Last week I decided to simply quit spinning it around in my mind and emotional center and to simply go within and meditate. In meditation, I did a few main things:
Withdraw attention, energy, and interest from thought and emotion
Return awareness back to awareness itself
Surrender away all else without resistance
The key is not to try and fix ANYTHING, but to literally sit as the Self (conscious awareness itself), and allow everything else to fall away by offering it no resistance.
This may sound like it’s not accomplishing anything, as if no problems are being adequately dealt with, but believe me, this will impact you on an entirely different level…
There’s this idea that surrender means giving up, waving a white flag, and proclaiming our own weakness and sense of inability to accomplish our goals. This is NOT what is meant here. By surrender, I am simply saying to fully allow things to be the way they are and to let go of resistance. Be fully open without closing down.
After maybe 20-25 minutes of sitting in meditation, something amazing opened up and I realized a deeper part of my being, of who I truly am.
Beneath this idea of a little “me” and all the emotions and thoughts and stories it conjures up, there’s this infinitely more amazing world. Read More …
Last night I listened to an Adyashanti satsang called “The Three Phases of Awakening” and in his talk, he brought up some traps which really resonate with me, traps which I’ve found myself getting caught in.
The trap is that once you get a taste of the Absolute and realize that all is perfect, then who cares about the world of the Relative because it’s all perfect anyways. Who cares because it’s all an illusion? At this point, you even have the choice to sit back let the body waste away and not really engage the world because hey, it’s already perfect. What more could I do?
Let’s examine this together and see exactly what’s going on.
Fear of Life
Many of us have a fear of death, yet there’s another fear that’s not talked about as often: fear of life. For some people, fear of life is even more intense than fear of death.
It’s like when we’re born, there’s all these bright lights, people pulling us this way or pushing us that way, lots of commotion, and then we get slapped. What an entrance. Perhaps there’s a part of us that says, “Man, I don’t like life. It was better before I was born. All of the sudden I’m suffering.”
It’s almost like some people don’t like life right from the get-go and this never quite heals.
Escaping Life
This is a very common experience for people since life can be so unpleasant. Some people will try to escape life through drugs, alcohol, music, sex, food, sleeping, or whatever other distraction works for them.
Perhaps people get into spirituality with the hope that when they become enlightened, life will suddenly become magical and wonderful. It will be the solution to all my problems!
So they take this (inaccurate) idea with them, proceed down the spiritual path, and eventually they find themselves abiding in the Absolute reality.
Hiding in the Absolute
In the Absolute, everything is as it is. Perfection is. What we call “real life” is seen to be totally an illusion and nothing really happens. Everything just is. It’s pure beingness. There’s nothing we could do to make life better or worse. Even the Hitler’s and diseases of the world are seen to be part of the perfection.
Now it is true that the world we live in is illusion and ultimately unreal, but there is still an element of experiential reality to it, is there not? It’s like, no matter how enlightened you are, if you get hit in the head with a hammer, it’s still gonna hurt.
The understanding that this world is an illusion and not real is an excellent instructional understanding, but there’s still a sense of practicality that needs to be integrated alongside this understanding. This is the part where we become “in this world, but not of it.” Rather than abiding in the Absolute as a way to escape the life of suffering, we recognize that All That Is INCLUDES the world of the relative, illusion or not. Read More …
A quiet mind is something so many people want to experience, if even for a short period of time. An uncontrolled mind is like a living hell and so there’s many different methods people talk about to “control the mind” or to “master the mind” including affirmations, meditations, and more.
So how do you quiet the mind once and for all?
…
You don’t.
Wait, what?
See, quieting the mind is not something “you” can do. The “you” that you think you are IS the mind and the mind is unwilling to commit suicide and kill itself. In fact, the mind would rather throw you (the body) off a cliff to prove a point rather than give up its own positions and desire to be right. The mind does NOT have your own best interests at heart! The ego/mind is something that works on its own and it is not you. By pushing against it and trying to shut it up, you’re creating even more struggle which will never lead to the mind going totally quiet for good.
So what can we do?
Surrender Ego Juice
If you look at the thoughts, you’ll see that it’s not actually the thoughts themselves that give us pleasure, but rather the “juice” the ego gets out of thinking the thoughts. Some examples of this ego juice include the feeling of I (as an individual self) exist, I am better than, I am right, I am in control, I am no good, I can do it, I can never do it, and so on.
Look closely and you’ll find that there’s an emotional payoff the ego gets to thinking. It’s the payoffs that need to be surrendered to God, not the actual thoughts themselves. Take away the ego’s motivation and benefits to thinking and the thinking will naturally subside on its own little by little until there’s a permanent stillness in the mind.
Silence.
How To Do It
Any time you notice a compulsive “pull” within you that says you need to do something, a sense of mental agitation, notice the compulsion and the feeling of “ugh, I GOTTA do this.”
Next look at the payoffs that you’d get by doing the thing. Perhaps it’s a sense of relief, accomplishment, approval, control, security, separation, oneness, or something else that you will obtain by thinking the thoughts or performing the action. There’s some sort of emotional benefit to what the thought is trying to get you to do.
Finally, adopt a Yin position towards these feelings and towards Life, a feeling of ALLOWING thoughts to be and allowing them to be let go of on their own. Simply let go of any emotional payoffs and the thoughts themselves will automatically be released. Do not force them to leave. Allow them to be let go of by simply offering them no resistance. You may need to repeat this process over and over to fully surrender away the attachments to a particular thought or emotion.
Let Go Of Any Personalization
A random pair of shoes you see aren’t deemed important by the mind and thus aren’t spun around in the thoughts and inserted into our conscious memory banks. However, an identical pair of shoes that become ‘my’ pair of shoes are suddenly given a sense of importance and are thus remembered.
The same is true with ‘my’ thoughts, ‘my’ beliefs, ‘my’ body, ‘my’ opinions, ‘my’ ideas, ‘my’ people, ‘my’ land, ‘my’ girlfriend, and so on. The ego loooves to claim ownership of and possessiveness to things because it believes there is some sort of magical benefit to owning things. This is simply not true. Owning more and more “things” does not make one happy.
As one lets go of all beliefs as to personalization, ownership, or value judgments, all is seen to be equally beautiful and valuable. A rose is recognized to be as beautiful as a common weed. Objects and concepts are all seen to have equal importance not because they are mine, but because they are. Everyone and everything is of equal value to the Self.
Collapsing The Mind
The mind focuses on thoughts that it believes are true. For example, you only worry about things that might conceivably happen. If the mind didn’t believe the thought, it wouldn’t focus on it. When one starts investigating, they’ll find that the mind actually has no capacity to discern what’s true.
If you look closely, you’ll find that you can take any belief you believe to be true and find evidence to support why the opposite belief is also true.
Explore some more and you’ll find that every belief is ultimately supported by nothing. There is no belief built upon a solid foundation of truth. Every thought, belief, or opinion that we hold so strongly to be true, we find that deep down we actually don’t know if it’s actually true! Dig deep and you’ll find that every belief and its opposite is false.
Once you realize that every belief and its opposite is both true AND false, you’ll find you don’t really believe anything, nor do you disbelieve anything. Rather, you come to rest right in the middle as the mind begins to collapse on itself.
What remains is your natural state beyond thought. Some call this enlightenment or being your true self.
What Benefit Is There To Doing This?
Peace, Joy, Bliss, Unconditional Love, Stillness, and an Infinite Softness.
The mind is still available as a tool when one awakens, but it no longer runs amok like an undisciplined child. One can simply tell the mind to be quiet and believe it or not, it actually will! The mind will only be used when needed and what one begins to realize is that the mind is needed far less often than originally thought.
When one stops judging and personalizing and mentally farting around, the mind subsides and the ‘veil’ of the mind lifts. Only then does one find the true beauty of God/Nature/All That Is.
When the veil lifts, it’s like suddenly having the experience of a TV show we used to watch on a small black and white TV suddenly appearing on a huge, colorful HDTV.
Colors are richer and juicier, tastes are more delightful, sounds are exquisite, sensations are glorious, and the whole world feels radiantly alive and beautiful. It’s like someone cranked the “juiciness” knob WAYYY up on life.
All that used to be a struggle has been changed into a conscious observation, an all-pervading softness, and effortless power to accomplish anything necessary.
Life becomes a magnificent journey for no one, an exquisitely beautiful moment perpetually unfolding from perfection to perfection all on its own. What an incredible ride…
The law of non-contradiction is the foundation of all truth. Any statement that contradicts itself (such as yours here) is obviously not truth.
MS.
Hey MS,
You have found the fundamental flaw of using a dualistic tool such as language to attempt to verbalize a nondualistic Truth such as God has no opposite. There is no opposite to Truth.
How would you describe color to a blind person? You could try to describe it, but no matter what you say, your descriptions and explanations will always come up short. The best thing to do would be to show the blind person how to see, to experience the colors for themselves. Then no explanation would be needed.
The original statement I made above is an attempt at verbalizing the direct experience of Oneness, an experience which is utterly beyond description. It is truly an experience out of this world.
When one experiences this, it becomes stunningly apparent how REAL Allness/Nothingness is and how unreal this whole world of form is. This world may feel real, but it’s like a dulled out bland dream compared to ultimate reality. I promise you.
I can not convince you of what I say, nor is my desire to convince you that I am “right.” Why? Because even if you DID believe me with all your heart, it would still just be another belief, another layer of the egoic onion, and beliefs are a poor substitute for knowingness and experience.
In order to understand absolute Truth, one must rise above the level of consciousness that allows for duality in the first place, the level where we can have two opposing beliefs such as good vs. evil, right vs. wrong, religion vs. science, and experience higher levels of consciousness in which nonduality, the level beyond opposites and the only True Reality, is one’s complete and total experience. It is only from this place that one can stand and look back at the world and fully recognize illusion as illusion.
In order to do this, one must completely transcend their own ego and see through the lie that says the mind is a valid tool to discern ultimate Truth. Truth can never be understood by attempting to going through the mind. The mind, plain and simple, CAN NOT KNOW TRUTH.
(Ariel’s note: I haven’t read this book, but this excerpt is pretty awesome nonetheless.)
Pupil: You have earlier said that I am not the mind, but a power above it, could you please clarify this point?
Teacher: The fact that you can give orders to the mind, act contrary to its dictates, and reprogram it in accordance with your own will, proves that YOU are indeed NOT the mind.
Pupil: Your words confuse me. Until now, I had no doubts that my mind and myself were the same entity.
Teacher: This is what most people think. Let me clarify this concept. To operate a machine or drive a car, there must be someone in charge to make them work. A machine or a car cannot work on its own, is it not so?
Pupil: Right.
Teacher: If it is possible to change the programming of the mind and calm down its restlessness, it means that the power that is making this possible is something separate or higher than the mind, exactly as the one who operates a machine or drives a car is separate from the machine or car, right?
Pupil: Yes, this makes sense.
Teacher: There must be something or some sort of subtle power separate and higher than the mind, which is able to reprogram it and change its habits. If it were not so, it wouldn’t have been possible to gain peace of mind.
If you are able to say to your mind, “Be quiet”, and it obeys you, especially when its desires are different from yours, it means that you are the one giving the order, not the mind. It cannot order itself to shut up. There must be something or someone else who gives these orders, and this someone else is YOU, THE REAL YOU. Read More …
If the world is an illusion, then hunger is an illusion too. If that’s the case, why bother eating?
Great question. Let’s take a closer look at what “illusion” actually means.
First off, pretend you’re driving a car. The car you have is a tool. The tool is not you, but it still needs to be filled with gas and taken care of to run effectively. Don’t give it any gas and it’ll stop working.
The car, however, is not you. It is clear that you are the driver of the car, not the car itself.
The “illusion” would be that the car is you and that if the car dies, you die.
People have a tendency to believe that their bodies are them and if the body dies, they die. We can see this reflected in the way we language things such as, “I’m don’t feel good” when they have a stomach ache. The stomach you have may hurt, but the stomach is not you. The language is reflecting the illusion.
The first error is a case of mistaken identity.
The first illusion is that the car is you. Seeing through the illusion gives you the realization that the car is not you. Read More …
As one begins to truly recognize that the mind has no capacity to recognize truth, that it’s constantly projecting its own made up silliness onto the direct experience of reality, and then then finally begin simply seeing what is without all the additional commentary, life starts to become much simpler. The true reality of who you really are becomes apparent. When the mind stops trying to figure out what’s real and quits making up a false sense of identity, true reality is finally experienced.
Sri Bhagavan describes the experience beyond the mind, the experience we call enlightenment.
You then begin experiencing life, experiencing this very moment right NOW as beautiful and perfect. This is not a judgment. It’s not a belief. It’s not a decision to look at the world in this way. It’s the natural state once the mind drops away.
One finally recognizes that they truly live in heaven now. We all exist in “heaven on earth” in this moment. We have lived here in every moment of our lives, but have been thinking it’s somewhere else. The irony is that people have been trying to figure out how to “get to heaven” only to find that they’ve never left. Hence enlightenment is not a destination, a place to “get to.” Enlightenment is the realization of who you really are.
Again, this is NOT a belief system. It’s the direct experience of having let go of all beliefs and identification with mental chatter.
The most that most of us can do with this information is to either agree and adopt it as a belief, or disagree and reject it as a belief, but it’s still being interpreted as a belief. Allow this video and this article to simply pass through your awareness and be released, the same way air flows into your lungs and then out. Treat all of life with this level of non-attachment.
There is the idea that enlightenment is something special “out there,” that life is about experiencing the extraordinary, the miraculous. In reality, the ordinary is the extraordinary, the ordinary is miraculous. Every moment of Now is experienced for its innate beauty, the beauty of the Divine.
It’s not anything we need to consciously do. It’s only up to us to stop doing. The majesty of life only then becomes recognized for what it truly is.
Unconditional Love radiates as one’s true nature. One does not need to be taught to be loving and kind.
Misery and illusion is what is experienced when one is not experiencing reality, but a mind-made interpretation of reality.
True joy and freedom is your natural state when one transcends identification with the mind completely.
The mind that we have has absolutely ZERO capacity to recognize absolute Truth. People blindly put their faith into a tool which is fundamentally flawed.
The mind is designed to look at appearance not essence, and as we all know, appearances can be deceiving. From a technical standpoint, the mind works only in the dualistic domain of beliefs, not in the non-linear domain of infinite knowingness. To give you an example, the ego/mind can look at a piece of food and guess if it looks healthy or not depending on various characteristics and past experiences, but it can’t determine without a doubt, for SURE, whether or not this particular piece of food is ACTUALLY “good” for you.
The mind is designed to assist us in creating illusory realities, as mentioned previously, not in actually determining Truth.
You see, all thinking IS the ego. Thinking then uses thinking to support itself because it has no fundamental foundation holding itself up other than itself.
It’s a lot like trying to reach back and lift yourself up by the back of your shirt. The illusion is that you can actually lift yourself up off the ground, that the arm has the ability to lift up the body, that our supporting beliefs are supported by something solid and can therefore support other beliefs thanks to the solid connection to the ground.
Each of our beliefs are supported by other beliefs which are supported by yet other beliefs which, if you trace them all the way back to their roots, aren’t actually supported by anything at all!
Stop and run through both of the exercises now. I assure you that you will get MUCH more value out of actually doing those two exercises for yourself than simply agreeing or disagreeing with anything I have to say here. Read More …
You Are Truly Loved features content designed to guide people towards enlightenment, unconditional love, and living a life of joy through Self-realization and proper application of the Law of Attraction.
Many of us have a fear of death, yet there’s another fear that’s not talked about as often: fear of life. For some people, fear of life is even more intense than fear of death.
A quiet mind is something so many people want to experience, if even for a short period of time. An uncontrolled mind is like a living hell and so there’s many different methods people talk about to “control the mind” or to “master the mind” including affirmations, meditations, and more.
Peace, Joy, Bliss, Unconditional Love, Stillness, and an Infinite Softness.
Hence enlightenment is not a destination, a place to “get to.” Enlightenment is the realization of who you really are.
The mind that we have has absolutely ZERO capacity to recognize absolute Truth. People blindly put their faith into a tool which is fundamentally flawed.