Time is merely another chair to sit and enjoy Life

I am paraphrasing the words my friend “Mathias” said.

The nature of the mind is to move from a tree branch into another like a monkey, according to the “number 1” desire of the moment onto the next ordinal one. The mind has things to do, to accomplish to comply with its conditioning.

From my vantage point, my mind has been conditioned to pursue money, wealth at all costs. “Time is money” is a trite saying most everyone knows about. Once we acquire wealth, we may feel “successful,” that is “we have arrived.” That is the fruit of a “busy,” “hard-working” Life. Everything else, is a secondary branch to cling on: Emotional, mental, physical well being, all secondary. Even those who are “retired” from the “rat race,” may indulge into “busy-ness.” There is always something to do around the house. Some entertainment to keep us going until we can no longer do that. In fact, “DOING” is the greatest mental disease in our day and age. “But how is it that DOING which is an action becomes a mental disease? That doesn’t make any sense.”

Once we “stop and take the time to smell the roses,” we could find the answer. Otherwise we will not. How can we explain to a fish what being wet means?

What I just mentioned is the ontological origin of religion, spirituality and the misunderstanding brought by them into humanity.

Time is not money. Time is only a chair where we can sit down and enjoy Life. Time doesn’t exist in “reality,” but in the game of having a body/mind and fully identifying with it (what is known as “I”) then, we perceive time as some commodity that is running out of our hands and that we need to fill with meaningful activity before the “end.”

While sitting in “meditation” (“Me” time, “Me”-dication) or contemplation and merely observing the trees in a rainy morning, a cat suddenly comes out, moving slowly as if “busy” wasn’t part of its “meow-bulary” (vocabulary.) Shook its body to dispel some of the water and sat near me. At that moment, I caught my mind saying: “cool cat” moreover, there was an automatic feeling of liking the cat. Apparently, there is nothing to it, but when we are observing, being the witness of anything, there is meaning.

My mind hijacked my attention through words and introduced a feeling/emotion. It is instantaneous. That feeling brought me to the next “space time” of feeling good because my mind did not dislike the cat. However, beyond the “liking and disliking” there is the feeling setting the note up for the next second and my mind was the hijacker, doing its thing through its rampant conditioning. The minute we can separate from the mind, we have truly made some progress. Why? Because now there is some “cushion” before acting. If there is no separation between “me” and the mind, then action happens automatically out of the conditioned thought and feeling. Unless I can catch it, that action builds up my unobserved conditioning.

The caveat is that “catching it” cannot be done a minute after the experience, but it has to be done while it happens. That is what we can call being “awake.”

“But If I do not identify with the mind, then with who or what do I identify with?” That “center” that “core” cannot be explained. But only to say that this experience may appear once we observe the mind in an unrelenting way. That observation is truly our “reality.”

After all, philosophers have debated for many centuries about the nature of “reality,” and found out nothing… however, our own perception is “real” for us. Thus, the way out from the outside is the inside. We are introducing a different kind of conditioning, which does not come from the outside.

This we can call freedom.

Most of us are used to, conditioned to use the mind at all times, thus we fully identify with it. The whole process of de-identification and using the heart or “chest”(according to C.S Lewis) to perceive Life and use the mind in harmony with the “heart” and in tune with the “gut” center is what I can call now, “self-knowledge.” It is a balance of all main centers and it is from that vantage point, where a new society could emerge. After all, Albert Einstein mentioned: “You cannot solve a problem with the same mind that created it.”

Minds are good for creating problems. No-mind resolves them.

Repression and fanaticism

A fanatic is a repressed individual. The degrees of manifestation of his/her intolerance for other views, represents the degree of repression.

I will use the example of sexuality to illustrate, but any type of repression will do. Someone who expresses dislike, antagonism or is heavily against something like sexuality, is manifesting his/her repression. How does it work?

Someone who is “made” by others or self-made to abstain from sexuality for any “reason” but yet that person is naturally sexual, is repressing his/her natural drive. Mentally “sex is good” will change into “sex is bad.” There will be an internal conflict whether it is somehow a bit conscious or completely unconscious. When that person convinces himself that “he must be celibate,” he will need to prove that for himself or others. Thus, he will express complete disapproval of any sexual behavior that he may see in others by mocking it, using derisive language, even expressing anger. That behavior will try to convince himself and others that “he is right” and the other person “wrong.” Actually, he is projecting his own “shadow” onto others.

If I am incapable of seeing my own sexual repression, it is safe to blame that feeling into another, so I become “blameless” in my psychological make up. It is “internal protection.”

However, that repression will build up just like any other repression; it could end up harming the individual with a disease or being expressed as a “binge” when sexual activity resumes.

It is relatively easy to pinpoint someone who is repressing sexuality. His face is tensed up. His character is tense an on the edge of explosion. There is no easiness in such person. As Life has it, if we reject an aspect of Life, that aspect will hammer on us as a “test.” It will be a continuous test even during sleep. That sort of fanaticism is truly dangerous for an individual well being.

On the other hand, there are individuals who could embrace a celibate life style without an issue. It is natural for them or even if a bit challenging, fanaticism will not be there. There is no repression.They will not get “worked up” if others talk about sexuality or observes sexual behavior in others.

There can also be philosophical fanaticism or political fanaticism. These are usually inventions of the divisive mind. Once we discover that the nature of the mind is to divide, then we could observe that any idea, dogma, morality or philosophy will have the tendency to divide and create conflict. It is unavoidable. Unity doesn’t come from the mind.

Therefore, any moral standard created by the use of rationality alone will be flawed, for it doesn’t consider the emotional aspect of human beings, their wholeness Repressing emotions is a way to create dysfunctional individuals in society. It creates inner conflict and neurosis. Also, when an individual follows an idea or philosophy, that individual forgets about his own unobserved nature to comply with an outside system. A philosophical system could be well-meant, to protect the individual but that is like riding a bicycle with training wheels. That individual may need to realize sometime, that he is not truly riding a bicycle. It is that difference of awareness between individuals the one making a “natural selection” according to their capacity to be aware. Systems are for those who want to feel safe in training wheels. The ones choosing to ride a “real” bicycle may have to experience hardship in Life (falling down) but they can get up and go on anywhere, with that exhilarating feeling labeled as freedom, which training wheels cannot give.

Change: The gist of everything

Today is a special day in my “spiritual” development and wanted to share this article. If you read something in this blog, I highly recommend this article. In my view, it is worthwhile to read and understand.

Last article was about Tilopa’s “six nails.” He wasn’t “teaching” anything but merely describing a state of BEING which is known as “no-mind.” To understand that, we need to go first into the mind.

If you are “new” or “seasoned” in the path of “spirituality,” or “searching for truth,” the most important thing someone could do in my experience, is to have a deep look at their own mind AND to be aware of their own emotionality or unresolved traumas. That is all. 🙂

How deep you go into those 2 rabbits’ holes is what will give you a state of BEING.

Most psychologists or psychiatrists studying the mind, would like to understand the mind from the mind. Their approach is very limited. It is only a description, a comparison against something idealized as “normal.” In “spirituality” however, there is a need to be aware of the mind but from AWARENESS itself, which is completely different than the mind. How do you get there?

By sitting and looking at the wall. Literally. Doing “nothing.” The caveat is that if “you” DO something, awareness will not be known.

That is, if you sit with the purpose of knowing awareness, you are gone! Sit there without a purpose. Just for the heck of it. Thoughts arrive, outside noises appear, inside noises arrive, watch.That is hard to do for mind-driven individuals, who want to “achieve” something for “time is money.” That is why, these individuals are into another path which is not self-realization.

There is no purpose. No motive other than perhaps rest and relax. (If we want to call that a purpose. That is the “sixth nail” of Tilopa.)

Here is a nice explanation from Osho:

Notice that he calls that “meditation.” I like to call it “contemplation,” someone else may call it “mindfulness,” or whatever label. How about “sit there and do nothing.” Labels are not important, but the experience, “your” experience is.

In this state, things happen to you. Change happens as we develop the habit. Nobody does anything. Little by little, awareness appears as a shy rabbit sticking its nose from its rabbit hole, then the head, ears, etc. It is in that state how we can look, observe, watch, become aware of the mind, so it looses its grip on us by doing nothing. Just by becoming aware of it. Becoming AWARE is not a DOING. It happens.

Then, I recommend this video:

You will fully understand it when you have experienced a bit of the above.

Some may want to use their thoughts to change another. Some may want to use their thoughts to change themselves. Others do not want thoughts to interfere and fight with them, but yet others become AWARE of thoughts and drop their identity from what the mind says, reacts, imagines or recalls. Then, CHANGE happens without changing anything.

Good to remember: “When we DO something (intentionally, with purpose,) we do not allow for change to happen naturally, for Change is all there is.” When we sit, rest, relax, allow… then Change happens… 🙂

On Death and Dying

Happy Christmas survival! You’ve made one more time.. and such is Life. 🙂

A friend of mine told me that she had experienced an unlucky streak of events: Her mother passed away last year after an ongoing deterioration of her health as she was over 100 year old, then her brother passed away unexpectedly this year, in a car accident. Also one of her favorite pets passed away unexpectedly just last week.

Without a doubt, those events could be devastating for anyone. My friend had a “happy go lucky” attitude, but maybe now she may have changed.

From the spiritual perspective, every living person will have to experience the duality of pain and pleasure in equal amounts as long as we are caught up in duality. We just never know when Life will teach us that lesson. The only way to “pass that test” is to go through it. The way we come out from that experience, is what makes the difference. Many will be traumatized and from that point on, their life will go “downstairs” until it is time for them to go “upstairs.” The experience of duality is there and some sort of wisdom which is not acquired through reading or taking “master classes,” will arrive. That is the price of inner wisdom.

While some religious groups or philosophies propose not to seek any pleasure in Life and live an ascetic life to tackle this “problem” of being attached to things or people; there are others who suggest the opposite, that is to indulge in all sorts of pleasure to “override” the “bad” experiences. No extreme is helpful to reach a balancing act, but some may have to go through those experiences to find out themselves. No problem. There is plenty of time.

There is no “middle way,” either. Equanimity, harmony is what I may suggest; but we have to constantly move the buttons of the “sound equalizer” according to the song played by Life. Thus, there are no “predetermined steps that I can use every time.” Play it by ear.

Equanimity is usually recognized as a mental state. However, without a sound emotional background , our minds are nothing in front of a perceived catastrophic event or events.

Death is a natural event. Everyone is bound to experience. There is no need to make it a “taboo.” How it happens is out of our hands. Yes, there is sadness. It is an emotional response but once fully experienced; then comes suffering or the recollection, the memory of what has happened. That is fully optional. Suffering lingers when there is an emotional trauma.

Many times a person who doesn’t have a strong emotional background, feels the pain not because the other person is gone, but because something will be lacking in him or her from this time on. Yes, at the end is about “me.”

“My Mom was a good cook… who will cook now?” “My wife was a good talker and I met many people because of her… now what do I do?” “Who is going to do this, have that or be that which I need or was used to; now that he/she is gone?” That is the question that seldom pops up in our mourning.

If we observe our loved one dying, it is a hard experience. The challenge is to maintain your joy despite that daily experience, for at the end of the game the experience of joy is not depending on anything outside yourself. That is not something to memorize but to experience (last article was about that.) To see others in pain and not be able to do anything, is one of the hardest experience that I have experienced. That takes an emotional toll, but again it is very important to understand that someone else’s experience is not your own and to clearly see that a particular experience as hard as it looks to us, doesn’t have necessarily the same weight on another.

The above is the “reality” experienced by most. No scientist will say, that the above is not scientifically proven.

However, beyond that “scientific stuff” there is the matter of fact of a different consciousness. What are those “matter of fact” items?

Death does not exist because the “I” doesn’t exist. The body “perishes,” (transforms) but “we” are not the body. Sounds way out there?

A different consciousness. This is not what we have been taught. It is for us to realize it; thus, “self-realization.”

Pleasure and Pain

In order to live life with sanity in this world of duality, it is important to understand beyond the mind and to become aware of the living experience, brought to us by Life itself.

There is no way that someone could live in pleasure alone. In fact, any effort to bring further pleasure, will bring pain according to the intensity of pleasure experienced.

Observe in yourself or anyone around how any pursue of security will bring insecurity, fear. Any pursue of success brings failure along. It is that willful pursue of something, bringing along the other side of the equation. Everyone has its lot to experience of “yin and yang.”

It is hard to explain the many intricacies within a person: On the one side, we can observe the influence of the family tree and its own lot of “yin and yang,” also; the person itself, but beyond that the collective, which in our world it has been segmented into countries.

For instance, look at the history of the USA as a collective. It has risen to be the most powerful country in the World at one time, now; it is experiencing its downfall. The minute we as humans have created the duality between USA vs other countries, that is when duality kicked in. Its downfall (although subtle) will be in proportion to is highest point. No need to be a “fortune teller.” It is only a matter of observation.

Therefore, any created division “ you vs. I,” has the seed of duality in it. How do “we” overcome that? It is called the “common good.”

If our consciousness lacks the ability to perceive “ONE,” and continues with its mental divisions, then conflict is unavoidable; that is why violence and war has been the 2 words which fully describe the human race, since recorded history.

Thus, the religious teachings that there are 2 antagonistic sides within a person, such as the “little devil,” and the “little angel,” or the more scientific “Id, ego and super ego,” (Freud) are always dividing things, assuring conflict between those parts. Nowadays, it is said “the child inside and the adult,” observe the different terminology but the idea of division is always there. What is important is to learn to INTEGRATE those apparent different parts; that is to make everything one rather than many different parts.

If we want to dominate the “animal” within and make it into some moral ideal of what it “ought to be,” we are missing the point completely. Integration means to acknowledge what is there, accept it and integrate that into the other aspects of the self. For instance, the “little child” is needed to enjoy and play. To be playful in turn can be integrated into other raw instincts such as the need to eat, sleep and our sexuality, thus the “animal,” the “child,” the “adult,” all of them are ONE. As we learn to acknowledge rather than repress and forget, we increase our ability to enjoy Life under different perspectives. That in turn will bring appreciation and joy.