October meeting

Interesting morning not many came but those that did enjoyed the experience at least they tell me so and they still want to come.
We looked at three videos,one six ways to make people to immediately like you. One is to mirror the other person in the way they stand or their manner. Another to be vulnerable, to be positive and to have a sense of humour. I think those four are enough to think about.
One video put forward the argument that reality is a simulation created by a future life form.

To save computer power if you don't see it it isn't there. The world exists only as we look at it. Quantum theory seems to reveal the same thing. Perhaps it is true.


Another video increased consciousness put forward that reality was a mental creation by us who in turn is the mental creation of "God" I like this one better.

 Are You TryiThe Truth Warriorng To Escape Yourself?

I can see in my life that there have been times that I have been unwilling to be with what I am feeling, be that anxiety, anger, fear, worry and the thoughts I am thinking, especially if they are negative. I can see that I am usually looking for ways to distract or get away from these thoughts or feelings through working, exercising, traveling, eating, drinking etc. However the reality is that no matter how much I do these activities, I can never seem to escape myself.

The truth is that we can go to the most distant countries, be with the most beautiful lovers, have the greatest jobs and have the most fancy of houses, however we can never escape who we really are. We always bring ourselves to every experience by the thoughts we think and the feelings we are feeling.

We are brainwashed by the media, advertising and society in general that all these things outside of ourselves can be a way to make us happy, peaceful and joyful, however it can only be found within.

Many people in our society use drink, drugs, sex, money, people, fame, watching TV, work etc. as a means to escape their existing reality, the reality of what their minds and their feelings are creating. This cycle of escaping can be a vicious cycle whereby people can live this way all their lives and never know any different. Sometimes people reach a place of deep unhappiness in their lives which pushes them to reflect and reevaluate their lives. Often times it is at this place that the person has the opportunity to create another way of living.

We are taught from an early age to NOT become aware and understand how we are feeling and thinking. When we were in school and college, we were told what to think rather than how to think. In my experience, it was a very rare occasion where I was taught how to understand and become aware of how I was feeling and thinking. Generally, children are punished in school for misbehaving and judged for being so called “bad”. There is little focus and attention given to why the child behaved in the way they did and what was really going on for them at an emotional and psychological level. The “bad” behaviour is reinforced by giving attention to it and more than likely the child tends to repeat the behaviour.

When we come from this place of lack of awareness and understanding of ourselves, it can lead us to a place of trying to shut out or escape who really are and what is really going on for us.

So how do we learn to stop escaping ourselves?

Here are a few ways I have come across, that you may like to consider;

~ Meditate for 20 – 30 minutes per day and just become aware of your thoughts and feelings.

~ Journal or do a stream of consciousness of writing on how you are in that moment.

~ Ask yourself – how is it serving me to be doing this work, be drinking this much, etc?

~ Get more connected with nature – go for a walk in the woods, jump into the sea, climb a mountain.

How To Live Each Day As If It Is Your Last?

You probably have heard of the saying to live each day of your life as if it is your last, but how many of us actually do it. Many of us procrastinate in doing the things we really want to do or live the life we really want to live. We say things like I will do it when I have more time, more money etc. however often times we never get around to it.

I have been becoming aware in my own life of how I am engaging in this pattern of behaviour and thought. I can see that I am making excuses of why not to do this and not to do that. At the moment I am in a job which my heart really isn’t in it. The truth is I am not finding any meaning and purpose in this job. I am currently in Australia on a 4 week holiday and I really don’t want to go back to this job. I have this dream of going to India and learn to become a yoga teacher in my life and also explore the many wonders in India.

I can see my approval seeking thoughts and limiting beliefs holding me back. I have been asking myself the question of what do I want? The answer which is coming up for me is to be true to myself! At times this easier said than done in the world that we live in.

Most of us are living in a way that we have all the time in the world. We can wish our days away by wishing we had more time, more money etc. By living this way we can have the tendency to put off really living until something happens such as getting that job or when we have the money or the time….Time waits for no man/woman!! Time really is our greatest commodity….it is up to each of us how we choose to spend it.

How would you choose to live if you knew you had a limited amount of time on this earth?…….Would you choose to continue to live the life you are currently living?

The truth is that none of us know when out time is up. You or I could die today, tomorrow, next week or next year. We need to consciously choose to live our lives as if everyday is our last day on this earth.

Here are a few questions to get you thinking…

*  Are you living to die or dying to live?

*  What things are you putting off that you could do today that would

make you a more happier, peaceful and loving person?

*  What would you dream to do if you had more time or money?

*  If you knew you had only 6 months to live, what would you be, do or

have?

*  What would you like people to say about you if you died in regards to

the person you were or how you lived?

*  What would you like to say to yourself when you are on your death

bed?

You might wonder, at some point today, what’s going on in another person’s mind. You may compliment someone’s great mind, or say they are out of their mind. You may even try to expand or free your own mind.
But what is a mind?
Defining the concept is a surprisingly slippery task. The mind is the seat of consciousness, the essence of your being. Without a mind, you cannot be considered meaningfully alive. So what exactly, and where precisely, is it?
Traditionally, scientists have tried to define the mind as the product of brain activity: The brain is the physical substance, and the mind is the conscious product of those firing neurons, according to the classic argument. But growing evidence shows that the mind goes far beyond the physical workings of your brain.

No doubt, the brain plays an incredibly important role. But our mind cannot be confined to what’s inside our skull, or even our body, according to a definition first put forward by Dan Siegel, a professor of psychiatry at UCLA School of Medicine 

September Meeting

Four varied short videos one for the idea that reality is as commonly thought a physical manifestation with Larry King and Neil deGrasse Tyson. Another all about the pineal gland, then the knowledge that what we strive for we already have. The last one about the danger of philosophy if you only see the emptiness without knowing wholeness.

The Simplicity of What Is  - Seeking the extraordinary, it is easy to overlook the simple and obvious truth. You are here. You know it beyond any doubt. You don't need a mirror or an outside authority to tell you. It is undeniable.

But are you the character in the story of your life, seemingly encapsulated in the bodymind, apparently solid and independent and autonomous and separate from everything else? Or is that character a mental image -- a bunch of thoughts, sensations, memories, narratives and beliefs? Is this sense of separation and encapsulation real, or is it a kind of mirage? Can you actually find the place where "inside" ends and "outside" begins? If all the imagined boundaries are seen to be unreal, what remains? What is it that is doubtlessly here?

The mind imagines that "you" can step back and take a look, as if subject and object are two separate things. Is it true?

The mind divides and reifies, creating (in imagination) "the seer," "the seeing," and "the seen" -- three apparently separate things. The actuality is undivided, no-thing at all. In this ubiquitous (and thus unseen) labeling activity, thoughts and images get overlaid on top of actual experiencing, and we learn to trust words and images, not actuality.

Words weave stories. They create mental movies that seem entirely believable and real. In this movie-world of thoughts and stories, it appears that "I" am inside this skin, and everything else is "out there." It appears that "I" am incomplete, forever in need of improvement or modification. "I" seek happiness and enlightenment in the future, chase after bigger and better experiences, compare "myself" to "others," and idolize those imagined to possess something special that "I" lack.

But is there actually a central agent at the helm doing all of this? Or do "your" thoughts and actions appear out of nowhere, just as the brain, the breath, the wind, the clouds, the trees, and the galaxies appear out of nowhere? How solid is "the skin" that seems to divide self from not-self?

Investigate this directly. Return attention to actuality. See for yourself. Can you actually find the doer, the thinker, the experiencer, the operator, the director, the one who is supposedly in charge here, or the one who appears to be trapped, the one who supposedly needs to awaken? You can find a mental image maybe, but is there anything of substance there? And for that matter, can you actually find some nebulous thing called "awareness" or "consciousness" or "the witness"? Or is there actually no-thing at all? Not some dead void. But this. Everything, just as it is.

Looking closely, isn't every apparent thing made up of vibrations, perceptions, sensations, memories, stories, ideas, beliefs, layers of mental-movies -- and finally, empty space? Where is it all happening (or appearing)? Out there? In here? Is the pain in my finger occurring in my finger or in my brain? And who is this "me" who seems to own both the finger and the brain?

And where does the brain come from? What produces the brain? There is obviously an intelligence that antedates the brain, the same intelligence that holds the galaxies together and creates the trees and the birds and the amazing web of ecological relationships from the subatomic to the intergalactic. This intelligence, this beingness, this aliveness is expressing itself as every form. Without the brain, our life would not appear, just as the TV show would not appear without the television set. But life itself, intelligence itself antedates the brain.

The brain is an object that appears in awareness. Which comes first, the chicken or the egg? Once again, words divide what is actually indivisible, creating apparent conundrums out of thin air.

Your experience appears to be happening independently from my experience; it seems like another world, as different as toe and finger. Yet is it possible that both are occurring in the same field of intelligence, the same One?

The words are just words. The forms appear and disappear. It seems that "you" have a problem: the rent is due, your car needs a tune-up, you can't stop smoking, you want to get enlightened, you need to find a new guru, you need to be more awake, you need to relax, or pay attention, or let go, or get a grip. But see that these are all thoughts, and that the root-thought is the "you" who apparently "has" all of these problems. Yes, the rent may be due, and you'll either get the money and pay it, or you won't. You'll either stop smoking or you won't. And actually, "you" won't be doing any of this, or at least, not "you" as thought imagines you: the character in the story of your life, the separate person. You as the totality, the One Being, are doing (or appearing as) all of it. And actually, no-thing is happening. Where is last night? Or yesterday morning? Or a minute ago?

There is only one moment. Here. Now. This. This one eternal, timeless moment accepts everything, just as it is, even the resistance and the upset and the apparent non-acceptance. This one moment is all there is. This one moment is unconditional love. This one moment is inescapable, for there is no one to escape, and no-thing to escape from.

The mind pretends to go away and imagines that this separation is possible. It loves to dream, make movies, amuse itself, invent problems and try to solve them: "Yes, but..What if.?" It asks. It craves the false security of belief systems, answers, methods and techniques. But true freedom is right here in the absolute simplicity of what is.

The movements of mind are like weather. No one owns the weather. It's not something to be conquered or eliminated. Simply see it for what it is: a great show, an appearance -- momentary and ephemeral, a mirage world.

Everything perceivable and conceivable is a kind of movie, like waves on the surface of the ocean. Look deeper and you discover that no-thing is happening. There is nobody to wake up. The problems are imaginary. What solution is needed to an imaginary problem?

Seeing this, there is joy and delight in the whole display, and in the most seemingly ordinary things: a bird cheeping, a computer humming, a thunderstorm, a clear day, a hamburger making its way to the mouth. This, right here, just as it is, is the holy reality, the face of God, the absolute truth. And the good news: it's not only unattainable; it's inescapable.

Only eight of us but all keen to learn a little about what reality teaches us.
Usual practice we watched two videos one dealt briefly with Yin and Yang so we followed it with this teaching by Mica Akullian M.S.
Makes a lot of sense

Within each person exists a flow of Life Energy.  This energy has two main expressions--the outward flow and the inward flow (in Chinese Medicine this is known as Yin and Yang energy).  The Yang is the expression of our  masculine energy, while the Yin is the expression of our feminine energy.  At the most basic level, Yang (or masculine energy) is the outflowing of creative energy.  This is the energy you feel when you are moving your energy out into the world, focused on completing a task, and associated with the practical, logical thinking of the left hemisphere of the brain, as well as an extroverted personality.  The Yin (or feminine)  is the receiving, or inward flow of energy.  This is the energy you feel when exploring your inner landscape.  Associated with the right hemisphere of the brain, this energy engages your feelings and intuition, is active when creating intimacy with another person, using your imagination, and being at peace with what is.

Most of us oscillate in and out of these two energies throughout our day depending on what we are doing and who we are interacting with.  Often times, however, through familial and societal conditioning, many of us learn to become overly identified with either our Yang or Yin energy.  When we forget that we have both masculine and feminine energy within, imbalance manifests in our thoughts, emotions, and physical body.  By understanding our energy system better, we can consciously change the way we flow our energy.  Having a balanced energy system naturally allows for emotional healing, and is important for overall holistic health.

Signs of Imbalance

Signs of Yin deficiency (excess of Yang energy)

Anxiety, hyperactivity, frustration, overly controlling, feeling burnt out, anger, aggressiveness, feeling overly competitive, feeling overwhelmed and agitated, overly confident, inability to relax, and overly critical and judgmental.

When we cut ourselves off from the Yin/feminine energy we lose our ability to fluidly move and adapt to our circumstances, be receptive to others, and connect with our creative inspiration.  Instead of feeling peaceful and rested throughout our day, we become rigid, agitated and overextended.  There is a feeling of continutally needing to keep moving and keep doing.

Sings of Yang deficiency (excess of Yin energy)

Depression, stagnation, feeling overwhelmed, tired, listless, hopeless, confused, submissive, feeling weak and lifeless, feelings of jealousy, obsessive compulsive thoughts, lack of confidence, and feelings of low self esteem.

When we cut ourselves off from our masculine energy, we have a hard time creating the experiences that we want in the world.  We lose sight of our goals, lose inspiration to create the things that we want for ourselves, and can slip into depression and hopelessness.

How to Regain Balance

There are many techniques for developing greater balance between the masculine and feminine energy (which I will address in upcoming blogs).  The first step to regaining balance is to begin a practice of mindful awareness.  Begin paying attention to your thoughts.  Notice the energy of your thoughts, and associated feelings and behavioral patterns.  Whenever you are in a state of negativity or stress (either outwardly or inwardly) notice wether your energy is excessively Yang or excessively Yin.  The first step is to simply take notice of what energy is flowing through you at any given time when you become imbalanced.

By paying greater attention to your internal state during moments of distress, and identifying the Yin or Yang energy imbalance, you can begin to make more conscious choices about what energies to focus your attention on.  This first step of paying greater attention is very important, and can take some time as you deepen your self awareness in regards to the sometimes subtle distinction in the Yin and Yang energies within.

As you identify which energy is imbalanced, consciously engage in an activity that channels the other energy.  This may seem like common sense, but it can take some remembering in the moment.  For instance, in a moment when you feel stressed out, stop whatever you are doing and breathe, allow yourself to go inward for a moment and connect to your breath.  In a moment when you are feeling stagnant and depressed, get up and move your body around.  Take some big breathes and get your blood flowing.  These are great first steps to begin consciously working with your energy (I will suggest specific techniques in the following entry).  

The Yin and Yang energies not only exist within the human energy field, but within all of life around us.  These two energies are constantly moving in and out of flux, creating balance in the universe.  Known as the Balance Point in Chinese Medicine, our internal energy seeks this same balance.  We can see these cycles of energy within the human experience as we are constantly creating and destroying, birthing and dying, opening and closing.  Often we externalize our masculine/feminine imbalances in our relationships, attempting to balance out our partner (often the cause of much conflict in relationship).  Beginning to understand your own masculine and feminine energy is the start of healing the divide within you.  The Yin/Yang energy always seeks balance, and healing is the process of getting out of the way and allowing it to happen.  As we do, we allow for our spiritual development, energy healing, and greater holistic health.

July - all about acceptance

Nearly a full household today. We viewed three videos all with different teaching one overcoming depression another questioning reality and one all about the yoga kundalini.

 The all liked the kundalini video and how to raise the power but not the American depression one as they thought it was faked. And they said why worry if this is a computer game it is the only one.

The following I copied from the internet on acceptance. There is a depth not obvious to acceptance where there is only acceptance and no one accepting.

There is a movement in psychology, positive psychology more accurately, toward radical acceptance, focusing on gratitude, and resonating with the positive. And with good reason: it works. People are improving their quality of life as a result of these techniques. It begins with acceptance, which probably isn’t what you think.

New theories of therapy have been developed with acceptance as the main focus. An example of this is Acceptance and Commitment Therapy or Training, (instead of therapy, to avoid the stigma). ACT helps train mindfulness: an awareness of the present moment without judgement. The individual is then better able to tolerate negative thoughts and feelings (although the judgement “negative” is removed in mindfulness). Finally, the individual behaves according to his/her values. This type of intervention has been empirically tested for depression, certain anxiety disorders including OCD, in coping with delusions and hallucinations in those that have psychotic disorders, and with those looking to handle work day stress more effectively (SAMHSA).
Acceptance has been a key to happiness since Buddhism was born. The Second Noble Truth of Buddhism (of The Four Noble Truths) is that “desire (or craving) is the root of all suffering”. This is interpreted as wanting reality to be anything but what it is; in other words, a lack of acceptance.
Acceptance has been a cornerstone of the 12 Step treatment for alcoholism since the first “Alcoholics Anonymous” book was written in 1939. Doctor Paul Ohliger wrote a passage on how acceptance leads to being happier and sober. By the third edition the passage was famously known in the rooms of Alcoholics Anonymous as page 449. In only my second post for Psychology Today I discuss its benefit for everyone.
Often when I discuss acceptance with students or clients, a common argument is put forth: “Acceptance is no good. It is passive and accepting things as they are is giving up. It is resignation to something unpalatable.” But that is not the real meaning of acceptance. There is no better explanation than Jon Kabat-Zinn’s in, “Coming to Our Senses: Healing Ourselves and the World Through Mindfulness”: “Acceptance doesn’t, by any stretch of the imagination, mean passive resignation. Quite the opposite. It takes a huge amount of fortitude and motivation to accept what is- especially when you don’t like it-and then work wisely and effectively as best you possibly can with the circumstances you find yourself in and with the resources at your disposal, both inner and outer, to mitigate, heal, redirect, and change what can be changed.” In other words, desiring the world to be something it is not at the moment is stopped and ruminating thoughts about how things “should be” are put aside. Then change what can be changed. Acceptance helps reduce what people experience as negative. That is only half of the solution to improving one’s quality of life, however. It has been purported that it takes five positive experiences to counter one negative or, more generally, your brain responds to positive events like Teflon and to negative ones like Velcro . So, the new goal is to allow the positive to resonate, to be prolonged, not in a desperate grasping fashion, but instead through mindfulness and allowing it to permeate one’s attention. This helps counter the balance, and swing experience to the positive.
People often do not notice how much positive is in their lives. As such, a movement in the psychology of happiness is to look for what one is grateful for. (finding three different things daily you are grateful for). In “The Mindful Way Through Depression” a suggestion is made to note things you enjoy while going through your day. David Steindl-Rast suggests we simply need to stop, look, and then go in order to see all of what we have been missing that we have to be grateful for. This all relates to slowing down and resonating with enjoyable moments, rather than running from one thing to the next
For some, the word grateful might be off-putting. I actually prefer the word appreciate. It is easily substituted. For a minute think about what you appreciate. Slow your life down, and appreciate all that you have. Even in the worst scenarios there can be appreciation. A shower. A sunset. The taste of your favorite food. Good conversation. Love of family. That feeling when you first lay down in bed after an exhausting day. The list is inexhaustible. But, as David Steindl-Rast among others purport, we simply do not slow down enough to appreciate. We are running from our problems, and running from ourselves. That is not working. Studies show slowing down, being mindful, and experiencing and expressing appreciation will work. By doing it and focusing on it, neuroscience demonstrates new neural connections are made and strengthened. This makes it more likely to occur in the future. As neuropsychologists are fond of saying, “Neurons that fire together, wire together”. Over time, you’ll find yourself happier, calmer, and experiencing more joy. It’s science

Another benefit is that you typically spend less time thinking about the situation, she said. And when you do think about it, “it triggers less emotional pain for you. People often describe a feeling of being ‘lighter,’ ‘relief,’ ‘like a weight has been lifted.’”

With acceptance, your suffering dissipates, she said. The pain doesn’t disappear (though it might over time). But because you aren’t suffering, the pain becomes more bearable, she said.

Practicing radical acceptance can be accepting that it’s raining on the day you planned to visit the beach. And it can be accepting your partner for who they are right now. Van Dijk also presents radical acceptance as an alternative to forgiveness. Because, unlike forgiveness, radical acceptance has nothing to do with the other person. It’s completely about reducing your personal pain, she said. She’s helped clients with all kinds of experiences practice acceptance.

Radical acceptance takes lots of practice. And understandably, it might feel strange and hard. But remember that radical acceptance is about acknowledging reality – not liking it or contesting it. Once you acknowledge what’s really happening, you can change it or start to heal. Radical acceptance has nothing to do with being passive or giving up. To the contrary, it’s about channelling your energy into moving on.

Page 449

...When I stopped living in the problem and began living in the answer, the problem went away. From that moment on, I have not had a single compulsion to drink.
And acceptance is the answer to all my problems today. When I am disturbed, it is because I find some person, place, thing or situation-some fact of my life-unacceptable to me, and I can find no serenity until I accept that person, place, thing, or situation as being exactly the way it is supposed to be at this moment. Nothing, absolutely nothing happens in God's world by mistake. Until Icould accept my alcoholism, I could not stay sober; unless I accept life completely on life's terms, I cannot be happy. I need to concentrate not so much on what needs to be changed in the world as on what needs to be changed in me and in my attitudes....

June meeting

Eight of us spent half an hour chatting then watched a TED video in defence of the introvert.
Followed by a 3 minute video on what next after waking up. The answer was acceptance of the current situation.
It was gone twelve before they left so they must have enjoyed it.

THE SELF - SRI RAMANA

The mind is nothing but the thought 'I'

Thoughts arise because of the thinker (subject). The thinker is the ego, which if sought will automatically vanish.

Without consciousness, time and space do not exist; they appear in consciousness but have no reality of their own.

The absolute consciousness alone is our real nature.

Grace is within you. Grace is your self. Grace is not something to be acquired from others. If it is external, it is useless. All that is necessary is to know its existence is in you. You are never out of its operation.

The mind cannot seek the mind. You ignore what is real (awareness) and hold on to that which is unreal, then try to find what it is. You think you are the mind and, therefore, ask how it is to be controlled? If the mind exists, it can be controlled, but it does not. Understand this truth by inquiry (into the nature of the mind).

The eternal (awareness) is not born nor does it die. We confound the appearance (the world) with Reality (awareness). Appearance carries it's end in itself. What is it that appears anew? If you cannot find it, surrender unreservedly to the substratum of appearances (awareness); then Reality (awareness) will be what remains.

Reality is simply loss of ego (awareness of awareness). Destroy the ego by seeking its identity. Because the ego has no existence (being only thoughts), it will automatically vanish (when you are still), and Reality (awareness) will shine forth by itself in all its glory. This is the direct method. All other methods retain the ego. In those paths so many doubts arise, and the eternal question remains to be tackled. But in this method the final question is the only one and is raised from the very beginning.

No practices (sadhanas) are even necessary for this quest.

Your duty is to Be, and not to be this or that.

"I Am that I Am" sums up the whole truth; the method is summarized in "Be still."

The state we call Realization is simply being one's self, not knowing anything or becoming anything.

Sādhanā, literally "a means of accomplishing something", is an ego-transcending spiritual practice

May meeting

Interesting session this morning we watched a Ted video about Alzheimer's. Heard how nuns in the USA who had on autopsy shown full blown Alzheimer's but during her life showed no signs.
Religion or social activity had saved them?.
Learn new things is part answer and get a good night's sleep.

We usually describe the world in terms of trees, mountains, rivers, clouds, cars, houses, people, and so on.

But a chemist could say: “No, this is not how things truly are! The world is basically composed of molecules which are ceaselessly combining one with another at random”.

However a physicist would reply: “Not at all! Reality is actually made up of intermingling fields of energy/matter where the dance of waves/particles takes place ceaselessly”.

Who is right? Who is wrong?

All of them are clearly mere conceptual descriptions that can just supply a relative view of reality.

We do not actually live in ‘reality’, but rather in a description of it, that is like a ‘bubble’ of concepts and words all around us, which in time builds up a fictitious view of ourselves and the world.

Even non-dualism (as any other -ism without exception) is just a conceptual description of reality, that hopelessly tries to point to the unknowable ‘Whatever it is’: in so far as it becomes an ideology that relies on words and thoughts, it is unable to enjoy the taste of Being.

So we live in concepts without realizing it.

We blindly believe that reality is just as our thought represents it.

Science gives us an ‘objective’ description of the material world that, to some extent, can be very useful for the improvement of humankind, however relative and incomplete it is.

Non-duality – as far as it still relies on words and thoughts – is just another conceptual description of reality, though its understanding of non-separation can dispel a huge amount of suffering in one’s life.

Neither of them is more or less right, and both are useful.

But as long as we rely merely on them, we remain trapped in the net of concepts.

Just as the fisherman’s net can catch only fishes, but not the water that passes through it and even supports it, so the thinking mind can grasp only concepts, but not the awareness that perceives it as an object: the ‘water of awareness’ can never be detected by the net of the thinking mind.

Indeed, awareness is a paradoxical mystery: on the one hand its evidence is undeniable for the very fact that we are aware of objects, but on the other hand it is unknowable, just as the existence of the eye is undeniable for the very fact that we can see objects, though it always remains invisible, outside the picture.

However, even ‘awareness’ is just a concept: through it, we are ultimately confronted with the unknown ‘bottom line’ of any human knowledge.

No understanding whatsoever can touch the unknowable Source of everything.

What if any idea about who I am, including even the idea of ‘consciousness’, totally collapses?

What if any idea about reality, including even the idea of ‘non duality’, totally collapses?

What if even these very words you are reading now lose any meaning whatsoever and fall away?

What remains when every attempt to understand or to know reality reveals its utter futility?

Then, out of frustration, the thinking mind cannot help saying “I don’t know” and finally quits.

But when that “I don’t know” plunges off the head into the heart, the philosopher dies and the mystic is born.

It is not a process in time. It is a singularity where all the known collapses and disappears.

It is a timeless explosion of pure wonder and awe that blows away everything else.

And what remains is a wild, free, spontaneous, and utterly unknowable aliveness, within the glowing darkness of the Mystery that we ultimately are.


It isn't just Eastern thought that knows the world is not what it seems.

Hume’s Theory of the External World: scepticism about the existence of the external world

Our consciousness presents us with a reality that seems coherent and predictable. Philosophical reflection upon this common sense belief has, however, often resulted in scepticism about whether we can safely conclude that there is indeed a material world outside our consciousness. David Hume (1711–1776) wanted to find out how we come to this ingrained belief in the external world.

Hume distinguished between the “vulgar opinion”—the common sense belief that perception and external objects are the same—and the philosophical view, in which perception and the perceived object are distinct from each other. Hume believes that the philosophical view of representative realism is worse than the naive realism of the common sense view, because the philosophical view takes no stand on whether our perceptions are continued, identical and independent or whether they are dependent, interrupted and different. The philosophical view tries to justify the belief in external objects on these contradictory assumptions, which results in a ‘system of double existence’.

Hume investigated what kind of cognitive processes give rise to the common sense belief that there is an external world. He argued that our common sense belief in the existence of things outside the mind depends on two inferences: one from constancy and the other from coherence. Hume believes, however, that these inferences are flawed and he can only find ‘contradictions and difficulties in every system concerning external objects’.

Beauty in things exists in the mind which contemplates them.

David Hume was a Scottish philosopher, historian, economist, and essayist, who is best known today for his highly influential system of radical philosophical empiricism, skepticism, and naturalism.