I finished listening to the talk, tonight, and the ending was just plain beautiful. My curiosity was settled because I found out what is behind me. Well, I learned what is behind me, because as of now I don't have easy access to this. There's some work to be done. I didn't take such good notes this time because I was really focusing more on what the teacher was saying. But, here is a list of some of the things I did write down:
-Thoughts do not come from God.
-The mind speaks the heart's position. What's really talking through your mind is your heart. That is where thoughts come from. Past experiences, normally negative ones, are stored in the heart.
-Don't think. Be.
-Behind us there is energy, or shakti, chi. It is a source of great beauty, and love.
-When you are in the seat of consciousness, you are not the human. You are watching the human.
-The world cannot affect you.
-The body suffers, not the soul.
-At first, behind us we see just space, but eventually we see infinite space.
-Eventually, we can sit behind our sub-consciousness.
-To grow spiritually, there must not be anything that we are not willing to let out.
-While we are keeping things blocked, we won't be able to get behind it.
-DO NOT BE AFRAID OF FEAR!
-"Do not try to have no fear. Just be comfortable with it."
-"ALL YOU HAVE TO DO IS LET GO."
-To know what you are, you must look behind you.
As I said in one of my previous posts, there are three things that suck-up our consciousness. They are: thoughts, feelings and senses. I'd like to know, to what degree can we get rid of our thoughts, feelings and senses? What I mean is, how much of our thoughts, feelings and senses must we get rid of in order to see behind us? I can meditate, and get rid of many or some thoughts, and I can get rid of most feelings, but I won't be able to get rid of many of my senses. I can close my eyes, but I might still hear sound, or feel the air on my skin. Since hearing and vision are the two senses that account for most of our input, wearing a mask and ear plugs could possibly get rid of most of the input. But is this going to be good enough? I hope I'm not being too nitpicky. I'd eventually like to be in a state where I don't even have to meditate to stop my thoughts and feelings from overwhelming me.
It seems my mind has to constantly be occupied. When I'm not thinking thoughts, for instance, I have songs continuously repeating in my head, even when I haven't listened to music for months. It's like my mind has to keep being acknowledged; it fears that I'll let go of it. This is an example of what goes through my mind sometimes: "He said this, but I wonder what he meant, is he mad at me, I have to pay a bill, I can't forget my appointment Tuesday, oh I dread going into work on Monday, we all live in a yellow submarine, yellow submarine, we all live in a yellow submarine (repeat this line from the song 10 times or more)...etc." In other words, constant chatter. But I have noticed, yes I've noticed, that lately I've been able to stop and say, "Quiet your mind, Sophia." And then, my mind goes quiet for just about 20 seconds, and I look around me without thinking, taking in my surroundings, the sounds, being aware. But I don't seem to stay in this state more than a few moments. I am doing it more often, though. Maybe I'll eventually get better.
Heh... I know why Jed McKenna doesn't use his real name. It's to stop people like me from tracking him down to ask him a million questions. This talk wasn't by Jed McKenna, I was just using that as an example.
If the person that sent me this is still reading my blog, would you mind if I shared this file with a few others so I could get their opinion on my questions, or maybe you have some ideas for me. Do you know who gave this talk, and if so, do you have any more audios by this person? If so, I'd like to listen! Thanks.
12 comments:
This is how you postpone enlightenment.
By philosophizing, creating beliefs, systems, methods, techniques, teachings, practices, following, religions, cultures and traditions.
Well, you cannot really postpone enlightenment.
Enlightenment is always here and now.
Teachers postpone enlightenment.
"Do not try to have no fear. Just be comfortable with it."
Yes, I think this means a lot. You are fear itself. If you suppress fear, you end up suppressing yourself. And you end up not doing anything. And becoming addicted to meditation techniques.
You should not let people judge you no matter how stupid you could be.
You have to be yourself, even if it means being a sinner. I mean perhaps that how you become a saint. By being patient with yourself.
And I guess there is the danger of building an image. Of being good and fearless. Sooner or later you will have to prove it. And it will absorb you.
All of the activities you mention, thought, sensation, feelings are what defines the human experience. A spiritual being having a human experience.
The real question is the attention we give to them, not whether we can stop them. You can stop them with a sleeping pill.
The catch phrase is "for amusement purposes only". Follow the trail of any thought that tells you you have to do anything. The only reason to attenute (minimize) the thoughts, sensations and feelings (which I advocate) is to discover what is behind them. Once that is discovered, then there is no longer such a magnetic pull from them. They are there, but only as tools to enhance the human experience. The thoughts, feelings and sensations become under your command rather than they commanding you.
Anonymous,
Alienating myself seems to be the direction I want to go in, so if I gave up philosophizing, there wouldn't be anything left. Just an empty shell. If I became enlightened, don't you think I'd still want to talk about these things?
Hi Joe,
I have a strange feeling that learning to become nonchalant about thoughts and feelings is going to take some self-control on my part. This is an area of my life that I could certainly use some practice and discipline in.
I want to see what is behind these things! From what I hear, it is absolutely beautiful.
Impressive work Sophia; awareness of your mental activity, stopping the chatter, being aware of your surroundings. "A few moments" at a time is enough. Just think how much of an improvement you have made. From perhaps one moment per week to a few moments per day! That's an improvement of 2,000%!
I think that thoughts, feelings and sensations (as well as movements) do not necessarily have to displace consciousness but they usually do. We have the habit of learning to do things automatically, without any attention. This is necessary but it is taken to such an extreem that we can become unaware of anything (including ourselves) for hours at a time.
Perceptions can be used to increase consciousness by performing them in a way that is a little different from the way we normally do it. Then they are no longer automatic and they require consciousness. For example, trying to hear background noise, which we normally filter out, tends to increase consciousness.
Similar exersizes can be fashioned for all activites. However this is a somewhat indirect way to arrive at consiousness.
By the way. I think that sincere questions are one of the most valuable comodities in the universe. Keep up the good work.
Sophia,
I have done a lot of philosophizing myself. I still do. And I experimented a lot with techniques. In fact I used to follow a system.
I tend to be very practical nowadays. Theories won't help you if you don't get real practice. Like being out there and getting all the best shots.
Anyway life is more than that. It is.
You have to be ready to die at the moment you meet life.
But not without trying to survive.
Mossy,
I have to keep myself from getting excited about it, but today I found myself wandering around with a clear head. And it was for more than a full minute!
I have also found that focusing on sounds helps me to be more aware and thoughtless. I don't know if I ever told you about a project of mine from a year or so ago, but for a short while I started a journal in which every day I was to write down a unique or interesting sound that I had heard for the day. To do this, I had to be attentive to the noises around me. I discovered some rather curious noises doing this, things I never would have heard had I not been more aware.
Thanks for the comment. Great to see you today. Hope you have a great week!
Sigurd,
What kind of system did you used to follow?
I don't think we'd be where we are today, philosophically, if it wasn't for great thinkers spending their time thinking.
Losing one's ego is like meeting death, or so I've heard. If I can do that, I can face physically dying gracefully.
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