Monday, December 25, 2023

At Peace With Ego

Once I had the understanding that my awareness was the One awareness, it no longer mattered whether or not I was experiencing bliss or oneness. I can embody the understanding and live my life with a background of peace, and not condemn myself for having an ego.

Monday, December 4, 2023

Cultural Robots

The ego develops to protect the body, and as the ego matures it becomes an entity itself. Soon it also has to protect itself. That self is just the values of the local culture and how one can maintain one's place in it. 

Ultimately, the ego is not who we are, just an identity built of constructs, thoughts and feelings. Unfortunately, the ego doesn't realize it's just a bunch of concepts. And as those concepts are internalized and habituated, we develop feelings to go with them. Feelings are just automatic value judgments. 

Until a person steps back and looks at the constructs and gets to the bottom of automatic judgments, one is essentially a cultural robot. It takes courage to look unflinchingly, but to be free it must be done. 

Wednesday, November 22, 2023

Nothingness

The perception of nothing is perceived by awareness. So, however much the feeling of nothingness is in your perception, you are the awareness of that nothing. Awareness is not a thing. It is the subject, it is you. It is the knower. Ultimately there is only existence. Nothingness is a phase that will most likely pass.  

The Absolute Perspective

From the absolute perspective you could say there is no right or wrong, good or bad. But, we humans are embodied, and for our relative existence, we have good and bad. We have morals to make our lives easier, less stressful, less fearful. 

What the perspective of absolute does for us, however, is give us breathing room from guilt, shame, and other destructive self imposed suffering.  

Illusions

I wouldn't worry about things being called an illusion. The absolute is existence, and therefore anything, however illusionary, is That. 

Friday, November 17, 2023

Rality Does Not Change

I think that Advaita defines reality as that which does not change. The One does not change. All change happens in Maya, a power of Awareness. Like the movie screen is the same no matter what movie is played. The screen is not affected. So, at least for me, seeing beyond the reality beyond the ego is just seeing the One reality, pure Awareness, that does not change.

No Separtion

It seems to me that when we realize "all is One, and I am That," there is no separation, and when there is no separation, everything is the Self. 

With that understanding, who is good and who is bad? Who is right, and who is wrong? Who would you wish to harm? What you do to others, you do to yourself. 

It follows that the One is eternal. All is eternal. All is now, always and forever.

Sunday, November 12, 2023

Truth is Freedom

I would rather have the truth, and the freedom to pursue truth over bliss or an absence of suffering. That doesn't mean that enlightenment and the cessation of suffering isn't the truth.

Tuesday, November 7, 2023

Effortlessness

Effortless is just a feeling that happens when one realizes one is not the doer. Just like someone who loves what they do, they do not call it work. As long as the ego is center stage effort will be needed.

Ever The Knower

Everything that comes after "I am" is an object. Self aware beingness is the knower. All else is object. The world is object, the mind is object, thoughts and feelings are object. You, awareness, are the knower. You will always be the knower. Before this body you knew, after this body goes, you will know. Ever the knower, be at peace.

Friday, October 13, 2023

Peace

The level of consciousness changes slowly, and it changes individual by individual. That's why I don't have a "save the world" complex. If you want to worry all the time, take on all the troubles of the world. I take it to heart that I am not the doer. I see me doing things. I watch and wonder. I stay at peace.

Tuesday, September 26, 2023

No One Is Superior

We are all unique. None of us is ultimately superior. We are the play of the divine. We may not even understand the purpose. My thinking is that we should all strive to gain as much knowledge and wisdom as we can, and then trust the unknown.

Monday, September 25, 2023

The Ultimate Fear

The fear of death is the ultimate fear, the foundational fear on which all other fears reside. There is also man's search for meaning and death seems to be the antithesis of meaning. Lastly, knowing that one is eternal seems to bring meaning back into life. What satisfies our soul seems to be our eternal spirit. Death just doesn't make sense, but being itself does.

Monday, September 4, 2023

Non Duality

The whole universe is a field of energy. Nothing is really separate; just various densities of vibration. Non-duality is just the knowing that all is One. 

Wednesday, August 30, 2023

Ego As A Pet

In the end it is just being able to identify Awareness as the real Self and not the ego. We don't get rid of the ego, we see it as a friendly pet trying to help us navigate the world. If you experience emptiness, that's OK. It's just the ego feeling less important.

My experience is a shift where the ego drops into the background and one is aware of eternal existence as awareness itself. Thinking quiets down, but is still available for navigating the world.

I always sought the Truth. I was not trying to be good, or saintly, just resolving the itch that something was missing. I do feel that awakening/realization does tend to make one less selfish, kinder, etc. And while thinking is still there, it is less personal and few conflicts.

Saturday, August 26, 2023

Own Authority

Why do we end up being our own ultimate authority? Only we know when the search is over, when the pressure stops and we feel at ease. All the sages say the Self is ineffable. That doesn't mean we can't feel known, or knowing, however indescribable the Self may be.

Dregs Of The Ego

We are never done. Never as woke as we might be. However, I do think we come to a point where the search is essentially over. We know who we are, the Self. From then on it is refinement, catching more subtlety, and certainly watching the dregs of the ego still appearing now and then.

Friday, August 25, 2023

Not Separate

We are are a piece of the Divine. Our essence is nothing other than the Divine. Our separation is apparent, but not ultimately real. Therefore our true self is the Divine, one and only. We feel separate. We search and search and finally surrender to the truth that we are not separate, and find our self the Divine, not separate after all.

The Individual and the Spiritual Quest

The place of the individual in the spiritual quest is always unique. The approach will be individual based on the person's belief's and culture as well as their brain's architecture. Some will say that past lives may also influence their spiritual quest.

If then, the spiritual quest is always unique, each individual will have to do self inquiry, contemplation, or any number of spiritual techniques to come to the point of becoming their own authority.

The spiritual quest is only over when the individual determines for himself that the spiritual search is done. No one outside of the self can be the determiner.

The individual may use and consider any outside authority for information and advice in the spiritual quest. However, no outside authority has the final word on what the answer is for any seeker.

Since the spiritual search is by necessity a search for the connection between the individual and the creator, it is the personal connection, the personal revelations, and personal insight that are the final authority.

One's own authority, in the end, is the only authority in the spiritual quest that is free. This freedom may include surrender to the Divine, the ultimate connection. 

Thursday, August 24, 2023

One Lord

"He who calls on me by whatever name is mine, and dear to me." The good Lord is one, the names and rituals of any religion are different, but there is only One Lord, by whatever name.