This week's Horizon programme was all about what was reality. Each expert had a different opinion one was convinced that as everything in the Universe obeyed the laws of mathematics the universe must be mathematics. One said we live in a multi-universe where each moment the universe divided so that there are many different versions of us and in some we did not exist. Another scientist for 20 years wrestled with the problem of black holes disappearing leaving no trace came to the conclusion the universe is a hologram. They are conducting experiments to find out if this is true. With all of these theories it involves thought and thought can not see the world as it just is.
We watched a short video of a Sufi mystic and poet telling of the change we need to make in the form of an analogy of a river ending in a desert. Having the faith to give itself to the wind to cross the desert and over the mountains to become once again a river.
We then studied a paper about the healing moment of just seeing and not doing but at the same time not seeing and not not doing. Too simple for words.
Saturday, January 22, 2011
Saturday, December 18, 2010
18th December 2010
On this sunny but cold day one had a cold, another no transport, a third a tummy bug and one so desparate to escape todays philosophy meeting went to Tenerffe to soak up the sunshine and laze on the beach. Two others were otherwise engaged but despite this we went ahead just the four of us and we listened to Michael Hall PHD with very wise advice on how we shoul deal with the world by watching your thoughts and to realize that your thoughts are trivial and not to worry over a projected future and the past that has gone. After a break we read several articles on how to be what we truly are.
One part is this.
Resistance of what is will keep you creating the same situation over and over. If you can love where you are, you are free to move through it. You are open to learn the lessons that are inherent in your current situation. Your mind is open to receive solutions to problems, your heart is open to love, and you step into your personal power by owning your part in creating your life.
One part is this.
Resistance of what is will keep you creating the same situation over and over. If you can love where you are, you are free to move through it. You are open to learn the lessons that are inherent in your current situation. Your mind is open to receive solutions to problems, your heart is open to love, and you step into your personal power by owning your part in creating your life.
Friday, November 19, 2010
19th November
Another interesting morning seven of us in all. We first reviewed the latest news of the strange bubble found in our galaxy 50,000 light years across. We thought about the infinite time the universe will exist and yet in this moment we are. A miracle on its own. We watched a video accompanied by beautiful pictures about co-creating and vibrations similar thinking to The Law of Attraction and In Tune with the Infinite. The we looked at research that outlined how we are automatons with no free will and should people be told as it makes them less caring. Although many philosophies such as Islam do say this and do not make believers ant-social excluding the bombers. We then read of the holy themes of mysticism.
Friday, October 15, 2010
15th October
Interesting morning, I believe everybody enjoyed the meeting of minds on the quest for answers. My thought this month was before there was this "light made reality" there was nothing and this something evolved us, is in us and is us. To realize that is to forgive our mistakes in life and to forgive others' mistakes. Also maybe the ego is not the enemy and on looking for other minds coming to the same conclusion I found this. If you are interested enough to read this then maybe you too will find it helpful.
Pathwork Guide Lecture No. 132
1996 Edition
March 19, 1965
THE FUNCTION OF THE EGO IN RELATIONSHIP TO THE REAL SELF
Greetings, my dearest friends. Blessings and guidance are extended so that each and every one of you finds your path easier and reaches the goal with less struggle and resistance. What is the goal? The goal, as far as you are concerned, can be only one thing: becoming your real self. We approach this task from many angles.
First I wish to discuss how the inner self differs from the outer self, or the real self from the ego. What is their relationship to each other? There are many confusing theories about the function of the ego. According to some the ego is essentially negative and undesirable and the spiritual goal is to get rid of it. Other theories, particularly those that characterize psychoanalytic thinking, say that the ego is important. The scientific view is that where there is no ego, there can be no mental health. These are two entirely opposing views. Which one is correct? Which one is false? Perhaps this lecture will shed some light on this important question.
Even if such conflicting views are not consciously held by you, they nevertheless blur your vision and hinder you from reaching the important goal of your self-realization. Let us briefly recapitulate the essence of the real self. Your inner self is an integral part of nature, bound to the laws of nature. Therefore to distrust this innermost self is unreasonable, for nature can be wholly trusted. If nature seems like an enemy, it is only because you do not understand its laws. The inner self, or the real self, is nature; it is life; it is creation. It is more
accurate to define the real self this way than to say it is "a part" of nature. The real self and nature are one and the same.
Whenever you function from your real self you are in truth, you are joyful. The most creative and constructive contributions to life come from your inner self. Everything that is great and generous, everything that is life-expanding, beautiful, and wise comes from the inner or real self. This cannot be emphasized often enough, even in your meditations. Trying to understand this truth, not only with your mind but with your feelings, is essential.
Now then, my friends, if this is so, what then is the function of the ego, meaning by this word the outer level of personality? The ego level is more accessible to you and you are more acutely and more directly aware of it. The ego is the part that thinks, acts, discriminates, and decides. The person whose ego has not sufficiently grown, whose ego is weak, is incapable of mastering or coping with life. And the person whose ego is overgrown and overemphasized cannot come to the real self. In other words, both extremes of the ego's weakness and its inflation must hinder the reaching of the real self. Your problems and conflicts always result from either too big an ego or too small an ego.
It cannot be said that one person has too big an ego and another too small or too weak an ego. Although this is so at times, most often an imbalance exists: underdeveloped in one area of your personality and overdeveloped in another. In this way nature tries to reestablish balance. The overdevelopment may be nature's attempt to straighten out the disturbance resulting from too weak an ego. Only when the ego is sufficiently developed can it be adequately dispensed with. Now, this may sound like a contradiction, my friends, but it is not. For if the ego is underdeveloped, your efforts to compensate create a weakness and evasion that can produce only more weakness. As long as the ego is not strong enough, you lack the faculties characteristic of your outer self which are to think, discriminate, decide, and act appropriately in any situation you encounter in the outer world. Anyone who strives to reach the real self by rejecting the development of a healthy ego, does so out of poverty. Such people do not yet own their outer self. Perhaps they know that their outer self, or ego, is ceasing to be necessary, so they try to skip the creation of a healthy ego. This may be due to laziness since ego development is so difficult, and they hope that this vital step can simply be avoided. But this error, like all errors, is costly. It actually delays reaching the goal. Only when you are fully possessed of your outer self, your ego, can you dispense with it and reach your real self.
This is a law. It is a logical law, for then you act out of strength and abundance, not out of weakness, need and poverty. Only when the ego is healthy and strong can you know that it is not the final answer, the final realm of being. Only when you possess a strong and healthy ego that is not overgrown and overemphasized, can you use this ego to transcend itself and reach a further state of consciousness.
In your work on this path you learn through your meditations, for instance, to use all the faculties of your ego to reach beyond it. What you absorb from outside must first pass your ego faculties. In practical terms: you first reach out with your ego faculties and use them to grasp truths that you later experience on a deeper level of consciousness. There are many human beings who do not realize that there is anything beyond the ego. Their final goal is to cultivate a strong ego, whether or not they think about it in these terms. This striving may lead them to the distortion of an over-developed ego. It is a dead-end street: the goal is misstated because it is much too limited in scope and possibilities, so instead of transcending the stage of the powerful ego, one's energies are used to further aggrandize it.
The law that you have to reach a certain state and fully be there before you can abandon it for a higher state is extremely important to understand, my friends. Humans often overlook it and, even more often, totally ignore it. The importance of this law has not been made clear enough to humanity, in spite of the discovery of many spiritual and psychological truths. This is one of the great, important laws for you to know and deeply comprehend.
In a variant form, the essence of this very law can be seen in the topic under discussion: the function of the ego in relation to the real self. The real self knows that the universe has no limitations; that in truth absolute perfection does exist, attainable for each individual; that unlimited expansion of faculties and forces, in the universe as well as in the individual, makes this perfection possible. When you become your real self, your godself, you become omnipotent, for you become the master of all existing laws. Even people who have never heard of such a philosophy deeply sense and yearn for this final reality, this potential of life and being.
It is possible to perceive this message from the real self quite clearly even without the ego.But without the ego the meaning of the message must be distorted. Not only have you all heard from psychological teachings about the childish striving for perfection, but you have experienced it within yourselves. The little child at birth does not yet possess an ego. It seeks omnipotence, pleasure supreme, the ultimate bliss that knows neither lack nor unfulfillment or frustration.
Without an ego these strivings are unrealistic, even destructive. You all have experienced in your pathwork that you first have to shed these desires or strivings before you can come to them all over again realize them.
In other words, every one of you who is on this path has to come to terms with and has to accept your limitations as a human being before you can realize that you have an unlimited fount of power at your disposal. You all have to accept your own imperfections, as well as this life's imperfections, before you can experience that absolute perfection that you must ultimately realize is your destiny. But you can comprehend this only after you have shed the childish distortion of this knowledge that is flawed because of a lack of ego. You all have to learn to let go of a desire for pleasure supreme and make do with limited pleasure before you can realize that absolute pleasure is your ultimate destiny. Accepting less is an acceptance of this earthly reality. For dealing with this dimension the ego faculties are necessary. Only when your ego deals adequately with the realm in which your personality and your body now live can you then deeply comprehend your real faculties, possibilities, and potential.
When I speak of the ultimate aim of perfection, of limitless power, of pleasure supreme, I do not mean that you realize this in a distant future when you no longer possess a body. I do not speak of this state in a measure of time, but in a measure of quality that could exist at any moment, specifically at the moment when you awaken to truth. Awakening to truth is possible only when you have first found and then let go of the childish distortions of utter perfection, utter power, and utter pleasure. In the underdeveloped ego, these desires are not only illusory but selfish and destructive. They have to be abandoned before they can be attained.
This is the very same law that determines how working from abundance produces abundance,but working from poverty and need produces more poverty and need. The healthy, strong ego knows reality without being upset that fulfillment may not yet be possible because of the obstructions to the real self. The weak ego considers itself annihilated when its wishes for omnipotence remain unfulfilled; therefore, its wish is negative. It will clutch to laws and conditions of the little ego, thereby distorting the greater laws. Out of need and weakness the ego forgoes the strength and fullness that comes when it deals adequately with the immediate now, thereby transcending it.
My dearest friends, this lecture is of very great importance to all of you. It may not only dispel the confusion about apparent contradictions in philosophical ideas about life, but, even more important, it may provide an essential key to your own development. It may facilitate a letting go that can happen only when you trust your innermost self as an integral part of nature and creation When you feel and experience your real self, you will not fear and consequently
overemphasize your ego faculties. Nor will you leave important underdeveloped ego faculties to slumber, untended.
Pathwork Guide Lecture No. 132
1996 Edition
March 19, 1965
THE FUNCTION OF THE EGO IN RELATIONSHIP TO THE REAL SELF
Greetings, my dearest friends. Blessings and guidance are extended so that each and every one of you finds your path easier and reaches the goal with less struggle and resistance. What is the goal? The goal, as far as you are concerned, can be only one thing: becoming your real self. We approach this task from many angles.
First I wish to discuss how the inner self differs from the outer self, or the real self from the ego. What is their relationship to each other? There are many confusing theories about the function of the ego. According to some the ego is essentially negative and undesirable and the spiritual goal is to get rid of it. Other theories, particularly those that characterize psychoanalytic thinking, say that the ego is important. The scientific view is that where there is no ego, there can be no mental health. These are two entirely opposing views. Which one is correct? Which one is false? Perhaps this lecture will shed some light on this important question.
Even if such conflicting views are not consciously held by you, they nevertheless blur your vision and hinder you from reaching the important goal of your self-realization. Let us briefly recapitulate the essence of the real self. Your inner self is an integral part of nature, bound to the laws of nature. Therefore to distrust this innermost self is unreasonable, for nature can be wholly trusted. If nature seems like an enemy, it is only because you do not understand its laws. The inner self, or the real self, is nature; it is life; it is creation. It is more
accurate to define the real self this way than to say it is "a part" of nature. The real self and nature are one and the same.
Whenever you function from your real self you are in truth, you are joyful. The most creative and constructive contributions to life come from your inner self. Everything that is great and generous, everything that is life-expanding, beautiful, and wise comes from the inner or real self. This cannot be emphasized often enough, even in your meditations. Trying to understand this truth, not only with your mind but with your feelings, is essential.
Now then, my friends, if this is so, what then is the function of the ego, meaning by this word the outer level of personality? The ego level is more accessible to you and you are more acutely and more directly aware of it. The ego is the part that thinks, acts, discriminates, and decides. The person whose ego has not sufficiently grown, whose ego is weak, is incapable of mastering or coping with life. And the person whose ego is overgrown and overemphasized cannot come to the real self. In other words, both extremes of the ego's weakness and its inflation must hinder the reaching of the real self. Your problems and conflicts always result from either too big an ego or too small an ego.
It cannot be said that one person has too big an ego and another too small or too weak an ego. Although this is so at times, most often an imbalance exists: underdeveloped in one area of your personality and overdeveloped in another. In this way nature tries to reestablish balance. The overdevelopment may be nature's attempt to straighten out the disturbance resulting from too weak an ego. Only when the ego is sufficiently developed can it be adequately dispensed with. Now, this may sound like a contradiction, my friends, but it is not. For if the ego is underdeveloped, your efforts to compensate create a weakness and evasion that can produce only more weakness. As long as the ego is not strong enough, you lack the faculties characteristic of your outer self which are to think, discriminate, decide, and act appropriately in any situation you encounter in the outer world. Anyone who strives to reach the real self by rejecting the development of a healthy ego, does so out of poverty. Such people do not yet own their outer self. Perhaps they know that their outer self, or ego, is ceasing to be necessary, so they try to skip the creation of a healthy ego. This may be due to laziness since ego development is so difficult, and they hope that this vital step can simply be avoided. But this error, like all errors, is costly. It actually delays reaching the goal. Only when you are fully possessed of your outer self, your ego, can you dispense with it and reach your real self.
This is a law. It is a logical law, for then you act out of strength and abundance, not out of weakness, need and poverty. Only when the ego is healthy and strong can you know that it is not the final answer, the final realm of being. Only when you possess a strong and healthy ego that is not overgrown and overemphasized, can you use this ego to transcend itself and reach a further state of consciousness.
In your work on this path you learn through your meditations, for instance, to use all the faculties of your ego to reach beyond it. What you absorb from outside must first pass your ego faculties. In practical terms: you first reach out with your ego faculties and use them to grasp truths that you later experience on a deeper level of consciousness. There are many human beings who do not realize that there is anything beyond the ego. Their final goal is to cultivate a strong ego, whether or not they think about it in these terms. This striving may lead them to the distortion of an over-developed ego. It is a dead-end street: the goal is misstated because it is much too limited in scope and possibilities, so instead of transcending the stage of the powerful ego, one's energies are used to further aggrandize it.
The law that you have to reach a certain state and fully be there before you can abandon it for a higher state is extremely important to understand, my friends. Humans often overlook it and, even more often, totally ignore it. The importance of this law has not been made clear enough to humanity, in spite of the discovery of many spiritual and psychological truths. This is one of the great, important laws for you to know and deeply comprehend.
In a variant form, the essence of this very law can be seen in the topic under discussion: the function of the ego in relation to the real self. The real self knows that the universe has no limitations; that in truth absolute perfection does exist, attainable for each individual; that unlimited expansion of faculties and forces, in the universe as well as in the individual, makes this perfection possible. When you become your real self, your godself, you become omnipotent, for you become the master of all existing laws. Even people who have never heard of such a philosophy deeply sense and yearn for this final reality, this potential of life and being.
It is possible to perceive this message from the real self quite clearly even without the ego.But without the ego the meaning of the message must be distorted. Not only have you all heard from psychological teachings about the childish striving for perfection, but you have experienced it within yourselves. The little child at birth does not yet possess an ego. It seeks omnipotence, pleasure supreme, the ultimate bliss that knows neither lack nor unfulfillment or frustration.
Without an ego these strivings are unrealistic, even destructive. You all have experienced in your pathwork that you first have to shed these desires or strivings before you can come to them all over again realize them.
In other words, every one of you who is on this path has to come to terms with and has to accept your limitations as a human being before you can realize that you have an unlimited fount of power at your disposal. You all have to accept your own imperfections, as well as this life's imperfections, before you can experience that absolute perfection that you must ultimately realize is your destiny. But you can comprehend this only after you have shed the childish distortion of this knowledge that is flawed because of a lack of ego. You all have to learn to let go of a desire for pleasure supreme and make do with limited pleasure before you can realize that absolute pleasure is your ultimate destiny. Accepting less is an acceptance of this earthly reality. For dealing with this dimension the ego faculties are necessary. Only when your ego deals adequately with the realm in which your personality and your body now live can you then deeply comprehend your real faculties, possibilities, and potential.
When I speak of the ultimate aim of perfection, of limitless power, of pleasure supreme, I do not mean that you realize this in a distant future when you no longer possess a body. I do not speak of this state in a measure of time, but in a measure of quality that could exist at any moment, specifically at the moment when you awaken to truth. Awakening to truth is possible only when you have first found and then let go of the childish distortions of utter perfection, utter power, and utter pleasure. In the underdeveloped ego, these desires are not only illusory but selfish and destructive. They have to be abandoned before they can be attained.
This is the very same law that determines how working from abundance produces abundance,but working from poverty and need produces more poverty and need. The healthy, strong ego knows reality without being upset that fulfillment may not yet be possible because of the obstructions to the real self. The weak ego considers itself annihilated when its wishes for omnipotence remain unfulfilled; therefore, its wish is negative. It will clutch to laws and conditions of the little ego, thereby distorting the greater laws. Out of need and weakness the ego forgoes the strength and fullness that comes when it deals adequately with the immediate now, thereby transcending it.
My dearest friends, this lecture is of very great importance to all of you. It may not only dispel the confusion about apparent contradictions in philosophical ideas about life, but, even more important, it may provide an essential key to your own development. It may facilitate a letting go that can happen only when you trust your innermost self as an integral part of nature and creation When you feel and experience your real self, you will not fear and consequently
overemphasize your ego faculties. Nor will you leave important underdeveloped ego faculties to slumber, untended.
Friday, September 17, 2010
17th September
Only six of us for today's search for truth of what is. We first looked at how our blind spot is cleverly filled in by the mind. We did this by looking with the left eye closed and the right eye looking at a cross on the left at one point the black circle on the right vanishes.
We then watched a short video of a yoga enthusiast talking about how she found centreing in the moment so powerful.
We then read from a text that was on the same theme. This is its summary.
Your entire life is the result of your own thoughts about YOU, nothing happens by chance, nothing happens by accident. You are functioning in concentrated areas of energy that you are creating to show you who you really and truly are. If you don't like something, then recognize it for what it is and then change it. This physical world should be your play playground, it should be Heaven on Earth and not the hell most people create it and make it out to be for themselves. Do what you want with your own life, but just no longer resist whatever already JUST IS.
We then watched a short video of a yoga enthusiast talking about how she found centreing in the moment so powerful.
We then read from a text that was on the same theme. This is its summary.
Your entire life is the result of your own thoughts about YOU, nothing happens by chance, nothing happens by accident. You are functioning in concentrated areas of energy that you are creating to show you who you really and truly are. If you don't like something, then recognize it for what it is and then change it. This physical world should be your play playground, it should be Heaven on Earth and not the hell most people create it and make it out to be for themselves. Do what you want with your own life, but just no longer resist whatever already JUST IS.
Saturday, August 21, 2010
20th August
Just the six of us to explore the mystery of life both myself and Jean saw the report that those who accepted the spiritual reality of the universe lived thirteen years longer than those who were convinced that the material world is all there is.
We looked at a short video of a modern Indian guru who gave a good illustration of society as life or our journey being a bus filled with bickering passengers fighting over who was the most intelligent the most powerful and the best looking not realizing that the windows had blinds down so they never saw the miracle of what is nature self evident.
I did break the news though that the Guru is now dead at an early age of 60 but determined to be positive it was suggested he was meant to die at 47.
This led to what was meant by it and here we disagreed some taking it that you were meant to look at nature but I suggested that here too you would still be in duality and I believe it is only when the mind or the passenger drops the dominent role that we then see without seeing.
We also looked at that sad but up-lifting video of the young Australian who born without arms or legs led a useful full life filled with love for humanity bringing his audience of school children to tears.
We looked at a short video of a modern Indian guru who gave a good illustration of society as life or our journey being a bus filled with bickering passengers fighting over who was the most intelligent the most powerful and the best looking not realizing that the windows had blinds down so they never saw the miracle of what is nature self evident.
I did break the news though that the Guru is now dead at an early age of 60 but determined to be positive it was suggested he was meant to die at 47.
This led to what was meant by it and here we disagreed some taking it that you were meant to look at nature but I suggested that here too you would still be in duality and I believe it is only when the mind or the passenger drops the dominent role that we then see without seeing.
We also looked at that sad but up-lifting video of the young Australian who born without arms or legs led a useful full life filled with love for humanity bringing his audience of school children to tears.
Saturday, July 17, 2010
16th July
Just seven of us but small numbers make it easier for everyone to join in the discussion so it was a good meeting enjoyed by all. We discussed the search for the holy grail which I suggested was within us and not buried in some secret cache.
We then listened to a short video by a sage giving his views on enlightenment. After a stop for tea and a biscuit we then read and discussed this paper a critique of philosophy although it is referring mainly to Western philosophy
Philosophy means knowing something about the unknown without knowing it.
It is just preconceptions, hypotheses, man-constructed ideologies.
Philosophy tries to explain things -- never succeeds. At the most, it can succeed only in explaining away things, but it never succeeds in explaining them. Religion makes no effort to explain life. It tries to live it. Religion does not take life as a problem to be solved -- it takes life as a mystery to be lived. Religion is not curious about life. Religion is in awe, in tremendous wonder about life.
Philosophy is a substitute for religion. Those who go into philosophy are lost to religion, and those who want to go into religion, they have to drop all kinds of philosophizing.
Philosophy is just intellectual gymnastics, it has nothing to do with reality. It talks, argues, creates magnificent systems of thought, but it does not change the man who is creating all this. He remains the same man.
Philosophy is baseless. It makes castles in the air. Ideas are just ideas. You can project an y idea you like, nobody can prevent you; and once you project the idea you can find all kinds of rationalizations to support it. There is no difficulty.
Science grows out of doubt. Religion grows out of wonder. Between the two is philosophy; it has not yet decided -- it goes on hanging between doubt and wonder. Sometimes the philosopher doubts and sometimes the philosopher wonders: he is just in between. If he doubts too much, by and by he becomes a scientist. If he wonders too much, by and by he becomes religious. That's why philosophy is disappearing from the world -- because ninety-nine percent of philosophers have become scientists. And one person -- a Buber somewhere, or a Krishnamurti somewhere, or a Suzuki somewhere -- great minds, great penetrating intellects, they have become religious. Philosophy is almost losing its ground.
Beware of getting lost in philosophy and religion if you really want to know what truth is. Beware of being Christian, Hindu, Mohammedan, because they are all ways of being deaf, blind, insensitive.
RELIGION IS NOT CONCERNED with philosophical questions and answers. To go on looking this way is stupid, and a sheer waste of life, time, energy and consciousness, because you can go on asking and answers can be given -- but from answers only more questions will come out. If in the beginning there was one question, in the end, through many answers, there will be a million questions. Philosophy solves nothing. It promises, but never solves anything -- all those promises remain unfulfilled.
Still it goes on promising. But the experience which can solve the riddles of the mind cannot be attained through philosophical speculation. Buddha was absolutely against philosophy -- there has never been a man more against philosophy than Buddha
We then listened to a short video by a sage giving his views on enlightenment. After a stop for tea and a biscuit we then read and discussed this paper a critique of philosophy although it is referring mainly to Western philosophy
Philosophy means knowing something about the unknown without knowing it.
It is just preconceptions, hypotheses, man-constructed ideologies.
Philosophy tries to explain things -- never succeeds. At the most, it can succeed only in explaining away things, but it never succeeds in explaining them. Religion makes no effort to explain life. It tries to live it. Religion does not take life as a problem to be solved -- it takes life as a mystery to be lived. Religion is not curious about life. Religion is in awe, in tremendous wonder about life.
Philosophy is a substitute for religion. Those who go into philosophy are lost to religion, and those who want to go into religion, they have to drop all kinds of philosophizing.
Philosophy is just intellectual gymnastics, it has nothing to do with reality. It talks, argues, creates magnificent systems of thought, but it does not change the man who is creating all this. He remains the same man.
Philosophy is baseless. It makes castles in the air. Ideas are just ideas. You can project an y idea you like, nobody can prevent you; and once you project the idea you can find all kinds of rationalizations to support it. There is no difficulty.
Science grows out of doubt. Religion grows out of wonder. Between the two is philosophy; it has not yet decided -- it goes on hanging between doubt and wonder. Sometimes the philosopher doubts and sometimes the philosopher wonders: he is just in between. If he doubts too much, by and by he becomes a scientist. If he wonders too much, by and by he becomes religious. That's why philosophy is disappearing from the world -- because ninety-nine percent of philosophers have become scientists. And one person -- a Buber somewhere, or a Krishnamurti somewhere, or a Suzuki somewhere -- great minds, great penetrating intellects, they have become religious. Philosophy is almost losing its ground.
Beware of getting lost in philosophy and religion if you really want to know what truth is. Beware of being Christian, Hindu, Mohammedan, because they are all ways of being deaf, blind, insensitive.
RELIGION IS NOT CONCERNED with philosophical questions and answers. To go on looking this way is stupid, and a sheer waste of life, time, energy and consciousness, because you can go on asking and answers can be given -- but from answers only more questions will come out. If in the beginning there was one question, in the end, through many answers, there will be a million questions. Philosophy solves nothing. It promises, but never solves anything -- all those promises remain unfulfilled.
Still it goes on promising. But the experience which can solve the riddles of the mind cannot be attained through philosophical speculation. Buddha was absolutely against philosophy -- there has never been a man more against philosophy than Buddha
Friday, June 18, 2010
18th June
Just the five of us today but all left smiling so they must have enjoyed the short video of Dr Wayne Dyer author of Inspiration Your ultimate Calling and his talk about the falseness of the ego based on possessions, achievements and reputation.
We then read a paper on Personal Development, Spiritual Growth
"The only thing that interferes with my learning is my education." Albert Einstein
Awakening Consciousness
When I take a look at our society as a whole and think about the stage of evolution that we are at, it amazes me how many problems still exist on earth. We have advanced tremendously in technology and commerce but one thing we have neglected to advance is the world's consciousness, the ability to be awake in the world.
Any problems we have, come from a lack of awareness. If our politicians were really conscious there would be no question about right and wrong, they would be able to make the right decision. In pure awareness there is no dark only light. In fact if everyone was really awake and conscious the role of government would be very limited, because people would not depend on someone else to lead them.
We live in the age of information, but even with all the knowledge of the world at our fingertips what good does it really do us if we are not conscious and awake. The problem is that knowledge essentially binds us, the more knowledge a person gains the more asleep that he becomes. The more knowledge he gains the more entrenched his mind becomes in a certain way of thinking. He may think he is thinking outside of the box, it's the same box; he just makes it look different.
"When I examine myself and my methods of thought, I come to the conclusion that the gift of fantasy has meant more to me than my talent for absorbing positive knowledge."- Albert Einstein
Just really take a good look at the world around you; you will realize that most of the population is operating from a level where they are asleep. Today's society has become extremely efficient at doing things with little to no awareness, we just run on auto pilot. Once you realize how much you really are operating on auto pilot in your day to day life, you will be able to search for ways to become more aware.
We then read a paper on Personal Development, Spiritual Growth
"The only thing that interferes with my learning is my education." Albert Einstein
Awakening Consciousness
When I take a look at our society as a whole and think about the stage of evolution that we are at, it amazes me how many problems still exist on earth. We have advanced tremendously in technology and commerce but one thing we have neglected to advance is the world's consciousness, the ability to be awake in the world.
Any problems we have, come from a lack of awareness. If our politicians were really conscious there would be no question about right and wrong, they would be able to make the right decision. In pure awareness there is no dark only light. In fact if everyone was really awake and conscious the role of government would be very limited, because people would not depend on someone else to lead them.
We live in the age of information, but even with all the knowledge of the world at our fingertips what good does it really do us if we are not conscious and awake. The problem is that knowledge essentially binds us, the more knowledge a person gains the more asleep that he becomes. The more knowledge he gains the more entrenched his mind becomes in a certain way of thinking. He may think he is thinking outside of the box, it's the same box; he just makes it look different.
"When I examine myself and my methods of thought, I come to the conclusion that the gift of fantasy has meant more to me than my talent for absorbing positive knowledge."- Albert Einstein
Just really take a good look at the world around you; you will realize that most of the population is operating from a level where they are asleep. Today's society has become extremely efficient at doing things with little to no awareness, we just run on auto pilot. Once you realize how much you really are operating on auto pilot in your day to day life, you will be able to search for ways to become more aware.
Friday, May 28, 2010
28th May
Smallest group so far but still those that came enjoyed the delving into Jungian philosophy. Although it was a bit hard to follow. We also watched a video about how our thoughts tell how the body should react to anything so that gives us the ability to change our thoughts and thereby our reaction.
One aspect we did read about is this:
Synchronicity
Personality theorists have argued for many years about whether psychological processes function in terms of mechanism or teleology. Mechanism is the idea that things work in through cause and effect: One thing leads to another which leads to another, and so on, so that the past determines the present. Teleology is the idea that we are lead on by our ideas about a future state, by things like purposes, meanings, values, and so on. Mechanism is linked with determinism and with the natural sciences. Teleology is linked with free will and has become rather rare. It is still common among moral, legal, and religious philosophers, and, of course, among personality theorists.
Among the people discussed in this book, Freudians and behaviorists tend to be mechanists, while the neo-Freudians, humanists, and existentialists tend to be teleologists. Jung believes that both play a part. But he adds a third alternative called synchronicity.
Synchronicity is the occurrence of two events that are not linked causally, nor linked teleologically, yet are meaningfully related. Once, a client was describing a dream involving a scarab beetle when, at that very instant, a very similar beetle flew into the window. Often, people dream about something, like the death of a loved one, and find the next morning that their loved one did, in fact, die at about that time. Sometimes people pick up he phone to call a friend, only to find that their friend is already on the line. Most psychologists would call these things coincidences, or try to show how they are more likely to occur than we think. Jung believed the were indications of how we are connected, with our fellow humans and with nature in general, through the collective unconscious.
Jung was never clear about his own religious beliefs. But this unusual idea of synchronicity is easily explained by the Hindu view of reality. In the Hindu view, our individual egos are like islands in a sea: We look out at the world and each other and think we are separate entities. What we don't see is that we are connected to each other by means of the ocean floor beneath the waters.
One aspect we did read about is this:
Synchronicity
Personality theorists have argued for many years about whether psychological processes function in terms of mechanism or teleology. Mechanism is the idea that things work in through cause and effect: One thing leads to another which leads to another, and so on, so that the past determines the present. Teleology is the idea that we are lead on by our ideas about a future state, by things like purposes, meanings, values, and so on. Mechanism is linked with determinism and with the natural sciences. Teleology is linked with free will and has become rather rare. It is still common among moral, legal, and religious philosophers, and, of course, among personality theorists.
Among the people discussed in this book, Freudians and behaviorists tend to be mechanists, while the neo-Freudians, humanists, and existentialists tend to be teleologists. Jung believes that both play a part. But he adds a third alternative called synchronicity.
Synchronicity is the occurrence of two events that are not linked causally, nor linked teleologically, yet are meaningfully related. Once, a client was describing a dream involving a scarab beetle when, at that very instant, a very similar beetle flew into the window. Often, people dream about something, like the death of a loved one, and find the next morning that their loved one did, in fact, die at about that time. Sometimes people pick up he phone to call a friend, only to find that their friend is already on the line. Most psychologists would call these things coincidences, or try to show how they are more likely to occur than we think. Jung believed the were indications of how we are connected, with our fellow humans and with nature in general, through the collective unconscious.
Jung was never clear about his own religious beliefs. But this unusual idea of synchronicity is easily explained by the Hindu view of reality. In the Hindu view, our individual egos are like islands in a sea: We look out at the world and each other and think we are separate entities. What we don't see is that we are connected to each other by means of the ocean floor beneath the waters.
Friday, April 16, 2010
16th April
Only six of us today to explore the most important questions we can ask about who we are and what this is. We outlined what was learnt about the Universe over the last 3 meetings the vastness of the stars and space taking a trip to the end of the universe with YouTube. We looked at the minute atom and its volume compared to the actual matter it is composed of. We tried to imagine what there should be - no space - no time - no consciousness but instead we are, we exist as part of existence. A way of seeing the wholeness of reality rather than the normal duality. We then watched a Jim Carrey short video about how everything is intended. Following that we explored the wisdom of Richard Carlson.
You Can Be Happy No Matter What
by Richard Carlson, Ph.D.
The Principle of Thought
1. Your thoughts, not your circumstances, determine how you feel. Blaming our unhappiness on our
circumstances makes us feel powerless over our lives.
2. We need not constantly be in conflict with those around us. You may have no control over what
another person does, but you can be immune to the negative effects of your thinking about that person.
3. It isn’t the circumstances, but our interpretation of them that determines our level of well being.
4. Because our thought systems are filled with our memories of the past (information we have
accumulated throughout our lifetimes), they encourage us to continue to see things in the same way.
5. If you understand the nature of thought systems, you can begin to see beyond them and sense the value
in other points of view. What we did interpret as criticism we can see merely as an opinion from
another person with his/her own thought system.
6. We can virtually eliminate unprofitable arguments in our lives and eliminate feeling resentful,
confused, or angry at others who don’t see things our way. When we understand the nature of thought
systems, we will not expect others to see things our way...........................
You Can Be Happy No Matter What
by Richard Carlson, Ph.D.
The Principle of Thought
1. Your thoughts, not your circumstances, determine how you feel. Blaming our unhappiness on our
circumstances makes us feel powerless over our lives.
2. We need not constantly be in conflict with those around us. You may have no control over what
another person does, but you can be immune to the negative effects of your thinking about that person.
3. It isn’t the circumstances, but our interpretation of them that determines our level of well being.
4. Because our thought systems are filled with our memories of the past (information we have
accumulated throughout our lifetimes), they encourage us to continue to see things in the same way.
5. If you understand the nature of thought systems, you can begin to see beyond them and sense the value
in other points of view. What we did interpret as criticism we can see merely as an opinion from
another person with his/her own thought system.
6. We can virtually eliminate unprofitable arguments in our lives and eliminate feeling resentful,
confused, or angry at others who don’t see things our way. When we understand the nature of thought
systems, we will not expect others to see things our way...........................
Friday, March 19, 2010
March meeting
On a damp day nine of us settled down to a morning of deep thought, first we looked at a short film illustrating how big the universe is starting from the sun it travelled out to the edge of the known universe 10 billion light years away.
We reminded ourselves of previous films showing the emptiness of matter and the size of the largest stars (suns)After a break we then read and discussed the 10 laws for living a good life - similar to the law of attraction.
Below is five of them.
Life Law #1: You either get it or you don't.
Strategy: Become one of those who gets it.
It's easy to tell these people apart. Those who "get it" understand how things work and have a strategy to create the results they want. Those who don't are stumbling along looking puzzled, and can be found complaining that they never seem to get a break.
You must do what it takes to accumulate enough knowledge to "get it." You need to operate with the information and skills that are necessary to win. Be prepared, tune in, find out how the game is played and play by the rules.
In designing a strategy and getting the information you need — about yourself, people you encounter, or situations — be careful from whom you accept input. Wrong thinking and misinformation can seal your fate before you even begin.
Life Law #2: You create your own experience.
Strategy: Acknowledge and accept accountability for your life. Understand your role in creating results.
You cannot dodge responsibility for how and why your life is the way it is. If you don't like your job, you are accountable. If you are overweight, you are accountable. If you are not happy, you are accountable. You are creating the situations you are in and the emotions that flow from those situations.
Don't play the role of victim, or use past events to build excuses. It guarantees you no progress, no healing, and no victory. You will never fix a problem by blaming someone else. Whether the cards you've been dealt are good or bad, you're in charge of yourself now.
Every choice you make — including the thoughts you think — has consequences. When you choose the behavior or thought, you choose the consequences. If you choose to stay with a destructive partner, then you choose the consequences of pain and suffering. If you choose thoughts contaminated with anger and bitterness, then you will create an experience of alienation and hostility. When you start choosing the right behavior and thoughts — which will take a lot of discipline — you'll get the right consequences.
Life Law #3: People do what works.
Strategy: Identify the payoffs that drive your behavior and that of others.
Even the most destructive behaviors have a payoff. If you did not perceive the behavior in question to generate some value to you, you would not do it. If you want to stop behaving in a certain way, you've got to stop "paying yourself off" for doing it.
Find and control the payoffs, because you can't stop a behavior until you recognize what you are gaining from it. Payoffs can be as simple as money gained by going to work to psychological payoffs of acceptance, approval, praise, love or companionship. It is possible that you are feeding off unhealthy, addictive and imprisoning payoffs, such as self-punishment or distorted self-importance.
Be alert to the possibility that your behavior is controlled by fear of rejection. It's easier not to change. Try something new or put yourself on the line. Also consider if your need for immediate gratification creates an appetite for a small payoff now rather than a large payoff later.
Life Law #4: You cannot change what you do not acknowledge.
Strategy: Get real with yourself about life and everybody in it. Be truthful about what isn't working in your life. Stop making excuses and start making results.
If you're unwilling or unable to identify and consciously acknowledge your negative behaviors, characteristics or life patterns, then you will not change them. (In fact, they will only grow worse and become more entrenched in your life.) You've got to face it to replace it.
Acknowledgment means slapping yourself in the face with the brutal reality, admitting that you are getting payoffs for what you are doing, and giving yourself a no-kidding, bottom-line truthful confrontation. You cannot afford the luxury of lies, denial or defensiveness.
Where are you now? If you hope to have a winning life strategy, you have to be honest about where your life is right now. Your life is not too bad to fix and it's not too late to fix it. But be honest about what needs fixing. If you lie to yourself about any dimension of your life, an otherwise sound strategy will be compromised.
Life Law #5: Life rewards action.
Strategy: Make careful decisions and then pull the trigger. Learn that the world couldn't care less about thoughts without actions.
Talk is cheap. It's what you do that determines the script of your life. Translate your insights, understandings and awareness into purposeful, meaningful, constructive actions. They are of no value until then. Measure yourself and others based on results — not intentions or words.
Use any pain you have to propel you out of the situation you are in and to get you where you want to be. The same pain that burdens you now could be turned to your advantage. It may be the very motivation you need to change your life.
Decide that you are worth the risk of taking action, and that your dreams are not to be sold out. Know that putting yourself at risk may be scary, but it will be worth it. You must leave behind the comfortable and familiar if you are to move onward and upward.
We reminded ourselves of previous films showing the emptiness of matter and the size of the largest stars (suns)After a break we then read and discussed the 10 laws for living a good life - similar to the law of attraction.
Below is five of them.
Life Law #1: You either get it or you don't.
Strategy: Become one of those who gets it.
It's easy to tell these people apart. Those who "get it" understand how things work and have a strategy to create the results they want. Those who don't are stumbling along looking puzzled, and can be found complaining that they never seem to get a break.
You must do what it takes to accumulate enough knowledge to "get it." You need to operate with the information and skills that are necessary to win. Be prepared, tune in, find out how the game is played and play by the rules.
In designing a strategy and getting the information you need — about yourself, people you encounter, or situations — be careful from whom you accept input. Wrong thinking and misinformation can seal your fate before you even begin.
Life Law #2: You create your own experience.
Strategy: Acknowledge and accept accountability for your life. Understand your role in creating results.
You cannot dodge responsibility for how and why your life is the way it is. If you don't like your job, you are accountable. If you are overweight, you are accountable. If you are not happy, you are accountable. You are creating the situations you are in and the emotions that flow from those situations.
Don't play the role of victim, or use past events to build excuses. It guarantees you no progress, no healing, and no victory. You will never fix a problem by blaming someone else. Whether the cards you've been dealt are good or bad, you're in charge of yourself now.
Every choice you make — including the thoughts you think — has consequences. When you choose the behavior or thought, you choose the consequences. If you choose to stay with a destructive partner, then you choose the consequences of pain and suffering. If you choose thoughts contaminated with anger and bitterness, then you will create an experience of alienation and hostility. When you start choosing the right behavior and thoughts — which will take a lot of discipline — you'll get the right consequences.
Life Law #3: People do what works.
Strategy: Identify the payoffs that drive your behavior and that of others.
Even the most destructive behaviors have a payoff. If you did not perceive the behavior in question to generate some value to you, you would not do it. If you want to stop behaving in a certain way, you've got to stop "paying yourself off" for doing it.
Find and control the payoffs, because you can't stop a behavior until you recognize what you are gaining from it. Payoffs can be as simple as money gained by going to work to psychological payoffs of acceptance, approval, praise, love or companionship. It is possible that you are feeding off unhealthy, addictive and imprisoning payoffs, such as self-punishment or distorted self-importance.
Be alert to the possibility that your behavior is controlled by fear of rejection. It's easier not to change. Try something new or put yourself on the line. Also consider if your need for immediate gratification creates an appetite for a small payoff now rather than a large payoff later.
Life Law #4: You cannot change what you do not acknowledge.
Strategy: Get real with yourself about life and everybody in it. Be truthful about what isn't working in your life. Stop making excuses and start making results.
If you're unwilling or unable to identify and consciously acknowledge your negative behaviors, characteristics or life patterns, then you will not change them. (In fact, they will only grow worse and become more entrenched in your life.) You've got to face it to replace it.
Acknowledgment means slapping yourself in the face with the brutal reality, admitting that you are getting payoffs for what you are doing, and giving yourself a no-kidding, bottom-line truthful confrontation. You cannot afford the luxury of lies, denial or defensiveness.
Where are you now? If you hope to have a winning life strategy, you have to be honest about where your life is right now. Your life is not too bad to fix and it's not too late to fix it. But be honest about what needs fixing. If you lie to yourself about any dimension of your life, an otherwise sound strategy will be compromised.
Life Law #5: Life rewards action.
Strategy: Make careful decisions and then pull the trigger. Learn that the world couldn't care less about thoughts without actions.
Talk is cheap. It's what you do that determines the script of your life. Translate your insights, understandings and awareness into purposeful, meaningful, constructive actions. They are of no value until then. Measure yourself and others based on results — not intentions or words.
Use any pain you have to propel you out of the situation you are in and to get you where you want to be. The same pain that burdens you now could be turned to your advantage. It may be the very motivation you need to change your life.
Decide that you are worth the risk of taking action, and that your dreams are not to be sold out. Know that putting yourself at risk may be scary, but it will be worth it. You must leave behind the comfortable and familiar if you are to move onward and upward.
Friday, February 19, 2010
19th February
Nine of us got together for our exploration of questions about reality that few people look into.
After recalling the previous month where it was shown that stars can be so big that travelling round it at 999kph it would take a thousand years to complete and how there are as many stars as there is grains of sands in all the beaches of the world making the significance of humanity as nothing. But despite that we believe that we are in the centre as reality is a projection of consciousness. We then looked at a short video demonstrating the emptiness of atoms followed by a longer video about the law of attraction. Which we all agreed is true but it is not the final fulfilment of what we seek.
We will look at that next month.
After recalling the previous month where it was shown that stars can be so big that travelling round it at 999kph it would take a thousand years to complete and how there are as many stars as there is grains of sands in all the beaches of the world making the significance of humanity as nothing. But despite that we believe that we are in the centre as reality is a projection of consciousness. We then looked at a short video demonstrating the emptiness of atoms followed by a longer video about the law of attraction. Which we all agreed is true but it is not the final fulfilment of what we seek.
We will look at that next month.
Friday, January 15, 2010
January 15th
Three new members making nine of us for a hopefully instructive and interesting exposure to ideas that normally we do not consider. We watched a short video on the immensity of the Universe. The largest known star or sun is so big that if you travelled at 900 kph it would take 1000 years to circumnavigate. And as there are billions of stars as many as grains of sand in all the world's shores, it puts us in perspective. But we then discussed the all in the mind evidence so perhaps we are the centre of the Universe. Then we looked at an inspiring short video of a young man with no limbs who despite this handicap loved life.
We also discussed the following,
"Selflessness,"
Mark Epstein and the Dalai Lama in Thoughts Without a Thinker
"One of the most compelling things about the Buddhist view of suffering is the notion, inherent in the Wheel of Life Image, that the causes of suffering are also the means of release; that is, the sufferer's perspective determines whether a given realm is a vehicle for awakening or for bondage. Conditioned by the forces of attachment, aversion, and delusion, our faulty perceptions of the realms -- not the realms themselves--cause suffering. (pg. 16)
"Selflessness is not a return to the feelings of infancy, an experience of undifferentiated bliss, or a merger with the Mother -- even though many people may seek such an experience when they begin to meditate, and even though some may actually find a version of it. Selflessness does not require people to annihilate their emotions, only to learn to experience them in a new way."
"Selflessness is not a case of something that existed in the past becoming nonexistent. Rather this sort of "self" is something that never did exist. What is needed is to identify as non-existent something that always was non-existent." Dalai Lama.
"It is not ego, in the Freudian sense, that is the actual target of Buddhist insight, it is, rather, the self-concept, the representational component of the ego, the actual internal experience of one's self that is targeted."
"Conceptual thought does not disappear as a result of meditative insight. Only the belief in the ego's solidity is lost. Yet, this insight does not come easily. It is far more tempting -- and easier -- to use meditation to withdraw from our confusion about ourselves, to dwell in the tranquil stabilization that meditation offers, and to think of this as approximating the teaching of egolessness. But this is not what the Buddha meant by Right View.
Mark Epstein is a senior student of Vipassana meditation and a practicing psychiatrist in New York City. He is author of Thoughts Without a Thinker and Going to Pieces Without Falling Apart. The XIV Dalai Lama is the political leader of Tibet-in-Exile, a great spiritual teacher of Tibetan Buddhism, winner of the 1989 Nobel Peace Prize, and author of many fine books.
We also discussed the following,
"Selflessness,"
Mark Epstein and the Dalai Lama in Thoughts Without a Thinker
"One of the most compelling things about the Buddhist view of suffering is the notion, inherent in the Wheel of Life Image, that the causes of suffering are also the means of release; that is, the sufferer's perspective determines whether a given realm is a vehicle for awakening or for bondage. Conditioned by the forces of attachment, aversion, and delusion, our faulty perceptions of the realms -- not the realms themselves--cause suffering. (pg. 16)
"Selflessness is not a return to the feelings of infancy, an experience of undifferentiated bliss, or a merger with the Mother -- even though many people may seek such an experience when they begin to meditate, and even though some may actually find a version of it. Selflessness does not require people to annihilate their emotions, only to learn to experience them in a new way."
"Selflessness is not a case of something that existed in the past becoming nonexistent. Rather this sort of "self" is something that never did exist. What is needed is to identify as non-existent something that always was non-existent." Dalai Lama.
"It is not ego, in the Freudian sense, that is the actual target of Buddhist insight, it is, rather, the self-concept, the representational component of the ego, the actual internal experience of one's self that is targeted."
"Conceptual thought does not disappear as a result of meditative insight. Only the belief in the ego's solidity is lost. Yet, this insight does not come easily. It is far more tempting -- and easier -- to use meditation to withdraw from our confusion about ourselves, to dwell in the tranquil stabilization that meditation offers, and to think of this as approximating the teaching of egolessness. But this is not what the Buddha meant by Right View.
Mark Epstein is a senior student of Vipassana meditation and a practicing psychiatrist in New York City. He is author of Thoughts Without a Thinker and Going to Pieces Without Falling Apart. The XIV Dalai Lama is the political leader of Tibet-in-Exile, a great spiritual teacher of Tibetan Buddhism, winner of the 1989 Nobel Peace Prize, and author of many fine books.
Friday, December 18, 2009
18th December
Five of us met up today to understand what might seem heavy going philosophy.
IN THE SERVICE OF DIVINITY where Rachel Hillel dealt with a variety of ways of achieving self-understanding which she equated with living life in all its fullness and thus learning to know God. These ways include the psychological expressions of C. G. Jung, sayings of the ancient Chinese book of changes, and teachings to be found in Hasidism, the Apocrypha, and the Gnostic gospels.
In speaking of the search for one's soul as an essential part of the human tradition, she referred to a legendary "Golden Chain" of wise men, who have passed a central message down through all ages. Jung, whom she sees as a part of this chain, said, "Anyone who has insight should concern himself with his soul. Our destiny lies in the unconscious, for the unconscious is the source of everything… The word, unconscious, does not count. What counts is the true idea behind it."
Jung had an "ability to give new terms to the very mysteries which emanate from the eternal traditions of man … (enabling man) to penetrate his own being and to look for God … The archetypal idea of the Divinity within assumes in Jung's writing a modern, psychological terminology, but it remains a fundamentally religious concern." He is honoring a "living psychic reality … whose nature is bound to transcend human understanding forever. This has always been the essence of the religious experience."
"Helping people recognize their religious potentialities by providing a method for relating to numinous experiences" sums up Jung's view of the aims of analytical psychology. As Rachel Hillel put it, "Ultimately the individuation process is a religious process … To be healed is to become whole, and there is no wholeness without asking God into one's life as guide and partner." Jung concluded that "in order to gain an understanding in religious matters, all that is left us today is the psychological approach."
Rachel described a young man's dream, which clearly indicated that an institution, such as a church or a dogma can be an obstacle or hindrance to a direct experience of God. "Psychic contents break into life with a living force. (They) seem to come from another realm… a living manifestation of the transpersonal. The encounter (with them) … becomes a religious experience… The experience of God is a psychic reality because it comes from beyond one's self." Jung said, "God is the name by which I designate things which cross my willful path, which upset my plans, my intentions, and change the course of my life … Religious and spiritual events … cannot be made; they happen to us." She illustrated the point with poetry and dream material provided by her analysands and brought out the paradox that though God is perceived as an objective, transcendent reality, we know him through our own subjective experiences.
The Jungian goal of individuation "is essentially concerned with personal religious experiences. Yet experience of the numinous is a reciprocal process between man and God, since the contents which are revealed … have a gradual transformative effect on the unconscious and thus on God. In this way we have become active participants in the divine drama."
Rachel went on to relate these conclusions of Jung to Jewish Hasidism and Christian Gnosticism, which despite their differing origins had in common a search for the inner way to God. The central idea of Hasidic philosophy is "the reciprocity between man and God. God needs man in order to enter reality. Man is destined to be redeemed through the meeting of divine and human need." Also in the Jewish lore it was believed that there are humble, insignificant people whose saintliness holds the world together.
Jesus is revealed in a Gnostic papyrus excavated in the 19th century where (going beyond the familiar biblical quotation) he is quoted as saying," Whenever there are two, they are not without God, and whenever there is one alone, I say I am with him; raise the stone and there thou shalt find me; cleave the wood, and there I am."
As with Jung's reliance on myth, the Gnostics interpreted events symbolically rather than literally. For example, they perceived the resurrection as symbolic, "a spiritual movement of enlightenment, from death to awakening." Jesus, in these gospels, is treated as a model of the spiritual potential in every person. Every person can become a child of God—as Jesus was—and, at a deep level, identical with Jesus.
"it is the unknown power of the Divine within, which guides (us) toward realization and demands loyalty to inner laws. Self-knowledge … the most difficult and challenging religious obligation … directs one to become what (one) was born to be."
IN THE SERVICE OF DIVINITY where Rachel Hillel dealt with a variety of ways of achieving self-understanding which she equated with living life in all its fullness and thus learning to know God. These ways include the psychological expressions of C. G. Jung, sayings of the ancient Chinese book of changes, and teachings to be found in Hasidism, the Apocrypha, and the Gnostic gospels.
In speaking of the search for one's soul as an essential part of the human tradition, she referred to a legendary "Golden Chain" of wise men, who have passed a central message down through all ages. Jung, whom she sees as a part of this chain, said, "Anyone who has insight should concern himself with his soul. Our destiny lies in the unconscious, for the unconscious is the source of everything… The word, unconscious, does not count. What counts is the true idea behind it."
Jung had an "ability to give new terms to the very mysteries which emanate from the eternal traditions of man … (enabling man) to penetrate his own being and to look for God … The archetypal idea of the Divinity within assumes in Jung's writing a modern, psychological terminology, but it remains a fundamentally religious concern." He is honoring a "living psychic reality … whose nature is bound to transcend human understanding forever. This has always been the essence of the religious experience."
"Helping people recognize their religious potentialities by providing a method for relating to numinous experiences" sums up Jung's view of the aims of analytical psychology. As Rachel Hillel put it, "Ultimately the individuation process is a religious process … To be healed is to become whole, and there is no wholeness without asking God into one's life as guide and partner." Jung concluded that "in order to gain an understanding in religious matters, all that is left us today is the psychological approach."
Rachel described a young man's dream, which clearly indicated that an institution, such as a church or a dogma can be an obstacle or hindrance to a direct experience of God. "Psychic contents break into life with a living force. (They) seem to come from another realm… a living manifestation of the transpersonal. The encounter (with them) … becomes a religious experience… The experience of God is a psychic reality because it comes from beyond one's self." Jung said, "God is the name by which I designate things which cross my willful path, which upset my plans, my intentions, and change the course of my life … Religious and spiritual events … cannot be made; they happen to us." She illustrated the point with poetry and dream material provided by her analysands and brought out the paradox that though God is perceived as an objective, transcendent reality, we know him through our own subjective experiences.
The Jungian goal of individuation "is essentially concerned with personal religious experiences. Yet experience of the numinous is a reciprocal process between man and God, since the contents which are revealed … have a gradual transformative effect on the unconscious and thus on God. In this way we have become active participants in the divine drama."
Rachel went on to relate these conclusions of Jung to Jewish Hasidism and Christian Gnosticism, which despite their differing origins had in common a search for the inner way to God. The central idea of Hasidic philosophy is "the reciprocity between man and God. God needs man in order to enter reality. Man is destined to be redeemed through the meeting of divine and human need." Also in the Jewish lore it was believed that there are humble, insignificant people whose saintliness holds the world together.
Jesus is revealed in a Gnostic papyrus excavated in the 19th century where (going beyond the familiar biblical quotation) he is quoted as saying," Whenever there are two, they are not without God, and whenever there is one alone, I say I am with him; raise the stone and there thou shalt find me; cleave the wood, and there I am."
As with Jung's reliance on myth, the Gnostics interpreted events symbolically rather than literally. For example, they perceived the resurrection as symbolic, "a spiritual movement of enlightenment, from death to awakening." Jesus, in these gospels, is treated as a model of the spiritual potential in every person. Every person can become a child of God—as Jesus was—and, at a deep level, identical with Jesus.
"it is the unknown power of the Divine within, which guides (us) toward realization and demands loyalty to inner laws. Self-knowledge … the most difficult and challenging religious obligation … directs one to become what (one) was born to be."
Friday, November 20, 2009
November Meeting
Low in numbers again but it was a nice morning and all those who were there enjoyed the company. We didn't start until 10.30 after settling down from discussing various topics. We then went on to read about one man's idea on how to break through to the NOW by recognising the scripts we all play in our mind.
WARNING THIS SITE WILL SERIOUSLY DISRUPT YOUR BELIEFS
Activating the Seer with Ian Wolstenholme by Susan Barber
We all know that the great Boddhisatvas teach of our need to master the science of "nonattachment." And this idea of nonattachment perhaps communicates well to the Eastern mind. But in the West, that word often reaches our ears as a synonym for "indifference." In truth, however, indifference and nonattachment are worlds apart.
In order to find a way to communicate the inner meaning of nonattachment as opposed to indifference, we sought to speak with a teacher who approached his or her work with this distinction in mind. Such a one is Ian Wolstenholme. Ian sees it as his mission to help people relocate into that authentic Self where we may experience true Lightness of Being. He realizes the confusion that has been caused by the attempt to translate Eastern concepts for the Western mind. And out of this realization, he has developed a powerful and effective way-of-looking at the process of Being Here Now. Ian speaks eloquently of how we may achieve this state of being. For many of us, his words may well provide a missing link.
Susan: How have you ended up focusing on the task of applying Eastern traditions to the Western mind?
Ian: It's because most of the information that I get is about that. I work with people at the point where they reveal to me what they've made something mean.
Susan: I understand you've developed a way of talking about being in the Now that makes it easier for the Western mind to understand what that really means. Could you share this with us?
Ian: I'll begin by saying that the Western mind is extremely sophisticated. It needs to be given information. So the first piece of information that I communicate to people is that we have all been conditioned to believe that we are one person, but we are actually made up of many parts. For example, you may believe that you're Susan. But on a closer examination, you will find that Susan is many different "conditioned selves" — many behaviors and emotional states, each one with a script that gets played out when the part is triggered. And then there is the part I call the "Seer." This is the part that Buddha talked about to his disciples, the place of the Present or nonduality. The Seer is a space that everybody has experienced. It is only when we go into one of our conditioned selves that we become "dual." And in order to locate ourselves as the Seer of our experience, all we have to do is make the distinction between that and the many other parts of the self.
Susan: And how do you teach people to do that?
Ian: We can start in a very simple way. Having said that Susan has many parts, we can say that when she is not in the Seer part — the part that is in the Present — she must be in a part of herself that comes from the past. If Susan believes in this role she is playing from the past, then she is held in that part. And that part of her will do everything it can to get other people to play their parts in her script.
Susan: And if she doesn't believe in it?
Ian: Then she locates as the Seer, and she will now discover the set of attitudes and beliefs of that part. And she will discover the script. We "tag" our scripts, and that helps us relocate into the Seer. That's what it's all about. Location-location-location.
Susan: Can you describe this process of tagging our scripts? Give us an example.
Ian: The most important script is what I call the "resentment script." For example, if we are running a resentment script we may be saying something like, "I've got a right to do this," or, "This isn't fair." These kinds of ideas are good indications that we're in a resentment script. So whenever we feel that we've got a right to something or that the world is being unfair, we can notice that feeling. It's a kind of "tag" we can give to our emotions, to remind us that we've just switched into a part, into a script. We sit there and say, "Oh, I've done all this for them, and I've done this and I've done that, and they've not done this." There's always a huge list of reasons to justify our abusing somebody or dumping our resentment on them. The minute we find ourselves in the middle of one of these lists, we know we're in resentment. It's a wonderful place to "tag." And then we can come back into the present and just allow the present emotion to be whatever it is. It's like moving the cursor on a computer screen. If we put the cursor in one window, then that window is active. We can move the cursor into the Seer and activate the Seer.
Susan: Is the resentment script going to be just one part?
Ian: No. Unfortunately, the parts aren't easily labeled. They're much more complex than that. You can't say the resentful part, because quite a few parts will fit into the domain of resentment. But resentment is, I think, the most powerful source of our scripts, partly because it poses as anger. Some people say, "I'm really angry," but what they really are is resentful.
Susan: What's the difference? Ian: Anger is an immediate response. Something happens and you blast. Anger is a flash. Anger is raw. Anger doesn't sit there. It's resentment that sits there. Resentment is a really, really nasty, squirming place to be. We have a list of "hard done bys" as we would say in England — all the bad things we think have been done to us — and we use that list to justify that we're treating the other person any way we care to treat them.
Susan: In my experience, when people are running resentment scripts and we are not playing our correct roles, we may be accused of being cold or unfeeling. For example, I have a friend who has lost his job, and his wife is going ballistic trying to make him upset about that. She keeps accusing him of not caring about his family. How can he remain in the Now without being perceived as cold and unfeeling?
Ian: The answer to this kind of question is not simple. Because it's highly possible that although this man is appearing to be disengaged, he is actually withholding his true feelings. And withholding is also a resentment script! Let's say that the man you spoke of is only appearing not to be upset by his situation. Doesn't he need an income? Doesn't he need a job? What is he doing about it? There's a lot that happens with the emotional energy between people. It's not just the words that they use to communicate with each other. The emotional energy with which words are delivered is what's important. Emotional energy is the thing that really defines what's going on. We could look at this situation and say that although the wife appears to be the one who is upset and angry and out of control, it may be her husband's "calm script" that is driving her. The man may well be saying, "I'm not doing anything to cause this behavior!" when all the time he's withholding his true feelings. And that is part of what I call a resentment script.
Susan: Wow! I know these people, and I think you may be absolutely right about the dynamics that are happening. I never even thought of that. How can we get rid of these scripts?
Ian: The aim is not to get rid of them. We can't get rid of them. The aim is to know that this is what's happening when we are feeling a particular way. For example, if you talk with your mother, it's highly likely that she will get you to locate in "little" Susan — or one of the little Susans. The freedom in all of this is in knowing what it means when we are feeling upset or whatever we don't want to feel, and using our awareness to see where we are in ourselves. Being upset means that we've been triggered into a particular part of the self. It's the script within the part that triggers all the feelings that we're feeling.
Susan: And what about cases where others are really trying to get us to engage in their scripts and we're not buying it. Won't it create distance in the relationship if we refuse to play the game? How can we do that without being perceived as cold and uncaring?
Ian: The first answer is, we can't. In order to stay out of the other person's script, we simply need to know that it's the right thing to do. If we understand the way we work and have verified this in ourselves — in other words, we see that what I'm saying is not just an idea but is an accurate description of what happens — then we know that if we get drawn into the other person's script, we're colluding in keeping them there. But the second answer is to realize that the Seer in the other person doesn't want us to play the role in their script. When your friend rings up and tells you some awful thing has happened, it does seem supportive to say, "Aw, how terrible!" It does seem that your friend wants you to play your part in her script. But in truth, your friend is really saying, "Help me out! Don't buy this!"
Susan: I've been on this path a long time, and I talk to many others who have, as well. And we all understand about these things. And we have, most of us, been in the space of lightness of the heart. But we want to live there all the time, and this is eluding us. How can we make this state more permanent?
Ian: There's a lot we can do to prepare the space for this to happen. And one way is to make use of what I've been talking about. Use our awareness to see as quickly as we can when we are in one of our scripts. And then move into the Present. But how to make it a permanent state? I don't have any advice. We seek this, and then someday it happens by grace. The permanence comes by grace.
Ian Wolstenholme is a teacher, workshop leader, and author of the book Emotional Hostage — Negotiate Your Freedom.
In 1970, while working as a design consultant in London, Ian had a profound experience of "realization." In 1979 and 1981, becoming aware of a need to incorporate this experience into his life, he went to India and spent time in a community there with the enlightened mystic Osho. Later, he met the enlightened teacher Barry Long, and for ten years after that organized and ran the Barry Long Centre, which came to be a successful worldwide organization.
Today, he works with people in both the UK and Europe, facilitating workshops, courses, and retreats, holding satsangs, and giving private consultations. You may visit his website at Realised.org, or contact him by email at nutanian@Hotmail.com.
Ian lives in Somerset, England with his partner, Anna. (Repoduced from http://www.spiritofmaat.com)
WARNING THIS SITE WILL SERIOUSLY DISRUPT YOUR BELIEFS
Activating the Seer with Ian Wolstenholme by Susan Barber
We all know that the great Boddhisatvas teach of our need to master the science of "nonattachment." And this idea of nonattachment perhaps communicates well to the Eastern mind. But in the West, that word often reaches our ears as a synonym for "indifference." In truth, however, indifference and nonattachment are worlds apart.
In order to find a way to communicate the inner meaning of nonattachment as opposed to indifference, we sought to speak with a teacher who approached his or her work with this distinction in mind. Such a one is Ian Wolstenholme. Ian sees it as his mission to help people relocate into that authentic Self where we may experience true Lightness of Being. He realizes the confusion that has been caused by the attempt to translate Eastern concepts for the Western mind. And out of this realization, he has developed a powerful and effective way-of-looking at the process of Being Here Now. Ian speaks eloquently of how we may achieve this state of being. For many of us, his words may well provide a missing link.
Susan: How have you ended up focusing on the task of applying Eastern traditions to the Western mind?
Ian: It's because most of the information that I get is about that. I work with people at the point where they reveal to me what they've made something mean.
Susan: I understand you've developed a way of talking about being in the Now that makes it easier for the Western mind to understand what that really means. Could you share this with us?
Ian: I'll begin by saying that the Western mind is extremely sophisticated. It needs to be given information. So the first piece of information that I communicate to people is that we have all been conditioned to believe that we are one person, but we are actually made up of many parts. For example, you may believe that you're Susan. But on a closer examination, you will find that Susan is many different "conditioned selves" — many behaviors and emotional states, each one with a script that gets played out when the part is triggered. And then there is the part I call the "Seer." This is the part that Buddha talked about to his disciples, the place of the Present or nonduality. The Seer is a space that everybody has experienced. It is only when we go into one of our conditioned selves that we become "dual." And in order to locate ourselves as the Seer of our experience, all we have to do is make the distinction between that and the many other parts of the self.
Susan: And how do you teach people to do that?
Ian: We can start in a very simple way. Having said that Susan has many parts, we can say that when she is not in the Seer part — the part that is in the Present — she must be in a part of herself that comes from the past. If Susan believes in this role she is playing from the past, then she is held in that part. And that part of her will do everything it can to get other people to play their parts in her script.
Susan: And if she doesn't believe in it?
Ian: Then she locates as the Seer, and she will now discover the set of attitudes and beliefs of that part. And she will discover the script. We "tag" our scripts, and that helps us relocate into the Seer. That's what it's all about. Location-location-location.
Susan: Can you describe this process of tagging our scripts? Give us an example.
Ian: The most important script is what I call the "resentment script." For example, if we are running a resentment script we may be saying something like, "I've got a right to do this," or, "This isn't fair." These kinds of ideas are good indications that we're in a resentment script. So whenever we feel that we've got a right to something or that the world is being unfair, we can notice that feeling. It's a kind of "tag" we can give to our emotions, to remind us that we've just switched into a part, into a script. We sit there and say, "Oh, I've done all this for them, and I've done this and I've done that, and they've not done this." There's always a huge list of reasons to justify our abusing somebody or dumping our resentment on them. The minute we find ourselves in the middle of one of these lists, we know we're in resentment. It's a wonderful place to "tag." And then we can come back into the present and just allow the present emotion to be whatever it is. It's like moving the cursor on a computer screen. If we put the cursor in one window, then that window is active. We can move the cursor into the Seer and activate the Seer.
Susan: Is the resentment script going to be just one part?
Ian: No. Unfortunately, the parts aren't easily labeled. They're much more complex than that. You can't say the resentful part, because quite a few parts will fit into the domain of resentment. But resentment is, I think, the most powerful source of our scripts, partly because it poses as anger. Some people say, "I'm really angry," but what they really are is resentful.
Susan: What's the difference? Ian: Anger is an immediate response. Something happens and you blast. Anger is a flash. Anger is raw. Anger doesn't sit there. It's resentment that sits there. Resentment is a really, really nasty, squirming place to be. We have a list of "hard done bys" as we would say in England — all the bad things we think have been done to us — and we use that list to justify that we're treating the other person any way we care to treat them.
Susan: In my experience, when people are running resentment scripts and we are not playing our correct roles, we may be accused of being cold or unfeeling. For example, I have a friend who has lost his job, and his wife is going ballistic trying to make him upset about that. She keeps accusing him of not caring about his family. How can he remain in the Now without being perceived as cold and unfeeling?
Ian: The answer to this kind of question is not simple. Because it's highly possible that although this man is appearing to be disengaged, he is actually withholding his true feelings. And withholding is also a resentment script! Let's say that the man you spoke of is only appearing not to be upset by his situation. Doesn't he need an income? Doesn't he need a job? What is he doing about it? There's a lot that happens with the emotional energy between people. It's not just the words that they use to communicate with each other. The emotional energy with which words are delivered is what's important. Emotional energy is the thing that really defines what's going on. We could look at this situation and say that although the wife appears to be the one who is upset and angry and out of control, it may be her husband's "calm script" that is driving her. The man may well be saying, "I'm not doing anything to cause this behavior!" when all the time he's withholding his true feelings. And that is part of what I call a resentment script.
Susan: Wow! I know these people, and I think you may be absolutely right about the dynamics that are happening. I never even thought of that. How can we get rid of these scripts?
Ian: The aim is not to get rid of them. We can't get rid of them. The aim is to know that this is what's happening when we are feeling a particular way. For example, if you talk with your mother, it's highly likely that she will get you to locate in "little" Susan — or one of the little Susans. The freedom in all of this is in knowing what it means when we are feeling upset or whatever we don't want to feel, and using our awareness to see where we are in ourselves. Being upset means that we've been triggered into a particular part of the self. It's the script within the part that triggers all the feelings that we're feeling.
Susan: And what about cases where others are really trying to get us to engage in their scripts and we're not buying it. Won't it create distance in the relationship if we refuse to play the game? How can we do that without being perceived as cold and uncaring?
Ian: The first answer is, we can't. In order to stay out of the other person's script, we simply need to know that it's the right thing to do. If we understand the way we work and have verified this in ourselves — in other words, we see that what I'm saying is not just an idea but is an accurate description of what happens — then we know that if we get drawn into the other person's script, we're colluding in keeping them there. But the second answer is to realize that the Seer in the other person doesn't want us to play the role in their script. When your friend rings up and tells you some awful thing has happened, it does seem supportive to say, "Aw, how terrible!" It does seem that your friend wants you to play your part in her script. But in truth, your friend is really saying, "Help me out! Don't buy this!"
Susan: I've been on this path a long time, and I talk to many others who have, as well. And we all understand about these things. And we have, most of us, been in the space of lightness of the heart. But we want to live there all the time, and this is eluding us. How can we make this state more permanent?
Ian: There's a lot we can do to prepare the space for this to happen. And one way is to make use of what I've been talking about. Use our awareness to see as quickly as we can when we are in one of our scripts. And then move into the Present. But how to make it a permanent state? I don't have any advice. We seek this, and then someday it happens by grace. The permanence comes by grace.
Ian Wolstenholme is a teacher, workshop leader, and author of the book Emotional Hostage — Negotiate Your Freedom.
In 1970, while working as a design consultant in London, Ian had a profound experience of "realization." In 1979 and 1981, becoming aware of a need to incorporate this experience into his life, he went to India and spent time in a community there with the enlightened mystic Osho. Later, he met the enlightened teacher Barry Long, and for ten years after that organized and ran the Barry Long Centre, which came to be a successful worldwide organization.
Today, he works with people in both the UK and Europe, facilitating workshops, courses, and retreats, holding satsangs, and giving private consultations. You may visit his website at Realised.org, or contact him by email at nutanian@Hotmail.com.
Ian lives in Somerset, England with his partner, Anna. (Repoduced from http://www.spiritofmaat.com)
Friday, October 23, 2009
23rd October
Only six of us so instead of the planned progam we discussed the Horizen TV show about exploring the mind. Some interesting experiments were conducted. The investigator reporter's seat of consciousness shifted to another person and different angles while viewing through a minature TV screen direct through a head camera.
Also he was shocked to find technicians analyzing the brain pictures knew 6 seconds before he did as to what decision he made.
Quote "If you change the way you look at things the things that you look at change."
After tea we looked at the following.
"Our basic problem is the identification with ourselves as the 'doer'", he went on to say. "As long as we are identified with the 'doer', we think we have choices in life, chasing pleasures, avoiding pain. We think we are making wrong choices and feel guilty. Or we make choices because we are afraid to live out our own truth. But every action we take is simply a result of our current conditioning and our genetic inheritance. They are all choices based in fear. Do we really have free will?"
"We are free only when we no longer identify with the doer," he went on to say. "Then we become a doing, and life becomes a happening. No longer identified with the doer, we no longer live in fear of making the wrong choices, or that somehow the universe can do us harm. We release our guilts and our fears, and engage spontaneously with life in the present moment."
"To be enlightened is to accept the divine flow as it moves through us without identifying with a personal doer. To be enlightened is to no longer live in fear. To be enlightened is to recognize that there is nothing and no-one to blame for anything we might encounter in life, since everything that happens is part of God's will, divine destiny, and cosmic plan."
"The problem is not with the ego," he emphasized. "We are all subject to the subconscious influences of the personal ego, the psychopath as well as the sage. The difference is that in the case of the enlightened sage the sense of personal doership has been uprooted."
"If we are not the doer", he went on to say, "how can there be karma? Karma is only real for us if we are identified with the physical form, trapped in a world of duality, subject to the wheel of responsibility and consequences. Once beyond this limited identification, we are free to manifest the full power of our divine destiny."
"Once we recognize that we are not the doer, everything changes. Our identity shifts to someplace beyond, we recognize that everything is governed through cosmic law, and therefore there is nothing to resist, nothing to fear. The doer becomes one with the doing, and our destiny unfolds each moment in a spontaneous flow of life."
"A personal 'entity' and enlightenment cannot go together," he concluded. "There is no 'me' or 'you' to seek enlightenment. Indeed, there is no such thing as enlightenment, and to truly grasp this is itself enlightenment!"
Thus, the essence of enlightenment is to understand that I am not the doer, simply a vehicle for doing to happen. If I am not the doer, then 'who' remains to feel guilty, fearful, or judgemental about anything life has to offer?
Our memories of the past, our hopes and fears for the future, all arise from our identity as the doer. Life is meant to be lived in the eternal moment of spontaneous doing birthed in our identity as multi-dimensional consciousness. We become trapped in a world of time, however, once we identify with ourselves as a doer.
We are simply a witness to divinity passing through us, creating itself in each moment fresh from infinitely creative source, according to its own wisdom, its own timing. As we practice shifting our identity from the doer to spontaneous doing, from ego to soul, we realize that it is ALL divine will. This is a perspective that our limited body-mind organism cannot easily grasp. Enlightenment is simply realizing that this has always been true, and not resisting the perfection of what already is!
Ultimately, from this perspective, we realize there is nothing we can do to silence the ego, drop the mind, or gain our enlightenment, because all these attempts to change ourselves come from resisting the perfection of what already is. All we can do is simply to love and understand the perfection of our place within the whole, exactly as we are. As soon as we acknowledge this, the curtain lifts, and we realize that we are not so much the actor on the stage of life, but life itself desiring to express itself in each moment of existence.
Also he was shocked to find technicians analyzing the brain pictures knew 6 seconds before he did as to what decision he made.
Quote "If you change the way you look at things the things that you look at change."
After tea we looked at the following.
"Our basic problem is the identification with ourselves as the 'doer'", he went on to say. "As long as we are identified with the 'doer', we think we have choices in life, chasing pleasures, avoiding pain. We think we are making wrong choices and feel guilty. Or we make choices because we are afraid to live out our own truth. But every action we take is simply a result of our current conditioning and our genetic inheritance. They are all choices based in fear. Do we really have free will?"
"We are free only when we no longer identify with the doer," he went on to say. "Then we become a doing, and life becomes a happening. No longer identified with the doer, we no longer live in fear of making the wrong choices, or that somehow the universe can do us harm. We release our guilts and our fears, and engage spontaneously with life in the present moment."
"To be enlightened is to accept the divine flow as it moves through us without identifying with a personal doer. To be enlightened is to no longer live in fear. To be enlightened is to recognize that there is nothing and no-one to blame for anything we might encounter in life, since everything that happens is part of God's will, divine destiny, and cosmic plan."
"The problem is not with the ego," he emphasized. "We are all subject to the subconscious influences of the personal ego, the psychopath as well as the sage. The difference is that in the case of the enlightened sage the sense of personal doership has been uprooted."
"If we are not the doer", he went on to say, "how can there be karma? Karma is only real for us if we are identified with the physical form, trapped in a world of duality, subject to the wheel of responsibility and consequences. Once beyond this limited identification, we are free to manifest the full power of our divine destiny."
"Once we recognize that we are not the doer, everything changes. Our identity shifts to someplace beyond, we recognize that everything is governed through cosmic law, and therefore there is nothing to resist, nothing to fear. The doer becomes one with the doing, and our destiny unfolds each moment in a spontaneous flow of life."
"A personal 'entity' and enlightenment cannot go together," he concluded. "There is no 'me' or 'you' to seek enlightenment. Indeed, there is no such thing as enlightenment, and to truly grasp this is itself enlightenment!"
Thus, the essence of enlightenment is to understand that I am not the doer, simply a vehicle for doing to happen. If I am not the doer, then 'who' remains to feel guilty, fearful, or judgemental about anything life has to offer?
Our memories of the past, our hopes and fears for the future, all arise from our identity as the doer. Life is meant to be lived in the eternal moment of spontaneous doing birthed in our identity as multi-dimensional consciousness. We become trapped in a world of time, however, once we identify with ourselves as a doer.
We are simply a witness to divinity passing through us, creating itself in each moment fresh from infinitely creative source, according to its own wisdom, its own timing. As we practice shifting our identity from the doer to spontaneous doing, from ego to soul, we realize that it is ALL divine will. This is a perspective that our limited body-mind organism cannot easily grasp. Enlightenment is simply realizing that this has always been true, and not resisting the perfection of what already is!
Ultimately, from this perspective, we realize there is nothing we can do to silence the ego, drop the mind, or gain our enlightenment, because all these attempts to change ourselves come from resisting the perfection of what already is. All we can do is simply to love and understand the perfection of our place within the whole, exactly as we are. As soon as we acknowledge this, the curtain lifts, and we realize that we are not so much the actor on the stage of life, but life itself desiring to express itself in each moment of existence.
Friday, September 18, 2009
18th September
Interesting morning with good contributions by everybody that we never got round to watching a film. We discussed the philosophy of the Masons as some of us having visited a temple found it interesting. On searching we find that its aims are the same as ours in searching and hopefully finding the same spiritual truths that are in all religions.
Geoff brought up about the difference in morality between people but we know that if we had been born in the Islamic faith we would have a far different code to believe and live by.We then finally read from 2 texts one on Masonry and the other on enlightenment.
Next's month meeting is a week later on the 23rd October
Is there Enlightenment, Realization or Awakening?
Your own true nature is an "expression of the One Life" - the Aliveness - Consciousness - Awareness. It cannot be anything other than that - as this would be Dualistic.
Your own essential nature - Aliveness - Life itself - is not personal. There is not a separate entity there which is 'you'. It is pure Life itself. NonDual.
We have a sense of self when the conceptual self-image builds up - and it is just that - a mental image. It is not who or what we actually are.
That self image becomes a reference point. But it is a 'cherry picked', modified and edited version of your characteristics, your foibles, your personality, your attributes, your history, your good points, your faults, your tragic qualities, etc. Just a mental image - not 'you'.
It is insubstantial and has no existence other than the content of thought. The apparent 'me' actually does not exist and when looked for cannot be found.
The 'me' is an abstraction. The actuality of what you are is what exists in the immediacy of the moment - which is Presence - Awareness / Aliveness.
All the rest is a mental construct - an abstraction. What that means is that 'the one who you think you are' is a mental abstraction and is 'not it'
So then comes the 'desire' to become enlightened, or to awaken, or become self realized.
But your essential nature, which is present and aware right now as you read this, is an expression of the One Life. It is completely NonDual and completely untouched by the travails of life.
Your essential nature does not need to become enlightened, or to wake up, or to become self realized. It does not need to 'learn' how to become 'more Present', become more compassionate, be able to 'surrender' or 'go 'deeper'. It is already 100% Present and the concept of 'surrender' does not arise.
Who then 'wants' to be come 'Enlightened'? Who wants to 'Wake up'? It is the one who feels incomplete, unsatisfied, unhappy. Who is the one who suffers? It is the Self Image, the Reference Point, the Ego, the one who we think we are. The one who we believe is us.
It is entirely a case of mistaken identity. We are not who we think we are and we want to fix that one up.
Our real nature does not need 'fixing up'.
Our true nature does not need to become 'enlightened'.
Our true nature was never asleep and does not need to 'wake up'
Our true nature does not need to become 'realized' as it is already fully Real.
The reference point, the Ego, has no existence beyond the content of thoughts, has no aliveness of its own and has no awareness whatsoever in its own right. No wonder it feels incomplete and miserable! No wonder it suffers.
Who is the one that is the "I" in "When I awoke" or "I am enlightened", or "I am self-realized"? The only 'one' there that regards itself as a separate entity is the Ego itself - the reference point.
In fact there is no one there at all. The reference point, the so-called ego, does not exist beyond the content of thought. It has no substantial nature at all.
Our essential nature is Aliveness / Presence Awareness /Consciousness - but that is entirely non-personal - there is no separate entity at all. No Self, as the Buddha puts it.
So there are three good reasons to discard the old concepts of enlightenment, awakening and self realization.
Firstly there is no separate 'me' there to 'achieve' enlightenment, an awakening or self-realization.
Secondly, our true nature does not need enlightening, waking up, or self-realization.
Thirdly - 'enlightenment', 'waking up' and 'self realization' are actually concepts - more than that - they are abstractions.
Far better to look into the matter of mistaken identity - just that and only that.
There-in lies the end of suffering and the end of seeking.
Written by Mike Graham, 19 Jan 2008, last edited 29 Apr 2008
Geoff brought up about the difference in morality between people but we know that if we had been born in the Islamic faith we would have a far different code to believe and live by.We then finally read from 2 texts one on Masonry and the other on enlightenment.
Next's month meeting is a week later on the 23rd October
Is there Enlightenment, Realization or Awakening?
Your own true nature is an "expression of the One Life" - the Aliveness - Consciousness - Awareness. It cannot be anything other than that - as this would be Dualistic.
Your own essential nature - Aliveness - Life itself - is not personal. There is not a separate entity there which is 'you'. It is pure Life itself. NonDual.
We have a sense of self when the conceptual self-image builds up - and it is just that - a mental image. It is not who or what we actually are.
That self image becomes a reference point. But it is a 'cherry picked', modified and edited version of your characteristics, your foibles, your personality, your attributes, your history, your good points, your faults, your tragic qualities, etc. Just a mental image - not 'you'.
It is insubstantial and has no existence other than the content of thought. The apparent 'me' actually does not exist and when looked for cannot be found.
The 'me' is an abstraction. The actuality of what you are is what exists in the immediacy of the moment - which is Presence - Awareness / Aliveness.
All the rest is a mental construct - an abstraction. What that means is that 'the one who you think you are' is a mental abstraction and is 'not it'
So then comes the 'desire' to become enlightened, or to awaken, or become self realized.
But your essential nature, which is present and aware right now as you read this, is an expression of the One Life. It is completely NonDual and completely untouched by the travails of life.
Your essential nature does not need to become enlightened, or to wake up, or to become self realized. It does not need to 'learn' how to become 'more Present', become more compassionate, be able to 'surrender' or 'go 'deeper'. It is already 100% Present and the concept of 'surrender' does not arise.
Who then 'wants' to be come 'Enlightened'? Who wants to 'Wake up'? It is the one who feels incomplete, unsatisfied, unhappy. Who is the one who suffers? It is the Self Image, the Reference Point, the Ego, the one who we think we are. The one who we believe is us.
It is entirely a case of mistaken identity. We are not who we think we are and we want to fix that one up.
Our real nature does not need 'fixing up'.
Our true nature does not need to become 'enlightened'.
Our true nature was never asleep and does not need to 'wake up'
Our true nature does not need to become 'realized' as it is already fully Real.
The reference point, the Ego, has no existence beyond the content of thoughts, has no aliveness of its own and has no awareness whatsoever in its own right. No wonder it feels incomplete and miserable! No wonder it suffers.
Who is the one that is the "I" in "When I awoke" or "I am enlightened", or "I am self-realized"? The only 'one' there that regards itself as a separate entity is the Ego itself - the reference point.
In fact there is no one there at all. The reference point, the so-called ego, does not exist beyond the content of thought. It has no substantial nature at all.
Our essential nature is Aliveness / Presence Awareness /Consciousness - but that is entirely non-personal - there is no separate entity at all. No Self, as the Buddha puts it.
So there are three good reasons to discard the old concepts of enlightenment, awakening and self realization.
Firstly there is no separate 'me' there to 'achieve' enlightenment, an awakening or self-realization.
Secondly, our true nature does not need enlightening, waking up, or self-realization.
Thirdly - 'enlightenment', 'waking up' and 'self realization' are actually concepts - more than that - they are abstractions.
Far better to look into the matter of mistaken identity - just that and only that.
There-in lies the end of suffering and the end of seeking.
Written by Mike Graham, 19 Jan 2008, last edited 29 Apr 2008
Friday, August 21, 2009
August Meeting
Low in numbers like may other groups this month but we still went ahead and I believe we all enjoyed the get together.
We first listened to a recording from a team building life coach - interesting but only applicable at certain times when set a task her philosophy of belief in ones self that you can win is useful at times.
We then read up on the technique of centering the self (below).
finally we listened to David Icke talking about the Law of Attraction and like him we agree that it is mainly true.
Centering Yourself: The Key to Sustaining Healthy Boundaries
Martha Baldwin Beveridge is a psychotherapist
You can handle whatever tough situations you encounter with grace and wisdom. The key to doing so is keeping yourself centered in love and firmly grounded in your space – with your boundaries held securely about you.
Centering and grounding yourself are processes you practice – ideally a number of times everyday. Healthy boundaries flow from your steady center. They embrace the whole of you, define you as distinct from others, and protect you from harm as you interact with others.
Healthy boundaries make intimacy possible. Without them partners can't connect as two complete people who love and respect each other. Instead they become entangled. They function as if one of them wears a T-shirt that says, "We are one, and I am the one," while the other's says, "We are one, and you are the one."
That kind of thinking comes from the relationship model that was our cultural standard before the women's movement took hold. In the past thirty years, relationship roles have shifted significantly. Yet many people still are running mental software that dates back to the first half of the twentieth century. Though they may pay lip service to equality of the sexes, old ways of thinking determine much of how they relate to their mates. Especially when they are stressed, they automatically default to their most obsolete but firmly embedded behavioral programming.
When this happens, they violate each other's boundaries in a variety of hurtful ways. We'll take a look at how boundary violations happen and what we can do about them in my next article. In this one, we'll get clear about what boundaries are and how centering and grounding help us sustain them.
Do you remember having a protractor when you were in grade school? Your teacher showed you how to use it to draw a circle. You placed the arm with the pointed end where you wanted the center to be, adjusted the arc of the radius to determine your circle's size, and then traced it with the little pencil attached to the other arm of the tool. A perfect round emerged on your paper – and you could make others like it again and again.
The core of you is like the expanded center of that circle. The rest of you flows from your center out to the boundaries that define you as unique and distinct from everyone else you meet.
Your boundaries encompass the physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual dimensions of your being. Your physical boundaries are easy to see. They are defined by your body which obviously is separate from everyone else's. But there is more to you than meets the eye. Your physical form is not all of you. This is because you are not inside your body. Your body is inside you.
Beyond your physical form a field of energy surrounds you. Your emotional, mental, and spiritual boundaries are like concentric circles of light that extend far beyond your body and radiate all around you. Your energy field reflects what you feel, think, and believe. It moves and vibrates at different rates as your emotions, thoughts, and spiritual experiences vary.
The hurt you feel when your physical boundaries are violated is clear and visible. If someone hits you, you have cuts and bruises. If you fall or suffer other accidental injuries, you bleed. If another person steps on your toes, you feel pain. You instinctively do your best to protect your physical boundaries because your survival depends upon your body remaining healthy and in tact.
When someone violates your mental, emotional, and spiritual boundaries, you feel hurt, angry, confused, misunderstood, and discounted. Emotional, mental, and spiritual wounds are very real, but they are not clearly visible. You may try to hide them from others and sometimes even from yourself. Protecting your emotional, mental, and spiritual boundaries is just as important to your well being as protecting your physical boundaries.
Healthy boundaries allow you to relate in loving ways with others without intruding upon them or being intruded upon, without neglecting them or being neglected, without freezing them out or being frozen out. Ideally your boundaries are both firm and flexible. You can expand or contract them as you deal with different people and different kinds of relationships.
You can best establish and sustain healthy boundaries by being centered in the loving core of your Self. Being centered is like firmly planting the point of your protractor in the heart of you and expanding the love you feel there – then drawing a beautiful circle of light that radiates from your center and surrounds you as you interact with others.
A long time ago, I asked one of my wisest teachers, "What is the most important thing people need to learn to live life well?" Her answer was simple. "Teach them to center themselves."
Since that exchange, I've shared centering experiences with lots of others over the years. Like most things that are really valuable, centering is basically a simple process. And it is one that most of us intuitively recognize and easily embrace.
One way to center yourself is by putting your hand over your heart in the center of your chest. As you press your hand gently against your chest, take three deep breaths and slowly release them. You can say to yourself, "I give thanks that I am centered in love," or "Come Loving Spirit and fill me." Ron Roth suggests saying, "I am," as you inhale and "God breathed" as you exhale.
Let your face relax and soften. Feel light flowing throughout your body and all around you. Imagine that strong roots are growing from your feet, nourishing you, grounding you, and anchoring you to the center of the earth. Then rest in that peaceful place with your eyes open or closed for as long as you like – a few moments while waiting for a traffic light to change or several minutes in the midst of a busy day or a stressful situation.
The more you practice centering at odd times, the more naturally it will come to you when you find yourself feeling frightened, anxious, defensive, confused, discounted, or overwhelmed. When you center yourself, you automatically set your invisible energy boundaries in place. As long as you stay centered – and keep returning to center if you feel yourself slipping into fearful reactivity – your loving presence overrides whatever negativity others send toward you. Centering firmly establishes and sustains the healthy boundaries you need for all the ins and outs, ups and downs of living.
Centering gives you genuine power as you connect with your partner and everyone else. Genuine power is quite different from competitive force. It flows from your place of essential wholeness – a place where you embrace all of yourself and are not afraid of the shadow parts when they show up – in yourself or in others. Genuine power pours forth from an attitude of gratitude and forgiveness rather than dissatisfaction and judgment. It manifests as tender toughness and gentle firmness rather than challenging confrontation.
The Love of God that is the core of your being is always stronger than fear and negativity. Centering yourself – moment by moment – gives you the clarity and genuine power you need to face whatever challenges are before you. Centering establishes and protects your boundaries and makes intimacy possible. Centering yourself in Love gives you miraculous moments of healing – again and again – miracles that are yours right now in each instant of your opening to receive them. Try it out! Being centered is your natural, God given, healthy and most satisfying way of being. And it is yours – simply for the allowing.
We first listened to a recording from a team building life coach - interesting but only applicable at certain times when set a task her philosophy of belief in ones self that you can win is useful at times.
We then read up on the technique of centering the self (below).
finally we listened to David Icke talking about the Law of Attraction and like him we agree that it is mainly true.
Centering Yourself: The Key to Sustaining Healthy Boundaries
Martha Baldwin Beveridge is a psychotherapist
You can handle whatever tough situations you encounter with grace and wisdom. The key to doing so is keeping yourself centered in love and firmly grounded in your space – with your boundaries held securely about you.
Centering and grounding yourself are processes you practice – ideally a number of times everyday. Healthy boundaries flow from your steady center. They embrace the whole of you, define you as distinct from others, and protect you from harm as you interact with others.
Healthy boundaries make intimacy possible. Without them partners can't connect as two complete people who love and respect each other. Instead they become entangled. They function as if one of them wears a T-shirt that says, "We are one, and I am the one," while the other's says, "We are one, and you are the one."
That kind of thinking comes from the relationship model that was our cultural standard before the women's movement took hold. In the past thirty years, relationship roles have shifted significantly. Yet many people still are running mental software that dates back to the first half of the twentieth century. Though they may pay lip service to equality of the sexes, old ways of thinking determine much of how they relate to their mates. Especially when they are stressed, they automatically default to their most obsolete but firmly embedded behavioral programming.
When this happens, they violate each other's boundaries in a variety of hurtful ways. We'll take a look at how boundary violations happen and what we can do about them in my next article. In this one, we'll get clear about what boundaries are and how centering and grounding help us sustain them.
Do you remember having a protractor when you were in grade school? Your teacher showed you how to use it to draw a circle. You placed the arm with the pointed end where you wanted the center to be, adjusted the arc of the radius to determine your circle's size, and then traced it with the little pencil attached to the other arm of the tool. A perfect round emerged on your paper – and you could make others like it again and again.
The core of you is like the expanded center of that circle. The rest of you flows from your center out to the boundaries that define you as unique and distinct from everyone else you meet.
Your boundaries encompass the physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual dimensions of your being. Your physical boundaries are easy to see. They are defined by your body which obviously is separate from everyone else's. But there is more to you than meets the eye. Your physical form is not all of you. This is because you are not inside your body. Your body is inside you.
Beyond your physical form a field of energy surrounds you. Your emotional, mental, and spiritual boundaries are like concentric circles of light that extend far beyond your body and radiate all around you. Your energy field reflects what you feel, think, and believe. It moves and vibrates at different rates as your emotions, thoughts, and spiritual experiences vary.
The hurt you feel when your physical boundaries are violated is clear and visible. If someone hits you, you have cuts and bruises. If you fall or suffer other accidental injuries, you bleed. If another person steps on your toes, you feel pain. You instinctively do your best to protect your physical boundaries because your survival depends upon your body remaining healthy and in tact.
When someone violates your mental, emotional, and spiritual boundaries, you feel hurt, angry, confused, misunderstood, and discounted. Emotional, mental, and spiritual wounds are very real, but they are not clearly visible. You may try to hide them from others and sometimes even from yourself. Protecting your emotional, mental, and spiritual boundaries is just as important to your well being as protecting your physical boundaries.
Healthy boundaries allow you to relate in loving ways with others without intruding upon them or being intruded upon, without neglecting them or being neglected, without freezing them out or being frozen out. Ideally your boundaries are both firm and flexible. You can expand or contract them as you deal with different people and different kinds of relationships.
You can best establish and sustain healthy boundaries by being centered in the loving core of your Self. Being centered is like firmly planting the point of your protractor in the heart of you and expanding the love you feel there – then drawing a beautiful circle of light that radiates from your center and surrounds you as you interact with others.
A long time ago, I asked one of my wisest teachers, "What is the most important thing people need to learn to live life well?" Her answer was simple. "Teach them to center themselves."
Since that exchange, I've shared centering experiences with lots of others over the years. Like most things that are really valuable, centering is basically a simple process. And it is one that most of us intuitively recognize and easily embrace.
One way to center yourself is by putting your hand over your heart in the center of your chest. As you press your hand gently against your chest, take three deep breaths and slowly release them. You can say to yourself, "I give thanks that I am centered in love," or "Come Loving Spirit and fill me." Ron Roth suggests saying, "I am," as you inhale and "God breathed" as you exhale.
Let your face relax and soften. Feel light flowing throughout your body and all around you. Imagine that strong roots are growing from your feet, nourishing you, grounding you, and anchoring you to the center of the earth. Then rest in that peaceful place with your eyes open or closed for as long as you like – a few moments while waiting for a traffic light to change or several minutes in the midst of a busy day or a stressful situation.
The more you practice centering at odd times, the more naturally it will come to you when you find yourself feeling frightened, anxious, defensive, confused, discounted, or overwhelmed. When you center yourself, you automatically set your invisible energy boundaries in place. As long as you stay centered – and keep returning to center if you feel yourself slipping into fearful reactivity – your loving presence overrides whatever negativity others send toward you. Centering firmly establishes and sustains the healthy boundaries you need for all the ins and outs, ups and downs of living.
Centering gives you genuine power as you connect with your partner and everyone else. Genuine power is quite different from competitive force. It flows from your place of essential wholeness – a place where you embrace all of yourself and are not afraid of the shadow parts when they show up – in yourself or in others. Genuine power pours forth from an attitude of gratitude and forgiveness rather than dissatisfaction and judgment. It manifests as tender toughness and gentle firmness rather than challenging confrontation.
The Love of God that is the core of your being is always stronger than fear and negativity. Centering yourself – moment by moment – gives you the clarity and genuine power you need to face whatever challenges are before you. Centering establishes and protects your boundaries and makes intimacy possible. Centering yourself in Love gives you miraculous moments of healing – again and again – miracles that are yours right now in each instant of your opening to receive them. Try it out! Being centered is your natural, God given, healthy and most satisfying way of being. And it is yours – simply for the allowing.
Saturday, July 18, 2009
July Meeting
No written thoughts today we first explored Spiritualism and its faith after seeing a short film. Not too impressed.Then we tried our hand at seeing who had psychic power with a pendulum and a hidden coin - none of us.
We also looked at a film describing the weird world of quantum theory with its multi dimensions and parallel universes. After that we looked at a film of an Australian woman who gave out a peaceful vibes to help the meeting end on a good note.
Next month something different life coaching.
We also looked at a film describing the weird world of quantum theory with its multi dimensions and parallel universes. After that we looked at a film of an Australian woman who gave out a peaceful vibes to help the meeting end on a good note.
Next month something different life coaching.
Saturday, June 20, 2009
19th June
Anne joined us today so thought best to go over the three enquiries that in my opinion philosophy is all about
1. What we know about the world
The Greeks Romans thinkers thought that if you divided any substance continuously you would come to halt when you reached an atom a solid object the building block of life. Science now tells us that an atom is not solid it is almost empty space. There is a trillion atoms in a grain of sand. The center of an atom is called the nucleus. Tiny electrons spin around the nucleus in shells a great distance from the nucleus. If the nucleus were the size of a tennis ball, the atom would be the size of the Empire State Building only round.
Total stellar population in our galaxy the Milky Way
Recent numbers give about 400,000,000,000 (400 billion) stars, The Hubble Space Telescope has found there may be 125 billion galaxies in the universe."
There are far more stars in the Univese than grains of sand on all our shores of this world
Most astronomers believe the Universe began in a Big Bang about 14 billion years ago. At that time, the entire Universe was inside a bubble that was thousands of times smaller than a pinhead. Then it suddenly exploded
Modern ideas of the world compares favourably with Alice in Wonderland.
2. How do we know the world?.
All the five senses rely on electrical signals to the brain. The nose analyses molecules of scent and then turns that into an electrical signal, so does all the other organs. The eyes transmit digitally a picture as an electronic signal to the brain so that all of the world as we know it is in our own brain. You are now "seeing" inside your head. If true there are no "things" no more than there are "things" in a television film. And there is no person looking at what is happening otherwise you have the same problem how does the person see. There can be no movement. So is it true?
3. Who am I?
The prize is finding yourself or enlightenmight. But maybe there is no "I" and we are free now.
1. What we know about the world
The Greeks Romans thinkers thought that if you divided any substance continuously you would come to halt when you reached an atom a solid object the building block of life. Science now tells us that an atom is not solid it is almost empty space. There is a trillion atoms in a grain of sand. The center of an atom is called the nucleus. Tiny electrons spin around the nucleus in shells a great distance from the nucleus. If the nucleus were the size of a tennis ball, the atom would be the size of the Empire State Building only round.
Total stellar population in our galaxy the Milky Way
Recent numbers give about 400,000,000,000 (400 billion) stars, The Hubble Space Telescope has found there may be 125 billion galaxies in the universe."
There are far more stars in the Univese than grains of sand on all our shores of this world
Most astronomers believe the Universe began in a Big Bang about 14 billion years ago. At that time, the entire Universe was inside a bubble that was thousands of times smaller than a pinhead. Then it suddenly exploded
Modern ideas of the world compares favourably with Alice in Wonderland.
2. How do we know the world?.
All the five senses rely on electrical signals to the brain. The nose analyses molecules of scent and then turns that into an electrical signal, so does all the other organs. The eyes transmit digitally a picture as an electronic signal to the brain so that all of the world as we know it is in our own brain. You are now "seeing" inside your head. If true there are no "things" no more than there are "things" in a television film. And there is no person looking at what is happening otherwise you have the same problem how does the person see. There can be no movement. So is it true?
3. Who am I?
The prize is finding yourself or enlightenmight. But maybe there is no "I" and we are free now.
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