-named-it-so-they-can-talk-about-it.
Life is a con game
And not just a confidence game. And not just a conspiracy game. But a monstrous Game nevertheless.
And humans are the players upon the field of it's choosing, fighting battles they didn't plan for, nor are able to win. Humans are designed to fail, and knowing this - from birth till death - they acquire and manufacture stories compensating for their plight.
Life presents itself to humans as being beneficial to the aims and needs of individual humans, and all individual humans take whatever happens to them, personally. When they perceive something as being "not in their best interest", they even manufacture stories to believe it is beneficial - it's the old "turn the other cheek", cheek.
But, there is very little that is truly, beneficial to the aims and needs of individual humans - beyond their pittance share of food, air, water, and sexual escapades. Once those meager needs are met, he has a life time of repaying a debt he believes he owes - that Life gave him IT'S confidence, and well wishes, so he must do the same for Life.
And so the herd of humanity, self-civilizing slaves that they are, pursue the lofty goal of becoming even more deeply embedded in the herd, even to the point of teaching others how to do so, more rapidly.
The con: a guy offers to give you the shirt off his back, if you should ever be without yours, so, to repay his confidence in you (that you will repay that kindness), you give yours to him - and away he disappears into the night, with you there feeling happy, fulfilled, and willing to live another day.
It's a Conspiracy, those thoughts about what's going on - they aren't yours to believe or disbelieve, they are Life's, and they are being force fed to every human on the planet, who says "please," and "thank you." without ever catching on.
And humans are the players upon the field of it's choosing, fighting battles they didn't plan for, nor are able to win. Humans are designed to fail, and knowing this - from birth till death - they acquire and manufacture stories compensating for their plight.
Life presents itself to humans as being beneficial to the aims and needs of individual humans, and all individual humans take whatever happens to them, personally. When they perceive something as being "not in their best interest", they even manufacture stories to believe it is beneficial - it's the old "turn the other cheek", cheek.
But, there is very little that is truly, beneficial to the aims and needs of individual humans - beyond their pittance share of food, air, water, and sexual escapades. Once those meager needs are met, he has a life time of repaying a debt he believes he owes - that Life gave him IT'S confidence, and well wishes, so he must do the same for Life.
And so the herd of humanity, self-civilizing slaves that they are, pursue the lofty goal of becoming even more deeply embedded in the herd, even to the point of teaching others how to do so, more rapidly.
The con: a guy offers to give you the shirt off his back, if you should ever be without yours, so, to repay his confidence in you (that you will repay that kindness), you give yours to him - and away he disappears into the night, with you there feeling happy, fulfilled, and willing to live another day.
It's a Conspiracy, those thoughts about what's going on - they aren't yours to believe or disbelieve, they are Life's, and they are being force fed to every human on the planet, who says "please," and "thank you." without ever catching on.
Do you get energy from conversation?
This is a constant "debate" amongst people. Do you get energy from conversing with other people? Do you get energy from thinking about topics (talking to yourself)?
Most, upon hearing these questions, would immediately answer, "YES! what could be more obvious.", and they'd be right, except for one thing. That's not the end of it.
Oh, it's the end of it for them, of course - they already believe that they get "new energy" from conversations, so they pursue them, engage in them, even join email lists, and post 10 times a day everyday, all from the belief that such engagement, produces "new energy" in them. But, (kindly and gently) force them to keep considering the question, and you'll see how limited is their capacity for understanding "what's going on."
There's more going on in this dynamic. It is not possible to determine the direction of the flow of energy, when it's flowing, anymore than it's possible to "know where the river is, >>right now<<." About all consciousness can say, is that the river is one and eternal, at least until it dries up, but then there's the Big River, until it dries up, but then there's the Universal River of Energy...
Humans believe they get energy OUT OF THE PROCESS of conversation (with themselves and others), but it's not true; they expend energy in that process. Energy only comes into the system in one way - from direct experience. Like standing at the edge of the Grand Canyon at sunset, and experiencing something - then, during and afterward people want to snap photos, and talk about their Great Canyon vacation, and that Superb Sunset. They're reliving a direct experience, and convinced absolutely that they're squeezing new energy out of their memories, but they are not. Remembering energizes, or activates circuits that have already been laid down, like railray tracks, and they're just taking the trip all over again, except this time, without their physical body in tow. All the energy is still there, of course, in the direct experience, but they can't squeeze into it, or anything out it, by talking about it further. Memory is one thing, talking about it another.
If you can begin to see this, it's like a bit-switching circuit, that flips first this way - allowing energy to flow in - and then that way - allowing energy to flow out - and this process is known by humans, as "conversation", and "talking to oneself", and more derogatorily at times, imagination, daydreaming, lost in thought, absent-mindedness.
This bit-switching circuitry in the frontal lobes, enables conversation, and what comes out your mouth, and into your fingertips, is the RESULT of something, not the cause of something. And the flip-flop-flip is progressing in sequence with the normal breath, though at a much higher frequency, about a 30th of a second each way (much faster when it's operating on all cylinders). Seeing, talking, hearing, seeing, talking, hearing and it goes by so fast, that the conversation seems continuous - like a movie theatre film in progress.
It's a huge eye-opener, and mind-clearing experience, to realize when it's happening, that a particular sentence is occurring without any help from "you" whatsoever, that the possibilities of eventual word selection and sentence construction are almost infinite as to their possible resulting form, and that the words and phrases are being pulled down off the shelf in a way unknown to you. (That is, that prior sentence could have been said in an almost INFINITE number of ways, and no human ever knows what he is going to say next - the sentence has more control over it's final construction, than you do!)
And if this doesn't beat all, it all works perfectly whether you're "asleep" or "awake" (in the "esoteric" sense). Everybody on the planet can and does engage in copious (COPIOUS) amounts of inner conversation and social conversation, and they don't have to be enlightened, or even on their way to being enlightened, or even interested in being enlightened. The machinery of Life, the living machine, moves in mysterious ways, but only to the many who are asleep at the wheel.
~~~~~~~~
ps- therefore, all stories are absolutely irrelevant, because they're after the fact, arising out of the direct experience which evoked them, and that experience is a singular, even personal, experience, and can hardly be communicated to someone else; hey, you'd just have to have been there.
pps- "edge of the Grand Canyon" = "edge of the Universe" = "edge of Consciousness". And peering out across those unknown spaces can only be experienced, not imagined, nor dreamed up, though everybody believes that through conversation they may be able to.
Most, upon hearing these questions, would immediately answer, "YES! what could be more obvious.", and they'd be right, except for one thing. That's not the end of it.
Oh, it's the end of it for them, of course - they already believe that they get "new energy" from conversations, so they pursue them, engage in them, even join email lists, and post 10 times a day everyday, all from the belief that such engagement, produces "new energy" in them. But, (kindly and gently) force them to keep considering the question, and you'll see how limited is their capacity for understanding "what's going on."
There's more going on in this dynamic. It is not possible to determine the direction of the flow of energy, when it's flowing, anymore than it's possible to "know where the river is, >>right now<<." About all consciousness can say, is that the river is one and eternal, at least until it dries up, but then there's the Big River, until it dries up, but then there's the Universal River of Energy...
Humans believe they get energy OUT OF THE PROCESS of conversation (with themselves and others), but it's not true; they expend energy in that process. Energy only comes into the system in one way - from direct experience. Like standing at the edge of the Grand Canyon at sunset, and experiencing something - then, during and afterward people want to snap photos, and talk about their Great Canyon vacation, and that Superb Sunset. They're reliving a direct experience, and convinced absolutely that they're squeezing new energy out of their memories, but they are not. Remembering energizes, or activates circuits that have already been laid down, like railray tracks, and they're just taking the trip all over again, except this time, without their physical body in tow. All the energy is still there, of course, in the direct experience, but they can't squeeze into it, or anything out it, by talking about it further. Memory is one thing, talking about it another.
If you can begin to see this, it's like a bit-switching circuit, that flips first this way - allowing energy to flow in - and then that way - allowing energy to flow out - and this process is known by humans, as "conversation", and "talking to oneself", and more derogatorily at times, imagination, daydreaming, lost in thought, absent-mindedness.
This bit-switching circuitry in the frontal lobes, enables conversation, and what comes out your mouth, and into your fingertips, is the RESULT of something, not the cause of something. And the flip-flop-flip is progressing in sequence with the normal breath, though at a much higher frequency, about a 30th of a second each way (much faster when it's operating on all cylinders). Seeing, talking, hearing, seeing, talking, hearing and it goes by so fast, that the conversation seems continuous - like a movie theatre film in progress.
It's a huge eye-opener, and mind-clearing experience, to realize when it's happening, that a particular sentence is occurring without any help from "you" whatsoever, that the possibilities of eventual word selection and sentence construction are almost infinite as to their possible resulting form, and that the words and phrases are being pulled down off the shelf in a way unknown to you. (That is, that prior sentence could have been said in an almost INFINITE number of ways, and no human ever knows what he is going to say next - the sentence has more control over it's final construction, than you do!)
And if this doesn't beat all, it all works perfectly whether you're "asleep" or "awake" (in the "esoteric" sense). Everybody on the planet can and does engage in copious (COPIOUS) amounts of inner conversation and social conversation, and they don't have to be enlightened, or even on their way to being enlightened, or even interested in being enlightened. The machinery of Life, the living machine, moves in mysterious ways, but only to the many who are asleep at the wheel.
~~~~~~~~
ps- therefore, all stories are absolutely irrelevant, because they're after the fact, arising out of the direct experience which evoked them, and that experience is a singular, even personal, experience, and can hardly be communicated to someone else; hey, you'd just have to have been there.
pps- "edge of the Grand Canyon" = "edge of the Universe" = "edge of Consciousness". And peering out across those unknown spaces can only be experienced, not imagined, nor dreamed up, though everybody believes that through conversation they may be able to.
Enlightenment News
I don't read the Enlightenment News section of the Worldwide Inquirer tabloid anymore, having grown a third ear some time back - which starts to twitch vigorously whenever within earshot of more-of-the-same-ol-same-ol. Some of these reporters out there, writing for the Enlightenment News section of the tabloids, can't tell a _New_ story anymore because they're locked into _Old_ stories they've told so many times before - and my third ear can hear whenever even they don't believe their own schtick.
You see, it's not what people say that matters - all those Masters and Teachers and the countless, would-be nameless-except-for-their-continual-self-serving gurus, saints and self-realized doctors of the same disease they're spreading ("You're not enlightened, but I can make you so - in 30 days, or your money back!") - it's that they keep talking the talk, and greasin' the engine.
The sooner one recognizes the background NOISE for what it is, the sooner one can start hearing something _New_, and start writing (thinking) for their own pleasure, not someone else's.
You see, it's not what people say that matters - all those Masters and Teachers and the countless, would-be nameless-except-for-their-continual-self-serving gurus, saints and self-realized doctors of the same disease they're spreading ("You're not enlightened, but I can make you so - in 30 days, or your money back!") - it's that they keep talking the talk, and greasin' the engine.
The sooner one recognizes the background NOISE for what it is, the sooner one can start hearing something _New_, and start writing (thinking) for their own pleasure, not someone else's.
Alpha and Omega
There is a good reason, Shangri-la, Nirvana, Heaven, et al, are concepts only, not physical places - things that can be touched. It's so that people will chase after them utilizing the only tools they have - words, nouns and verbs, fiction, prose and poetry - and since no one can prove them (words) wrong, the chase continues apace.
In the end and the beginning, the omega and the alpha, it doesn't matter what people say or what they talk about, it only matters that people keep talking. It doesn't matter where the car goes, it only matters that their engines keeps running - and in these climes (mass confusion), it's best to keep it running all the time, lest you may never start it up again.
Now, of course, it is allowable that a few people can let their engines come to a temporary full stop (as long as most - 99.999999% -don't; so, if you've done your math, that's about six thousand people worldwide, give or take). So, it doesn't matter whether you're talking Advaita or Zoroastrianism or anything in-between, the purpose of all these topics, A-Z, is to keep all the engines running, as they should - being apparently in the best interest of Life itself.
In the end and the beginning, the omega and the alpha, it doesn't matter what people say or what they talk about, it only matters that people keep talking. It doesn't matter where the car goes, it only matters that their engines keeps running - and in these climes (mass confusion), it's best to keep it running all the time, lest you may never start it up again.
Now, of course, it is allowable that a few people can let their engines come to a temporary full stop (as long as most - 99.999999% -don't; so, if you've done your math, that's about six thousand people worldwide, give or take). So, it doesn't matter whether you're talking Advaita or Zoroastrianism or anything in-between, the purpose of all these topics, A-Z, is to keep all the engines running, as they should - being apparently in the best interest of Life itself.
Thursday, December 4, 2003
"Work Language"
Most people who get caught, physically, by the allure of a mystical teaching or system (including the Gurdjieff system, the Advaita system, and many others), also get constrained, mentally, by the language used by those who study the "Bibles" and follow those systems.
Although followers of systems each have their own "special language", which is supposed to allow them to converse with others like themselves - you know, the flock they fly with - and presumably to be understood, it, strangely, often inhibits them from discussing even the same ideas they are deeply interested in, with others not familiar with, or unwilling to use, their own "special language."
Just the opposite should really be the case: the more adept one is with their particular verbal form of communication, the better able they should be at discussing the same ideas with those who don't subscribe to their particular dialect (and dialect is surely what it is - we all speak English, afterall.)
Language is a tool, when probably used, not a straight-jacket - which it surely is for many people, who become further confined by its usage, not freed by it.
Consider: there are two, count 'em', TWO flows or persuasions in Life, viz. the efforts men make to "get enlightened", to "wake up", to "become conscious". The first flow is based upon a person acquiring a "work language" which, according to some external authority, contains "the knowledge" of that teaching, and through which certain people, becoming educated in "the knowledge", presume (hope) to "discover the truth" (about themselves and everything else). The second flow - very, very rarely seen (if ever) - is that kind of revolutionary Activity that could only be described as, the continuing Struggle to keep language (any language, ALL language) from strangling one's Understanding.
People "of the first flow" - from Christians, to Buddhists, to Fourthwayers - can not talk to "others" outside their groups, about those specific ideas which they "hold dear" and practice so diligently; their often expressed reason being, those "others" don't have either the "work language" or the "work being" to hear, let alone, comprehend, let alone Understand them.
People "of the second flow" - those rebellious explorers of consciousness, here and there - most definitely CAN TALK TO ANYONE ANYWHERE with no problem whatsoever, about any and all ideas they "hold dear" (though "holding dear" is NOT a phrase such a real rebel would ever use himself -it's included here only as a counterpoint to the previous paragraph, to make the idea clearer - in fact, real rebels hold NO IDEAS DEAR whatsoever. Period.)
Almost everyone - followers of Fourth Way, Buddhism, Advaita, Christianity, etc., on email lists, groups and/or forums - falls into the "People of the first flow" camp, and therefore, their language literally strangles their understanding, because it confines it, limits it, and none of them has even a glimmer of that fact -believing everything for them is "progressing right on schedule". Were this NOT the case, there would be absolutely no need whatsoever for the multitudes of religions, teachings, and systems extant on this planet, leading to the Confusion of Tongues in the land of nod (pun intended), and ultimately to the "cat & tongue problem" exhibited by so many people.
Notice the general lack of participation on email lists which discuss the intangible subjects in which people like us are interested. People open up threads, start "conversations", but always the same people make all the effort and do the replying. This rarely changes over time. The active remain active, the passive remain passive, and so even if a group consists of 10, 100, or 1000 people, the percentage of active contributors remains a very small percentage. This is due to the built-in constrictive nature of "work language".
But, it's an illusion. Work language is not necessary, nor required, to discuss the important ideas associated with waking up, getting enlightened, or reaching liberation. These ideas are the most important ones man has to deal with, and English is quite sufficient a tool with which to discuss the realizations one periodically makes along the way. Believe it, or not.
Although followers of systems each have their own "special language", which is supposed to allow them to converse with others like themselves - you know, the flock they fly with - and presumably to be understood, it, strangely, often inhibits them from discussing even the same ideas they are deeply interested in, with others not familiar with, or unwilling to use, their own "special language."
Just the opposite should really be the case: the more adept one is with their particular verbal form of communication, the better able they should be at discussing the same ideas with those who don't subscribe to their particular dialect (and dialect is surely what it is - we all speak English, afterall.)
Language is a tool, when probably used, not a straight-jacket - which it surely is for many people, who become further confined by its usage, not freed by it.
Consider: there are two, count 'em', TWO flows or persuasions in Life, viz. the efforts men make to "get enlightened", to "wake up", to "become conscious". The first flow is based upon a person acquiring a "work language" which, according to some external authority, contains "the knowledge" of that teaching, and through which certain people, becoming educated in "the knowledge", presume (hope) to "discover the truth" (about themselves and everything else). The second flow - very, very rarely seen (if ever) - is that kind of revolutionary Activity that could only be described as, the continuing Struggle to keep language (any language, ALL language) from strangling one's Understanding.
People "of the first flow" - from Christians, to Buddhists, to Fourthwayers - can not talk to "others" outside their groups, about those specific ideas which they "hold dear" and practice so diligently; their often expressed reason being, those "others" don't have either the "work language" or the "work being" to hear, let alone, comprehend, let alone Understand them.
People "of the second flow" - those rebellious explorers of consciousness, here and there - most definitely CAN TALK TO ANYONE ANYWHERE with no problem whatsoever, about any and all ideas they "hold dear" (though "holding dear" is NOT a phrase such a real rebel would ever use himself -it's included here only as a counterpoint to the previous paragraph, to make the idea clearer - in fact, real rebels hold NO IDEAS DEAR whatsoever. Period.)
Almost everyone - followers of Fourth Way, Buddhism, Advaita, Christianity, etc., on email lists, groups and/or forums - falls into the "People of the first flow" camp, and therefore, their language literally strangles their understanding, because it confines it, limits it, and none of them has even a glimmer of that fact -believing everything for them is "progressing right on schedule". Were this NOT the case, there would be absolutely no need whatsoever for the multitudes of religions, teachings, and systems extant on this planet, leading to the Confusion of Tongues in the land of nod (pun intended), and ultimately to the "cat & tongue problem" exhibited by so many people.
Notice the general lack of participation on email lists which discuss the intangible subjects in which people like us are interested. People open up threads, start "conversations", but always the same people make all the effort and do the replying. This rarely changes over time. The active remain active, the passive remain passive, and so even if a group consists of 10, 100, or 1000 people, the percentage of active contributors remains a very small percentage. This is due to the built-in constrictive nature of "work language".
But, it's an illusion. Work language is not necessary, nor required, to discuss the important ideas associated with waking up, getting enlightened, or reaching liberation. These ideas are the most important ones man has to deal with, and English is quite sufficient a tool with which to discuss the realizations one periodically makes along the way. Believe it, or not.
Systems
Although there are countless systems, teachings, religions, philosophies, etc., out there in Life to feast upon, there seems to be a few which have "risen to the top" of the heap of garbage that litters the landscape of "self- improvement technologies" available to all those "inquiring minds" out there. Two, in my opinion, stand out: the Fourth Way and Advaita, seem to be the most sublime, intelligent, and self-consistent, though they couldn't be more different in their approaches. The Fourth Way stresses effort, and "creating a soul" (or, consciously evolving that which is not already existent), while Advaita stresses non-effort, "realizing the Self" (or, realizing that which is already perfectly existent.)
Some people may have heard about both, at the start of their "spiritual journey", and gravitated to one or the other. But, no matter which way one goes, there are very similar milestones along the way - the first being, the excitement at hearing/reading some new ideas, the almost feverish acquisition of books/tapes/videos of the presumed "leaders" and historians and biographers (living or dead), and the attempted commitment to "do the work" however described in those books/tapes/videos, sometimes - though not always - even moving on to locating a group and qualified teacher, joining up, and staying awhile. Likely, most of those subscribed here, experienced a similar set of initial steps.
After having studied the Fourth Way, alone, then with some few friends, then in a group with a teacher for almost 10 years, I found it absolutely necessary to leave, for various reasons having to do with certain realizations I was having regarding the ideas. Had it not been for the fact that I found another person some years later, whom I met with, listened to intently for some years, I never would have discovered the limitation the Fourth Way represents - be that Gurdjieff's version, Ouspensky's version, Collin's, Nicoll's, Bennett's, Pentland's, Orage's, or any of the numerous entities that purport to know something.
All systems are interesting presentations, and fill a void that many people have who want a "new inner life", but ultimately fail all those who attempt them, regardless what they say to the contrary. The founders of their respective systems may have certainly achieved something significant, but their followers? Highly doubtful. A person should be able to realize that, if not, they may never realize it, and it becomes more difficult with time.
The central idea of absolutely ALL systems/teachings is this: man is incapable of knowing himself as he is, because he can't awaken as he is, and all the theories he holds about himself, the world, Life, his possibilities, are just theories he can't verify as he is, even the ones he "acquires" by reading, from supposedly esoteric sources. The systems suggest you can change, and give you certain methods to start that process - self remembering and self observation being the chief ones (though those terms are fungible and go by many, many different names - chanting, meditating, mindfulness and many others.) But they all come down to one thing, man does not understand that what he thinks he is studying - and it could be anything, Fourth Way, Buddhism, Christianity, Sufism, whatever - is a distraction at best. What he must start studying, IS THE THING DOING THE STUDYING.
99% of people who hear that, miss it, or dismiss it, or want to argue with it. 1% or less, instantly have a new realization of the correctness of that statement. It's NOT the system (nor "yourself" -features, characteristics, flaws) that you need to study, it's the thing doing the studying. The mind.
No one can possibly give you any more instruction than that, and no one would dare CHARGE you money to hear more instructions, who was capable of telling you more. There are no foundations, no schools, no gatherings, no flocks out there that could guide you or lead you to the "way" to study the thing doing the studying - you must discover that on your own, or it's worthless. Other people's clues sound interesting, when you first hear them, but immediately - as with all things - you forget them, don't employ them further, because you have no control over what flows through your mind from moment to moment. That is, you can not think intentionally for any length of time, and that's precisely what you must learn to do - think more than you have to, about everything.
Here's one BIG HINT you can play with: remember the old maxim, "as above, so below"? Well the updated, more powerful version reads, "as without, so within." Everything you see out there in the world -politics, art, philosophy, psychology, religion, human strife, war, you name it - is reflected in the mind, that is, the same forces which enable those external phenomena to be witnessed by humans, can be witnessed internally, and all of them lead to the condition from which you want to be freed - sleep, mechanicalness, stupidity, lack of will, etc. That is, you are (everybody is) a "city/state", with all the same institutions, allegiances, power struggles, forces in play, consisting primarily of a leader and followers, the powerful and the absolutely powerless. That is, again, a partnership, between the force of power in you, and powerless in you, all trying to gain the upper hand. That dynamic can not change, must not be changed, until it can be changed ALL AT ONCE, by the emergence of a REAL POWER, which remains hidden to the powerful and the powerless, yet is capable of full and absolute control.
Here's another BIG HINT: don't talk about yourself, don't give interviews to anybody including yourself, don't tell anyone how you're doing - in a word, forget about yourself - you're unimportant in the grand scheme. Concentrate all your efforts on thinking more than you have to about the external world of man, of Life and it's interactions through man (including you of course), as if "knowing Life" was a more important maxim than, "knowing yourself", as if "the unexamined Life of Life is not worth living" was a more important maxim than, "the unexamined life of me is not worth living."
This is a major shift in your power of attention, what to attend to, and believe it or not, you can learn MUCH MORE about yourself and your possibilities when you learn to do that, than you'll ever learn studying a system, Gurdjieff's way, Buddha's way, Jesus's way, Lao Tse's way, or any way.
Some people may have heard about both, at the start of their "spiritual journey", and gravitated to one or the other. But, no matter which way one goes, there are very similar milestones along the way - the first being, the excitement at hearing/reading some new ideas, the almost feverish acquisition of books/tapes/videos of the presumed "leaders" and historians and biographers (living or dead), and the attempted commitment to "do the work" however described in those books/tapes/videos, sometimes - though not always - even moving on to locating a group and qualified teacher, joining up, and staying awhile. Likely, most of those subscribed here, experienced a similar set of initial steps.
After having studied the Fourth Way, alone, then with some few friends, then in a group with a teacher for almost 10 years, I found it absolutely necessary to leave, for various reasons having to do with certain realizations I was having regarding the ideas. Had it not been for the fact that I found another person some years later, whom I met with, listened to intently for some years, I never would have discovered the limitation the Fourth Way represents - be that Gurdjieff's version, Ouspensky's version, Collin's, Nicoll's, Bennett's, Pentland's, Orage's, or any of the numerous entities that purport to know something.
All systems are interesting presentations, and fill a void that many people have who want a "new inner life", but ultimately fail all those who attempt them, regardless what they say to the contrary. The founders of their respective systems may have certainly achieved something significant, but their followers? Highly doubtful. A person should be able to realize that, if not, they may never realize it, and it becomes more difficult with time.
The central idea of absolutely ALL systems/teachings is this: man is incapable of knowing himself as he is, because he can't awaken as he is, and all the theories he holds about himself, the world, Life, his possibilities, are just theories he can't verify as he is, even the ones he "acquires" by reading, from supposedly esoteric sources. The systems suggest you can change, and give you certain methods to start that process - self remembering and self observation being the chief ones (though those terms are fungible and go by many, many different names - chanting, meditating, mindfulness and many others.) But they all come down to one thing, man does not understand that what he thinks he is studying - and it could be anything, Fourth Way, Buddhism, Christianity, Sufism, whatever - is a distraction at best. What he must start studying, IS THE THING DOING THE STUDYING.
99% of people who hear that, miss it, or dismiss it, or want to argue with it. 1% or less, instantly have a new realization of the correctness of that statement. It's NOT the system (nor "yourself" -features, characteristics, flaws) that you need to study, it's the thing doing the studying. The mind.
No one can possibly give you any more instruction than that, and no one would dare CHARGE you money to hear more instructions, who was capable of telling you more. There are no foundations, no schools, no gatherings, no flocks out there that could guide you or lead you to the "way" to study the thing doing the studying - you must discover that on your own, or it's worthless. Other people's clues sound interesting, when you first hear them, but immediately - as with all things - you forget them, don't employ them further, because you have no control over what flows through your mind from moment to moment. That is, you can not think intentionally for any length of time, and that's precisely what you must learn to do - think more than you have to, about everything.
Here's one BIG HINT you can play with: remember the old maxim, "as above, so below"? Well the updated, more powerful version reads, "as without, so within." Everything you see out there in the world -politics, art, philosophy, psychology, religion, human strife, war, you name it - is reflected in the mind, that is, the same forces which enable those external phenomena to be witnessed by humans, can be witnessed internally, and all of them lead to the condition from which you want to be freed - sleep, mechanicalness, stupidity, lack of will, etc. That is, you are (everybody is) a "city/state", with all the same institutions, allegiances, power struggles, forces in play, consisting primarily of a leader and followers, the powerful and the absolutely powerless. That is, again, a partnership, between the force of power in you, and powerless in you, all trying to gain the upper hand. That dynamic can not change, must not be changed, until it can be changed ALL AT ONCE, by the emergence of a REAL POWER, which remains hidden to the powerful and the powerless, yet is capable of full and absolute control.
Here's another BIG HINT: don't talk about yourself, don't give interviews to anybody including yourself, don't tell anyone how you're doing - in a word, forget about yourself - you're unimportant in the grand scheme. Concentrate all your efforts on thinking more than you have to about the external world of man, of Life and it's interactions through man (including you of course), as if "knowing Life" was a more important maxim than, "knowing yourself", as if "the unexamined Life of Life is not worth living" was a more important maxim than, "the unexamined life of me is not worth living."
This is a major shift in your power of attention, what to attend to, and believe it or not, you can learn MUCH MORE about yourself and your possibilities when you learn to do that, than you'll ever learn studying a system, Gurdjieff's way, Buddha's way, Jesus's way, Lao Tse's way, or any way.
"Interesting"
"Interesting" is an interesting word. You could look it up in the dictionary, the thesaurus, the encyclopedia, but why bother - you already know what it means and use it a lot.
But do you? I think not.
What is interesting, and to whom? Why is something interesting to you, and yet objectionable or un-interesting to another? If something is genuinely interesting, why is it not interesting to everyone with a brain, who can perceive what you perceive?
If you were not interested in this list, and the subject matters referred to herein, you would likely not be here. You'd get bored or irritated and leave. So are you really interested? Or is something else occurring?
What if "interest" is a molecular transfer of energy in you that you are not totally aware of, yet feel - the way you feel heat on the skin, or a pinprick? What if you could control what you are interested in? What if you could move the energy in you from one place to another, and benefit in some unknown way?
That would mean that you either could be interested in EVERYTHING, or NOTHING - your choice. You would not be driven by such interests, you'd be driven by your own inner desire for the directed movement of energies, from one place to another, for a purpose of which only you were aware.
What if such a capability would allow you to SEE things, that others don't see, and thereby extract information which goes unextracted by the masses. In that way, you would not need any particular external source to stir your interest - which is, presently, without such capability, the only way you derive enjoyment out of life at all. If you're not interested in religion, you'll not spend hours a day reading religious books. If you're not interested in sports, you'll not spend hours a day reading about sports.
Also, and this is key, if you're not properly interested in Enlightenment, you'll never achieve the benefits pointed to by those whose interest is real, or essential. You'd be, what is derogatorily described, a dilettante. Dilettantes do not achieve anything, because they can not extract the pith - the important or essential part.
They are still driven by "interest" and they have no comprehension of What they are interested in, nor Who is actually interested.
But do you? I think not.
What is interesting, and to whom? Why is something interesting to you, and yet objectionable or un-interesting to another? If something is genuinely interesting, why is it not interesting to everyone with a brain, who can perceive what you perceive?
If you were not interested in this list, and the subject matters referred to herein, you would likely not be here. You'd get bored or irritated and leave. So are you really interested? Or is something else occurring?
What if "interest" is a molecular transfer of energy in you that you are not totally aware of, yet feel - the way you feel heat on the skin, or a pinprick? What if you could control what you are interested in? What if you could move the energy in you from one place to another, and benefit in some unknown way?
That would mean that you either could be interested in EVERYTHING, or NOTHING - your choice. You would not be driven by such interests, you'd be driven by your own inner desire for the directed movement of energies, from one place to another, for a purpose of which only you were aware.
What if such a capability would allow you to SEE things, that others don't see, and thereby extract information which goes unextracted by the masses. In that way, you would not need any particular external source to stir your interest - which is, presently, without such capability, the only way you derive enjoyment out of life at all. If you're not interested in religion, you'll not spend hours a day reading religious books. If you're not interested in sports, you'll not spend hours a day reading about sports.
Also, and this is key, if you're not properly interested in Enlightenment, you'll never achieve the benefits pointed to by those whose interest is real, or essential. You'd be, what is derogatorily described, a dilettante. Dilettantes do not achieve anything, because they can not extract the pith - the important or essential part.
They are still driven by "interest" and they have no comprehension of What they are interested in, nor Who is actually interested.
Saturday, November 15, 2003
Asked Spiderman to Flygirl, "what is mind sans thought?"
The question, "what is mind sans thought?" is almost impossible to "answer", and there are no efforts - either well-placed or misplaced - which can lead one to such an experience, yet, that doesn't mean one shouldn't make some attempt - afterall, we were born with a mind, and that mind does occasionally experience some degree of what is called, consciousness.
A 'well-placed' effort is the one of mind studying mind, the mind trying to know itself AS itself, not as the incessant thoughts flowing through it. 'Misplaced' efforts are, humans trying to study the details of those various thoughts - whether the equations and grammars and definitions and apparent meanings, "meet with" some "criteria" previously established by similar aggregations of thoughts. I.e., one thought commenting upon other thoughts. THAT, sirs and sirettes, is NOT mind studying mind. THAT, is thoughts commenting upon thoughts, just like blood trying to understand the pumping of the heart by analyzing the components of blood - red cells, white cells, platelets, etc. do not the heart make. Blood can't 'know Heart', anymore than Thought can 'know Mind'.
It doesn't matter what a person "thinks" is the "cause of the arising" of those thoughts - they come from Life, from elsewhere, but NOT from oneself - so once thoughts are flowing through it, giving it (mind) it's transitory "life of existence", it's already too late to discover what mind is, sans thought.
That is, you can't think about "what is mind?", and then proceed to "answer the question", you can only experience it AS itself. THEN, just like nature abhors a vacuum, mind fills itself with the other 'matter' available to it - activity, and that activity is none other than the aforementioned thoughts - so it: reads books, engages in conversations, watches tv, etc.
The only 'method' to achieve that knowing, is tantamount to Stopping Thought - but NOT for the purpose of knowing something, but for the observations that can be experienced sans thought.
One would NEVER reveal to himself or others, that "I can stop thought for 30 minutes a day." or "I can remember myself 100 times a day." or "I can stay awake 8 hours a day every day." or anything like that. To do so, is to be lying to oneself. A thought that "says that" is lying. That thought disappears and one is back asleep for who knows how long.
Stopping thought is an idea older than old - in fact, pre-human, all there WAS was "stopped thought", in the sense that there was no thought at all. Then, came man, and then came consciousness in man, then came thoughts flowing therein, and the time all this took, was mere moments. Man, consciousness (sans thought), thoughts. The progression now, for us, is the radical acceleration of the process of thinking - which comes from studying mind, NOT studying thoughts flowing through minds, either from long-dead people, or still-living people, or yourself.
There is no such thing as, "better, smarter, more intelligent" thoughts. What there IS (or can be), is "better, smarter, more intelligent" consciousness - which IS another definition of evolution, or more precisely for those who achieve it, REVOLUTION over ordinary, dull-witted, consciousness.
Self-remembering, chanting a single word, watching the breath, meditating on a symbol or word or sound, are ALL just "methods" to stop the ordinary flow of thoughts, to "stop thought". But the Goal, which it is not, or Aim, which it is not, is not the STOPPING, it is the observations that can be made from that newer, expanded view only possible when Mind exists, sans thought.
Very soon after one starts thinking in this way about his inner operations, he discovers that mind (as he knows it in himself) doesn't exist when thoughts are not flowing through it, that is, he is asleep then and NO ONE knows what being asleep means beyond that. When a person is dead unconscious in a darkened room, dreams become for him, a "higher state of mind". When a person is asleep in dreams, then consciousness becomes for him, a "higher state of mind". When a person is conscious, he can SEE what sleep means, but he can not describe it (won't even attempt it), because the descriptions are the contents of that sleep.
Expanding the nervous system - in the head, in the brain, in the highest farthest outreaches of the cortex, into areas which are NOT being fed by blood or electricity now - is the direction of evolution wherein such SEEING "the lower" is possible. Man is way more conscious, in general, than men were 100 years ago, 500, 1000, etc. AND, more importantly for the few who understand that, men in 500, 1000, 2000 years will be way more conscious, in general, than men living today. AND, WAY MORE IMPORTANTLY for the few of the few who understand that, YOU (me, the other guy), can be conscious today the way men of the future will be in their day, and that means something!!!
It's like jumping over your own knees.
It's like seeing into your own eyes.
It's like living in the Future.
This entire ad hoc message was not, "an answer", of course, but a performance piece on the topic: "what is mind sans thought". Each person is left with the possibility of performing his own piece on whatever topics he feels suitable to spend time on. If analyzing previously-received thoughts is suitable to you, then so be it. For some, it's not a suitable expenditure of energy.
A 'well-placed' effort is the one of mind studying mind, the mind trying to know itself AS itself, not as the incessant thoughts flowing through it. 'Misplaced' efforts are, humans trying to study the details of those various thoughts - whether the equations and grammars and definitions and apparent meanings, "meet with" some "criteria" previously established by similar aggregations of thoughts. I.e., one thought commenting upon other thoughts. THAT, sirs and sirettes, is NOT mind studying mind. THAT, is thoughts commenting upon thoughts, just like blood trying to understand the pumping of the heart by analyzing the components of blood - red cells, white cells, platelets, etc. do not the heart make. Blood can't 'know Heart', anymore than Thought can 'know Mind'.
It doesn't matter what a person "thinks" is the "cause of the arising" of those thoughts - they come from Life, from elsewhere, but NOT from oneself - so once thoughts are flowing through it, giving it (mind) it's transitory "life of existence", it's already too late to discover what mind is, sans thought.
That is, you can't think about "what is mind?", and then proceed to "answer the question", you can only experience it AS itself. THEN, just like nature abhors a vacuum, mind fills itself with the other 'matter' available to it - activity, and that activity is none other than the aforementioned thoughts - so it: reads books, engages in conversations, watches tv, etc.
The only 'method' to achieve that knowing, is tantamount to Stopping Thought - but NOT for the purpose of knowing something, but for the observations that can be experienced sans thought.
One would NEVER reveal to himself or others, that "I can stop thought for 30 minutes a day." or "I can remember myself 100 times a day." or "I can stay awake 8 hours a day every day." or anything like that. To do so, is to be lying to oneself. A thought that "says that" is lying. That thought disappears and one is back asleep for who knows how long.
Stopping thought is an idea older than old - in fact, pre-human, all there WAS was "stopped thought", in the sense that there was no thought at all. Then, came man, and then came consciousness in man, then came thoughts flowing therein, and the time all this took, was mere moments. Man, consciousness (sans thought), thoughts. The progression now, for us, is the radical acceleration of the process of thinking - which comes from studying mind, NOT studying thoughts flowing through minds, either from long-dead people, or still-living people, or yourself.
There is no such thing as, "better, smarter, more intelligent" thoughts. What there IS (or can be), is "better, smarter, more intelligent" consciousness - which IS another definition of evolution, or more precisely for those who achieve it, REVOLUTION over ordinary, dull-witted, consciousness.
Self-remembering, chanting a single word, watching the breath, meditating on a symbol or word or sound, are ALL just "methods" to stop the ordinary flow of thoughts, to "stop thought". But the Goal, which it is not, or Aim, which it is not, is not the STOPPING, it is the observations that can be made from that newer, expanded view only possible when Mind exists, sans thought.
Very soon after one starts thinking in this way about his inner operations, he discovers that mind (as he knows it in himself) doesn't exist when thoughts are not flowing through it, that is, he is asleep then and NO ONE knows what being asleep means beyond that. When a person is dead unconscious in a darkened room, dreams become for him, a "higher state of mind". When a person is asleep in dreams, then consciousness becomes for him, a "higher state of mind". When a person is conscious, he can SEE what sleep means, but he can not describe it (won't even attempt it), because the descriptions are the contents of that sleep.
Expanding the nervous system - in the head, in the brain, in the highest farthest outreaches of the cortex, into areas which are NOT being fed by blood or electricity now - is the direction of evolution wherein such SEEING "the lower" is possible. Man is way more conscious, in general, than men were 100 years ago, 500, 1000, etc. AND, more importantly for the few who understand that, men in 500, 1000, 2000 years will be way more conscious, in general, than men living today. AND, WAY MORE IMPORTANTLY for the few of the few who understand that, YOU (me, the other guy), can be conscious today the way men of the future will be in their day, and that means something!!!
It's like jumping over your own knees.
It's like seeing into your own eyes.
It's like living in the Future.
This entire ad hoc message was not, "an answer", of course, but a performance piece on the topic: "what is mind sans thought". Each person is left with the possibility of performing his own piece on whatever topics he feels suitable to spend time on. If analyzing previously-received thoughts is suitable to you, then so be it. For some, it's not a suitable expenditure of energy.
Sunday, November 2, 2003
Books
Every teaching/system that purports to be about human evolution, change of being, waking up, enlightenment - those things about which man has absolutely no prior knowledge, until first hearing/reading about those supposed possibilities - requires the use of books. There are no teachings/systems that have come to mankind, living today, that are not transmitted, in whole or in part, by the use of the written word, in books (from stone tablets, to parchments, to books, tapes and videos usually with transcripts). The only problem is that the information a person needs to achieve/realize those possibilities doesn't come from any books ever written. Whatever actually gets written down, is such a poor reflection of what prompted it's writing - no matter who wrote it - that it might as well not have been written at all.
Some teachings/systems require many more books than others - and so, even complicate the problem further - but at least one is absolutely required.
Furthermore, it is not the physical body, which first learns about these possibilities, nor is it the limbic system, which suspects or discovers them - although, and this is very evident even from an early age, each person recognizes a certain un easiness, about the life he knows ordinarily, and dreams about other, fantastical things from an early age. No, it requires a normal, ordinarily functioning intellect - that can read/write and maybe even do some rudimentary 'rithmetic - to discover, first, that there ARE human possibilities of existence he knows absolutely nothing about already, and second, that there is a supposed "WAY" to achieve or realize them. Very, very few move beyond that point, as few consider it worthy of their further time and energy.
The only thing a person knows, from birth till death, is that as he ordinarily is, he is not completely satisfied with his existence on Earth, and doesn't know what to do about that, except criticize (himself and others and Life), condemn (himself and others for poor performance and ignorance, and Life for "being somehow against him or mankind"), and complain (bitch, moan, and whine.)
So, once again, what's one left to do? Go find a book. Lots of books, read many or a few, and start thinking about them, talking about them internally and with others, and "hope for the best". This does not change, just because one also joins a group of any kind - from the most respected, long-lived, credentialed School of Human Development, to the most flagrantly fly-by-night gang of misled, new-age gurus and other similar frauds and phonies. But, in the end, it all comes to nothing. Hundreds of thousands of books and readers and followers, Tens, or Hundreds, or Thousands of groups and willing members, and what's to show for it? More mass-confusion about what's possible, and how to achieve it.
The New Information a person - any person, whether born today or 3000 years ago - needs, to achieve/realize the "possibilities" he only suspects (for having been circulating around the peripheries of mans' intellectual pursuits since he could first think and speak), is simply NOT available out there in Life's storage bins, and trash heaps of ideas, going by such higher-sounding names, as Zen, Buddhism, Islam, Christianity, FourthWay, Advaita, or whatever - nor is it to be discovered coming from out the mouths of anyone publically or privately associated with such higher-sounding teachings/systems in Life's waiting rooms, and out houses of masters, teachers, gurus, men#5-7's and above.
The New Information a person needs to discover/realize the possibilities of what actually being human is all about, what it means, and what a conscious person can do with such New Information when it reaches the intensity that it can reach, exists in only one place - in consciousness, and consciousness can not be contained/restrained by physical media. Consciousness is energy, and Information is energy, and Man is an energy transforming station that is perfect - just AS he is, no change required - for the job of transforming Life energy. All humans are born capable of doing Life's business here on Earth - for Life's purposes exclusively, whatever they may be.
The un easiness all men feel/sense about being alive, is that a part of their ordinary consciousness realizes at all times, they are a slave to that design, they are an employee not a manager, they are a product of Life's factory not a service of Life itself - that is, they realize they individually have NO SAY WHATSOEVER as to how their lives progress, it is (can be, should be) perceived as totally automatic, accidental, and mechanical. So, a part of their consciousness, is "will to ACT", and a part of their consciousness is mechanical "thought about action".
The first change possible for a man with access to New Information, is understanding the idea that "thought about action" need not be mechanical, and when it is not - but conscious - one can think without words, think about something without remembering it, remember something without thinking about it, think about more than one thing at a time, think with energy alone, and Silence becomes more and more a prevailing feature of one's inner mental life.
This is definitely NOT to say, that one stops using words - internally or externally - but that one NEED NOT use them to think, and only when that skill is achieved, can one start to plumb the depths of the Information Pool which is Life itself speaking to one - directly. A person, almost with tongue-in-cheek, starts channeling the Big Guy Himself - Life, and knows at certain times what Life knows about certain things. This realization when it happens, is like a puff of helium into an inflating balloon, the nervous system expands and consciousness rises.
Some teachings/systems require many more books than others - and so, even complicate the problem further - but at least one is absolutely required.
Furthermore, it is not the physical body, which first learns about these possibilities, nor is it the limbic system, which suspects or discovers them - although, and this is very evident even from an early age, each person recognizes a certain un easiness, about the life he knows ordinarily, and dreams about other, fantastical things from an early age. No, it requires a normal, ordinarily functioning intellect - that can read/write and maybe even do some rudimentary 'rithmetic - to discover, first, that there ARE human possibilities of existence he knows absolutely nothing about already, and second, that there is a supposed "WAY" to achieve or realize them. Very, very few move beyond that point, as few consider it worthy of their further time and energy.
The only thing a person knows, from birth till death, is that as he ordinarily is, he is not completely satisfied with his existence on Earth, and doesn't know what to do about that, except criticize (himself and others and Life), condemn (himself and others for poor performance and ignorance, and Life for "being somehow against him or mankind"), and complain (bitch, moan, and whine.)
So, once again, what's one left to do? Go find a book. Lots of books, read many or a few, and start thinking about them, talking about them internally and with others, and "hope for the best". This does not change, just because one also joins a group of any kind - from the most respected, long-lived, credentialed School of Human Development, to the most flagrantly fly-by-night gang of misled, new-age gurus and other similar frauds and phonies. But, in the end, it all comes to nothing. Hundreds of thousands of books and readers and followers, Tens, or Hundreds, or Thousands of groups and willing members, and what's to show for it? More mass-confusion about what's possible, and how to achieve it.
The New Information a person - any person, whether born today or 3000 years ago - needs, to achieve/realize the "possibilities" he only suspects (for having been circulating around the peripheries of mans' intellectual pursuits since he could first think and speak), is simply NOT available out there in Life's storage bins, and trash heaps of ideas, going by such higher-sounding names, as Zen, Buddhism, Islam, Christianity, FourthWay, Advaita, or whatever - nor is it to be discovered coming from out the mouths of anyone publically or privately associated with such higher-sounding teachings/systems in Life's waiting rooms, and out houses of masters, teachers, gurus, men#5-7's and above.
The New Information a person needs to discover/realize the possibilities of what actually being human is all about, what it means, and what a conscious person can do with such New Information when it reaches the intensity that it can reach, exists in only one place - in consciousness, and consciousness can not be contained/restrained by physical media. Consciousness is energy, and Information is energy, and Man is an energy transforming station that is perfect - just AS he is, no change required - for the job of transforming Life energy. All humans are born capable of doing Life's business here on Earth - for Life's purposes exclusively, whatever they may be.
The un easiness all men feel/sense about being alive, is that a part of their ordinary consciousness realizes at all times, they are a slave to that design, they are an employee not a manager, they are a product of Life's factory not a service of Life itself - that is, they realize they individually have NO SAY WHATSOEVER as to how their lives progress, it is (can be, should be) perceived as totally automatic, accidental, and mechanical. So, a part of their consciousness, is "will to ACT", and a part of their consciousness is mechanical "thought about action".
The first change possible for a man with access to New Information, is understanding the idea that "thought about action" need not be mechanical, and when it is not - but conscious - one can think without words, think about something without remembering it, remember something without thinking about it, think about more than one thing at a time, think with energy alone, and Silence becomes more and more a prevailing feature of one's inner mental life.
This is definitely NOT to say, that one stops using words - internally or externally - but that one NEED NOT use them to think, and only when that skill is achieved, can one start to plumb the depths of the Information Pool which is Life itself speaking to one - directly. A person, almost with tongue-in-cheek, starts channeling the Big Guy Himself - Life, and knows at certain times what Life knows about certain things. This realization when it happens, is like a puff of helium into an inflating balloon, the nervous system expands and consciousness rises.
Change
There is a strong tendency in all humans, to believe that, "growth of being", includes such features as, maintaining a "healthy" body, a "satisfying" emotional life, and a "stimulating" intellect - that is, to use them fully, or lose them. Thus, the primal flow driving the actions of all humans is to not only stay alive, but to improve - and improve is the correct word here, because their ordinary consciousness perceives a body in decay, an emotional life out-of-control, and an intellectual process not much more capable than a 15-year-old's, if that.
This process of change desired by all humans - to improve themselves >>as they see themselves<< - is conducted by the intellectual circuit of the nervous system, the cortex and frontal lobes, in conscious thought. A person always starts by making statements regarding what they see - "I'm too fat, not smart enough, get angry too quickly, lazy." A body doesn't look at itself and decide to lose weight, it is the one being fat, so obviously IT wants to be fat. The mind, thought, perceives and compares images and sounds, and certain measurements/reports are heard by that same consciousness as it reports on the body. "I'm too fat, I should lose weight, I will buy a Diet book, tomorrow." And so the process begins.
The person looks for a book, a teaching, a system, to teach his mind what to do and how to change - because he certainly can't do it himself! No way, no one can. Or so he, and everybody else, thinks and believes. He buys a diet book, a college text book, an anger-management self-help tape series, an exercise book. He reads, studies, commits parts to memory, writes out 3x5 index cards, and joins a group of other dedicated men and women withwhom he can share his efforts and experiences. And, of course, believes in the efficacy of such an activity, and presumes ultimate success.
But, all that - top to bottom - from initial realization he's too fat, to the action plan in-progress for years - is the INDIRECT WAY. It is Indirect, because it is not initiated by the person from within. It is the ordinary person, being quite common and ordinary. He is simply doing what everybody does, in exactly the same way everybody does it, and justifying it to himself, in precisely the same ways.
The DIRECT WAY, is one which comes from oneself FIRST - it is his intentional invention of a Creation Myth, in which he plays all the parts, God, Adam, and Fred.
The DIRECT WAY, is one that can't be taught, or written down, until it is spoken, and only then - with great effort and consideration - quite sparingly. Because ordinary consciousness that would hear it said, would not understand it, for it all but busts logic, and turns ordinary reasoning on it's head.
The DIRECT WAY, occurs in those moments when Life, all around and abundantly alive - as it always is - reveals - as it continually does - those processes which are intertwining right then, to produce in matter, form, and energy, shadings and outlines which are usually totally missed, but now, are impossible to miss - they are perceived in consciousness. Almost like looking up at a sky full of clouds on a breezy spring afternoon, and seeing scenes and scenery of a meta- hyper- "physical" topology, that just as quickly melts into another completely different, yet wholly consistent, reality, and the consciousness experiencing all this, is, as it were, transported to those "places" which have never been activated before.
The DIRECT WAY, is the intentional myth-making/realization extension of the circuitry of the nervous system one was born with - not "for a reason" (like living longer, healthier, or happier...), but, simply, on purpose.
The DIRECT WAY, is the Action.
The INDIRECT WAY, is the thinking of action.
As long as the thinking of action is limited, then so is the possibility of action.
This process of change desired by all humans - to improve themselves >>as they see themselves<< - is conducted by the intellectual circuit of the nervous system, the cortex and frontal lobes, in conscious thought. A person always starts by making statements regarding what they see - "I'm too fat, not smart enough, get angry too quickly, lazy." A body doesn't look at itself and decide to lose weight, it is the one being fat, so obviously IT wants to be fat. The mind, thought, perceives and compares images and sounds, and certain measurements/reports are heard by that same consciousness as it reports on the body. "I'm too fat, I should lose weight, I will buy a Diet book, tomorrow." And so the process begins.
The person looks for a book, a teaching, a system, to teach his mind what to do and how to change - because he certainly can't do it himself! No way, no one can. Or so he, and everybody else, thinks and believes. He buys a diet book, a college text book, an anger-management self-help tape series, an exercise book. He reads, studies, commits parts to memory, writes out 3x5 index cards, and joins a group of other dedicated men and women withwhom he can share his efforts and experiences. And, of course, believes in the efficacy of such an activity, and presumes ultimate success.
But, all that - top to bottom - from initial realization he's too fat, to the action plan in-progress for years - is the INDIRECT WAY. It is Indirect, because it is not initiated by the person from within. It is the ordinary person, being quite common and ordinary. He is simply doing what everybody does, in exactly the same way everybody does it, and justifying it to himself, in precisely the same ways.
The DIRECT WAY, is one which comes from oneself FIRST - it is his intentional invention of a Creation Myth, in which he plays all the parts, God, Adam, and Fred.
The DIRECT WAY, is one that can't be taught, or written down, until it is spoken, and only then - with great effort and consideration - quite sparingly. Because ordinary consciousness that would hear it said, would not understand it, for it all but busts logic, and turns ordinary reasoning on it's head.
The DIRECT WAY, occurs in those moments when Life, all around and abundantly alive - as it always is - reveals - as it continually does - those processes which are intertwining right then, to produce in matter, form, and energy, shadings and outlines which are usually totally missed, but now, are impossible to miss - they are perceived in consciousness. Almost like looking up at a sky full of clouds on a breezy spring afternoon, and seeing scenes and scenery of a meta- hyper- "physical" topology, that just as quickly melts into another completely different, yet wholly consistent, reality, and the consciousness experiencing all this, is, as it were, transported to those "places" which have never been activated before.
The DIRECT WAY, is the intentional myth-making/realization extension of the circuitry of the nervous system one was born with - not "for a reason" (like living longer, healthier, or happier...), but, simply, on purpose.
The DIRECT WAY, is the Action.
The INDIRECT WAY, is the thinking of action.
As long as the thinking of action is limited, then so is the possibility of action.
Thursday, October 23, 2003
NEW INFORMATION
People absolutely DO NOT LIKE TO HEAR NEW INFORMATION. This has nothing to do with programming or education, but genetics, and biochemistry. That's why people settle so easily into habits - which in themselves are not bad at all, even for neural explorers, and definitely do not need to be altered/changed/modified/stopped -unlike those teachings that would claim otherwise.
Habits are necessary to the overall functioning of the organism - individual organisms, and Life itself. Start breathing other-than-air and see what happens, or start eating nothing at all, or dirt, and see what happens. Start thinking new information (not the phony new, the so-called new, but the REALLY NEW), and the mind will instantly shut it out in one of two ways - either it won't hear it at all, or will immediately dismiss/discount it and forget about it entirely.
The real revolutionary explorer into regions heretofore unknown (we're talking about the mind here, we're talking the outermost reaches of your Life-given nervous system here), must engage in a global battle with themselves alone, must confront the habitual in a precisely unique and specific way, having to do with the inner posture one has toward themselves. If a person has/takes the posture that "they are all screwed up as they are" and "they need to be fixed" (and this all comes from programming and environment -including religions, philosophies, psychologies, teachings), then (sorry, charlie) they are lost. One must acquire (and it is NOT Life-given, though DNA contains the capacity for such objective viewing - think of it as turning on dormant genes) an inner posture of absolute, and TOTAL acceptance of everything - inner, outer, and all around - in an attempt to be able to sidestep all oncoming advances from "out there" (which is a very variable and changing phenomenon of course), seeking to alter your inner posture - to knock you over as it were, to "bring you down", back into the ordinary, pre-journey world.
"A person who sets out on a journey to a place he's never been (Enlightened), and knows nothing about already (and no one is born knowing anything about this), brings nothing along with him - not even his books, and memories of reading them. He goes naked into the journey, and can only pick up bits and pieces along the way. (How they got there, can only be known by him.) There is no logic out there, and he can not organize those bits the way he did before setting out. (If that happens it becomes part of the pre-journey world only.) However, he must store them in any case, and be able to retrieve them instantly, if not even before that."
One should consider themselves, virtually if not absolutely, completely in the pre-journey world, that is, ordinarily awake, NOT extraordinarily awake, and then his TASK, if he chooses to accept it, is to invent and traverse a Mystical Map to a New Universe of His Own Making.
Then, wouldn't you know it, the TASK becomes, how to enliven the map.... as they absolutely will die on the vine, unless quickened.
Habits are necessary to the overall functioning of the organism - individual organisms, and Life itself. Start breathing other-than-air and see what happens, or start eating nothing at all, or dirt, and see what happens. Start thinking new information (not the phony new, the so-called new, but the REALLY NEW), and the mind will instantly shut it out in one of two ways - either it won't hear it at all, or will immediately dismiss/discount it and forget about it entirely.
The real revolutionary explorer into regions heretofore unknown (we're talking about the mind here, we're talking the outermost reaches of your Life-given nervous system here), must engage in a global battle with themselves alone, must confront the habitual in a precisely unique and specific way, having to do with the inner posture one has toward themselves. If a person has/takes the posture that "they are all screwed up as they are" and "they need to be fixed" (and this all comes from programming and environment -including religions, philosophies, psychologies, teachings), then (sorry, charlie) they are lost. One must acquire (and it is NOT Life-given, though DNA contains the capacity for such objective viewing - think of it as turning on dormant genes) an inner posture of absolute, and TOTAL acceptance of everything - inner, outer, and all around - in an attempt to be able to sidestep all oncoming advances from "out there" (which is a very variable and changing phenomenon of course), seeking to alter your inner posture - to knock you over as it were, to "bring you down", back into the ordinary, pre-journey world.
"A person who sets out on a journey to a place he's never been (Enlightened), and knows nothing about already (and no one is born knowing anything about this), brings nothing along with him - not even his books, and memories of reading them. He goes naked into the journey, and can only pick up bits and pieces along the way. (How they got there, can only be known by him.) There is no logic out there, and he can not organize those bits the way he did before setting out. (If that happens it becomes part of the pre-journey world only.) However, he must store them in any case, and be able to retrieve them instantly, if not even before that."
One should consider themselves, virtually if not absolutely, completely in the pre-journey world, that is, ordinarily awake, NOT extraordinarily awake, and then his TASK, if he chooses to accept it, is to invent and traverse a Mystical Map to a New Universe of His Own Making.
Then, wouldn't you know it, the TASK becomes, how to enliven the map.... as they absolutely will die on the vine, unless quickened.
Friday, October 17, 2003
ride the Wind......
Go to any large bookstore - check out all the shelves that have >>anything<< to do with "self-improvement", including religion, philosophy, spirituality, etc. Why are there so many, many titles in each and every category. If one of them actually TOLD the truth (and the Whole Truth), what need would there be for others?
If the 4thway books - or Buddhist books, or Christian books - actually had the information any individual needed to become a Fully Conscious and Enlightened Being - not, let us say, unlike, Gurdjieff, Buddha, Jesus - and someone read them, got supremely enlightened, and told literally everyone, and more and more found out and did likewise, well, what further need would there be for the Buddhist/Christian/X-istian books? NONE! Nada. No further need.
So the only conclusion that can be allowed, is that the truth is not out there in books - entertainment, yes, nothing more. Period. And then, the revolutionary next effort, which almost NO ONE can do, would be to stop thinking about that, further. Stop thinking/considering whether or not you previously understood something fully. If you finally learn how to ride a bike, you never ever again think about how, or whether you still know how, blah, blah, blah. NO! Never. No further need. You get on that bike, and ride the Wind......
A person who sets out on a journey to a place he's never been, and knows nothing about, brings nothing along with him - not even his books, and memories of reading them. He goes naked into the journey, and can only pick up bits and pieces along the way. (How they got there, can only be known by him.) There is no logic out there, and he can not organize those bits the way he did before setting out. (If that happens it becomes part of the pre-journey world only.) However, he must store them in any case, and be able to retrieve them instantly, if not even before that.
(How they got there, can only be known by him!!!)
.......ride the Mind......
If the 4thway books - or Buddhist books, or Christian books - actually had the information any individual needed to become a Fully Conscious and Enlightened Being - not, let us say, unlike, Gurdjieff, Buddha, Jesus - and someone read them, got supremely enlightened, and told literally everyone, and more and more found out and did likewise, well, what further need would there be for the Buddhist/Christian/X-istian books? NONE! Nada. No further need.
So the only conclusion that can be allowed, is that the truth is not out there in books - entertainment, yes, nothing more. Period. And then, the revolutionary next effort, which almost NO ONE can do, would be to stop thinking about that, further. Stop thinking/considering whether or not you previously understood something fully. If you finally learn how to ride a bike, you never ever again think about how, or whether you still know how, blah, blah, blah. NO! Never. No further need. You get on that bike, and ride the Wind......
A person who sets out on a journey to a place he's never been, and knows nothing about, brings nothing along with him - not even his books, and memories of reading them. He goes naked into the journey, and can only pick up bits and pieces along the way. (How they got there, can only be known by him.) There is no logic out there, and he can not organize those bits the way he did before setting out. (If that happens it becomes part of the pre-journey world only.) However, he must store them in any case, and be able to retrieve them instantly, if not even before that.
(How they got there, can only be known by him!!!)
.......ride the Mind......
Thursday, October 16, 2003
Do androids dream they are human?
Just because a person can ask a question of themselves, and provide an almost immediate angle of thought, point of view, or chapter and verse - a mini essay of sorts - all from memory - does not mean that person understands what he is talking about, or that it has any relevance at all the original question.
One only has to look to oneself to see the truth of this.
If you want to know how an android is programmed, this is how. Input the language - any will do - organize by chapter and verse - with line numbers and indices - then, for every supposed question/problem you want the android to process, reach into it's head and pull out various meaningful sentences, all wrapped up into a "program", or "essay", and then send it to the output centers of the android.
However, present the android with something it has never considered before, and it becomes locked in a feedback loop. And, of course, the biggee which always starts the meltdown, is how can an android locked in a feedback loop escape itself when outside it's dynamic it doesn't exist?
What's going on, with the android - let's call him Fred Jr. - is that he was programmed by super-programmer Fred Sr. who was so clever and expert at his job, that Fred Jr. actually thinks he is all that Fred Sr. is - hell, he could even program a little Fred III if he was so inclined.
BUT.
Who are we talking about here? Fred Sr. or Fred Jr? How can Fred Jr. be taken even >>a little bit<< seriously, when discussing the States of Mind of Fred Sr? How about the Three Centers of Functioning of Fred Sr? Or, the Four Bodies of Fred Sr?
One only has to look to oneself to see the truth of this.
If you want to know how an android is programmed, this is how. Input the language - any will do - organize by chapter and verse - with line numbers and indices - then, for every supposed question/problem you want the android to process, reach into it's head and pull out various meaningful sentences, all wrapped up into a "program", or "essay", and then send it to the output centers of the android.
However, present the android with something it has never considered before, and it becomes locked in a feedback loop. And, of course, the biggee which always starts the meltdown, is how can an android locked in a feedback loop escape itself when outside it's dynamic it doesn't exist?
What's going on, with the android - let's call him Fred Jr. - is that he was programmed by super-programmer Fred Sr. who was so clever and expert at his job, that Fred Jr. actually thinks he is all that Fred Sr. is - hell, he could even program a little Fred III if he was so inclined.
BUT.
Who are we talking about here? Fred Sr. or Fred Jr? How can Fred Jr. be taken even >>a little bit<< seriously, when discussing the States of Mind of Fred Sr? How about the Three Centers of Functioning of Fred Sr? Or, the Four Bodies of Fred Sr?
Sunday, October 12, 2003
4d consciousness
Just as solids extend into a greater 4d solid and higher, consciousness extends into a greater 4d consciousness and higher. Easy to say, virtually impossible to comprehend - just too many variables of unknown property. But, still, comprehension - or better, apperception - is possible.
Saturday, October 11, 2003
New Information
Not everyone wants new information - people are not wired up to even be able to recognize it. Once they have some books, some "association" with other "similarly-persuaded" people, and a few months/years invested in the jargon/doctrine, it becomes nigh on to impossible - rigid doesn't begin to cover it. They believe, that as they "progress", they will become MORE open-minded, MORE awake, MORE able to hear others, and think objectively, but experience always shows just the opposite - the old are not wiser, just much older, and much more tired. And, if someone enters their little "group", and dares offer some competing ideas and viewpoints, they are immediately hassled, dumped on, and expelled.
What do you think all this, "trying to wake up" is really about?? Waking up? Being conscious of your toes, knees and elbows all day? Composing ever longer, ever more frequent theories about your current theories? You don't even know WHY you want to do it - you say you do, you think and believe you do, but you don't even know WHY you, and not someone else. Your theories about that are completely subjective, and impotent.
All ways to enlightenment can be categorized as either direct or indirect ways. Direct ways are very rare and require a conscious, enlightened individual to direct those who are interested in learning and experiencing more, for the primary purpose of change of being. Indirect ways are very common and consist only of interested individuals engaged primarily in the discussion about enlightenment, for the primary purpose of feeling good about their association and participation.
If you are involved with an indirect way - or have no direct connection to someone who is more advanced than you - then you are treading water. Your view of the shore may occasionally change, but you're going nowhere, and will never see what's over the horizon. That's the fear, and the terror of the situation - to spend a lifetime believing you're on this "spiritual quest", only to discover you're deluded - and it effectively blocks the receipt of anything New.
What if there was New Information about Waking up, new maps, new viewpoints, that you'd never heard of? What if the bibles you study - written decades/centuries ago - were so out of date, as to be all but useless? How could you ever know this? Think about that. HOW?? Having your bibles, and reading and talking about them, only reinforces the belief that they are the all and everything - and there's nothing more needed. So, what's it going to take to insert a New Thought into your system, that CAN question that belief?
Clue: You've got to hear about it from someone, someone alive - not some dusty old book you found in the library - someone alive, kickin' and willing to tell you.
What do you think all this, "trying to wake up" is really about?? Waking up? Being conscious of your toes, knees and elbows all day? Composing ever longer, ever more frequent theories about your current theories? You don't even know WHY you want to do it - you say you do, you think and believe you do, but you don't even know WHY you, and not someone else. Your theories about that are completely subjective, and impotent.
All ways to enlightenment can be categorized as either direct or indirect ways. Direct ways are very rare and require a conscious, enlightened individual to direct those who are interested in learning and experiencing more, for the primary purpose of change of being. Indirect ways are very common and consist only of interested individuals engaged primarily in the discussion about enlightenment, for the primary purpose of feeling good about their association and participation.
If you are involved with an indirect way - or have no direct connection to someone who is more advanced than you - then you are treading water. Your view of the shore may occasionally change, but you're going nowhere, and will never see what's over the horizon. That's the fear, and the terror of the situation - to spend a lifetime believing you're on this "spiritual quest", only to discover you're deluded - and it effectively blocks the receipt of anything New.
What if there was New Information about Waking up, new maps, new viewpoints, that you'd never heard of? What if the bibles you study - written decades/centuries ago - were so out of date, as to be all but useless? How could you ever know this? Think about that. HOW?? Having your bibles, and reading and talking about them, only reinforces the belief that they are the all and everything - and there's nothing more needed. So, what's it going to take to insert a New Thought into your system, that CAN question that belief?
Clue: You've got to hear about it from someone, someone alive - not some dusty old book you found in the library - someone alive, kickin' and willing to tell you.
Saturday, April 19, 2003
Communication
In life, people are made to "communicate" with other people, in the only way they can, and that is often with copious preambles, preludes, prefaces, disclaimers (which are really, just, rationalizations and justifications for what's about to come - which is really, just so much whining, when you "see it clearly"). And it's all predicated upon the notion that we can "help" each other to see more clearly and understand better, but all those valiant efforts to do so, more often than not, just muddy the waters, rather than still them.
Most peoples' efforts for enlightenment, waking up, becoming free, etc., amount to a large amount (long time) of reading, thinking, talking, discussing, and arguing - with themselves and others. But this, over the long term, does not produce the results they thought they were seeking, because it is the central flaw in all indirect ways - "thinking too much" about the unknown.
The opposite of "thinking too much", or "over-thinking", is not silence, however - though it certainly can be, and many indirect ways promote such a "method". The opposite - to be truly useful and lead one somewhere real - is thinking clearly, directly, with certainty. It's a kind of (as strange as it might be to suggest it) Knowing beforehand, so that one does not HAVE to think more about it. The Direct Way.
Each person has a connection to that certainty, within them, which "The Work" (under many guises and forms through the centuries) can strengthen or develop through, so-called "right efforts". The entirety of such teachings, therefore, are first, about defining the "problem(s)" (since "ordinary man" can not, usually, already know them), and second, about specifying the "solution(s)".
Such "ways" are sometimes called, "Direct Ways", but they are not - they are at best, quite indirect, since they always must proceed first, from talk and books - given from one "who knows" to those "who do not know". (Yes, there is "teaching by example only", but it can not be found in the West, and would not work, today, with sophisticated, highly educated man.) The presumption, by those who do not know, is that the information, from the one "who knows", does not already exist within themselves already (or can not be found/revealed without his help), but no one has any proof of this. Sure, everyone can certainly SAY they are ignorant of the greater truths they SAY they seek, but they can not prove it - either to themselves or anyone else. They can only believe it - to one degree or another.
Some people simply do NOT believe or agree with it, however, and choose to find the "Direct Way" from the outset of their quest, rather than waste years/decades by following the prescriptions outlined by, usually, long-dead people they've never met.
The problem with following any system of "self-observation" and "self-remembering" (which is, truly, at the core of the 4thway, Buddhism, and other so-called "esoteric teachings") is that it, per force, takes too long. Rather than spending decades, attempting to "see oneself" after-the-fact (due to the slowness of ordinary consciousness), finally (hopefully) resulting in "seeing" the whole catalog of remembrances at once, sometime in the, probably, far future (if they live that long!), might it not be better to spend months, being "told" what one actually IS (yes, one can be told this, by one who knows it, and can tell it) in order to apply it directly, immediately?
"Telling it" is the key to why one should cultivate their, by now innate, power of speech ("gift of the gab"), because only when one can SAY what a particular feeling is trying to convey to one, can one alter that feeling. Otherwise the feeling is totally in control. Not being able to "express oneself" (satisfactorily), is the power of the mechanical senses/emotions over the intellect.
Yes, Virginia, you CAN be told what you are!!
This is the Direct Way.
Most peoples' efforts for enlightenment, waking up, becoming free, etc., amount to a large amount (long time) of reading, thinking, talking, discussing, and arguing - with themselves and others. But this, over the long term, does not produce the results they thought they were seeking, because it is the central flaw in all indirect ways - "thinking too much" about the unknown.
The opposite of "thinking too much", or "over-thinking", is not silence, however - though it certainly can be, and many indirect ways promote such a "method". The opposite - to be truly useful and lead one somewhere real - is thinking clearly, directly, with certainty. It's a kind of (as strange as it might be to suggest it) Knowing beforehand, so that one does not HAVE to think more about it. The Direct Way.
Each person has a connection to that certainty, within them, which "The Work" (under many guises and forms through the centuries) can strengthen or develop through, so-called "right efforts". The entirety of such teachings, therefore, are first, about defining the "problem(s)" (since "ordinary man" can not, usually, already know them), and second, about specifying the "solution(s)".
Such "ways" are sometimes called, "Direct Ways", but they are not - they are at best, quite indirect, since they always must proceed first, from talk and books - given from one "who knows" to those "who do not know". (Yes, there is "teaching by example only", but it can not be found in the West, and would not work, today, with sophisticated, highly educated man.) The presumption, by those who do not know, is that the information, from the one "who knows", does not already exist within themselves already (or can not be found/revealed without his help), but no one has any proof of this. Sure, everyone can certainly SAY they are ignorant of the greater truths they SAY they seek, but they can not prove it - either to themselves or anyone else. They can only believe it - to one degree or another.
Some people simply do NOT believe or agree with it, however, and choose to find the "Direct Way" from the outset of their quest, rather than waste years/decades by following the prescriptions outlined by, usually, long-dead people they've never met.
The problem with following any system of "self-observation" and "self-remembering" (which is, truly, at the core of the 4thway, Buddhism, and other so-called "esoteric teachings") is that it, per force, takes too long. Rather than spending decades, attempting to "see oneself" after-the-fact (due to the slowness of ordinary consciousness), finally (hopefully) resulting in "seeing" the whole catalog of remembrances at once, sometime in the, probably, far future (if they live that long!), might it not be better to spend months, being "told" what one actually IS (yes, one can be told this, by one who knows it, and can tell it) in order to apply it directly, immediately?
"Telling it" is the key to why one should cultivate their, by now innate, power of speech ("gift of the gab"), because only when one can SAY what a particular feeling is trying to convey to one, can one alter that feeling. Otherwise the feeling is totally in control. Not being able to "express oneself" (satisfactorily), is the power of the mechanical senses/emotions over the intellect.
Yes, Virginia, you CAN be told what you are!!
This is the Direct Way.
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