BRAHMAN SATYA JAGAT MITHYA IP ANITYA DREAM LIKE EN PASSANT
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NON VERBAL 9
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To be blunt… I wouldn’t fucking do that.
Would you tell a grieving parent who’d lost a child, “Cheer up mate, some other sod has lost three kids. By comparison, your loss is negligible.”
No? Exactly.
Suffering isn’t a competition. It’s not something you compile for a Ranker list. You don’t know what’s going on in the depressed person’s life, what they’re thinking or what they feeling. They might be considering slitting their wrists as you’re talking to them, they might be heading home to abuse.
Their situation could be truly dire.
Even if there is no underlying reason, depression is still depression. It’s physical:
They can no more wish it away than a Leukaemia patient can wish away their affliction.
If helping is your intention, what you can do is tell them that you’re there for them. Offer support. Take an interest in their wellbeing.
The depression might be temporary, whether for a week or a year, but it might also be something they have for the rest of their lives. Either way, they don’t need to be made to feel wrong or stupid for suffering from something 100% legitimate.
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dwm
Having a breakfast high in protein lowers cravings for high-sugar and high-fat foods and suppresses appetite during the day.
To get high amounts of protein, people could have eggs, dairy, such as plain Greek yogurt and cottage cheese
The answer is Shiva and Buddha and almost the same. Shiva in fact was a Buddha before Siddhartha Gautama. They both teach the similar things. They both emphasise on what is the key to enlightenment. Which is attachment, desire, jealousy, anger etc. difference is that Gautama Simplified everything into, the eight fold path, the four Nobel truths, the triple gem, and the five precepts.
Where a Shiva had a 112 teachings and methods. Also Gautama emphasised all these lead to suffering. And Buddhism, you have end suffering by devotion and practice to Buddhas teachings. Similar with Shiva. His 112 teachings put more in yoga, compared with Buddha’s meditation as a prime aspect of his teachings.
There for they are both Buddha’s in there own way. I believe in both. Have a 132 teachings which is Shivas 112 + 5 precepts + 8 fold path+ 4 Nobel truths + the triple gem. And listen to both mantras from both. It works for me
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As per my seing the best way to answer your question would be through this Zen Buddhist quote from Qingyuan Weixin (9th century):
“Before I had studied Chan / Zen for thirty years, I saw mountains as mountains and rivers as rivers when I arrived at a more intimate knowledge, I came to the point where I saw that mountains are not mountains, and rivers are not rivers. But now that I have got its very substance I am at rest. For it’s just that I see mountains once again as mountains and rivers once again as rivers.”
Awakening is egoquake. Frist time of doubting the genuineness of its existence. It is the beginning of seeing more, beginning of expansion horizon of awareness. This period is full of glimpses but they are gone very fast. This period of awakening may last very, very long. It is still very ego-centered, full of suffering. In this period people (egos) become the spiritual entities, full of arrogance and superiority. Who is not spiritual is something less for those people. This period provides a lot of symbols, special clothings, being in all of spiritual groups, spiritual feshion, becoming vegetarians. All to fit in. Ego always needs to fit somewhere, it suffers being alone.
Self-realization is crucial period on the spiritual path. Ego is seen for what it is and slowly approaching to be just experience and not the center of being. This period also called non-duality is very liberating on one hand but still with the suffering. Suffering from letting go of the old funcioning, suffering from the old patterns surviving. This period is very long and may last forever. There is also big risk to become “non-dualist”. Look at the youtube non-dual circles. This neo-Advaita channels are occupying the whole spiritual internet. This is because it is just mental shift. The authentic non-duality comes and must be realized through the all being. The limitless conciousness must spread through the every cell of human existence. Existence becomes concious and there is nothing outside of this. It is just knowing, being.
“I saw that mountains are not mountains, and rivers are not rivers” - this is exactly what non-duality (Self-realization). Mountains are not mountains but conciousness.
The final enlightened realization becomes with no identification at all. I am not conciousness, I am not just body or mind. I am just this, being, life. No needs of having any proclamation about one self, about its definition. One is absolutely in peace with who and what he is. One is absolutely ok not being conciousness, not being non-dual. One clearly sees that every definition fails at some point. The “transitional” phase from non-duality into the final realization is the real ego death. Sure there is some kind of personality to operate, to express the body needs, but that is all. In fact authentic enlightenment is the end of spirituality.
“it’s just that I see mountains once again as mountains and rivers once again as rivers.”
This express it so fittingly.
Have a beautiful day my friends.
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* * * * *
The greatest illusion about Time is that we can fight it.
In point of fact, we are, each of us — already dead.
Imagine we are camping in the lush pastures overhanging the Cliffs of Moher on the west coast of Ireland. A strong sea-breeze blows up and over us. Hundreds of meters below we hear the ocean relentlessly pounding shale back into sand.
Through clouds, in the distance, we see the ghostly Aran Islands.
Seagulls soaring a mile high, just out of reach, tempt us to touch them —
— When suddenly we realize we’ve leaned too far!! —
Our toes are still touching turf, but we are definitely going to fall!!
For a full moment, we twist our bodies looking for something to grab.
Or maybe someone will rush up to rescue us.
Or perhaps we can save each other?
— But no!! We are airbone!! —
We fall.
We scream.
We catch our breath.
And we scream again —
— We fall for a long while more. . .
In the pasture above sits a Leprechaun with a twinkle-in-his-eye
puffing on his longpipe, cocking an ear?
— Dey gonna scream alla way down? — he wonders.
But wait — is that not laughter he hears, floating up on the sea-breeze —
As, finally, we merge with the Sea.
Our deaths in real life are as certain as in the story above.
The moment we leaned too far was the moment we were born.
And those seconds when our feet were still touching,
they symbolize the innocence of our youth.
At some point, maybe you were 7, maybe 12 — you understood
(finally, truly, deeply in your bones) that you were going to die!
— Then you were airborne! —
For how long will we cry out in terror?
At what point will we remember to laugh??
Will we claw at the cliffs all the way down?
Or will we unfold our wings better to admire the flight??
Each of us chooses how we shall fall.
And at which point in our lives we will awaken.
Living in fear, is not really living —
— Fear is ‘the little death’ before death.
Yet not everyone is afraid.
Some remember to laugh.
— They glide so gracefully — so silently — so full of Love.
May we all remember
exactly what we need to remember,
and love, love, love!
This sky
where we live
is no place to lose your wings —
— so love, love, love!
Hafez, 14th century Persian poet.
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* * * * *
My first important head-on collision with these ideas occurred while working in industry as a theorist calculating the quantum theory of metals and semi-conductors.
The question, as it is phrased, presents only a superficial tension — that between subject and object. Anybody who has been to University will know of the famous two-slit quantum physics experiments and the apparent entanglement of the observer and the observed. Yet entanglement is certainly a more-general phenomenon. When did my fingernail clippings cease being “me”? What about my reflection in that mirror? Or my image in the eyes of the woman I love?
Moreover…
Everything is in motion. We are never really observing a static object. We are always observing it doing something even if it is just “sitting there” momentarily. Just as we, ourselves, are never entirely static. We are observing; we are perceiving; we are aging.
- The boulder rolls down the mountain, helping the granite face erode, as both spin ‘round the axis of the earth, which in turn itself hurls ‘round the sun, (which is brewing itself a supernova).
- The songbird flits past us, as we look in the mirror, examining our wrinkles (those crow's feet & laughlines) — while the silver condenses before our eyes and the mirror’s glass flows ever-so-stoically through the centuries (sand, just yesterday, rushing to become sand again, so very soon).
The Great Mystery of Physics, which landed on my desk, found in all the textbooks and buried deep within miles of computer code might be phrased as such —
Is the dichotomy of *noun* and *verb* inherent to the universe, or is this, too, an illusion of human language (physics & math included) and of the human mind?
Physics is the study of the flow of energy, as complex as that flow might be. It was the early 1990’s and I was in Japan trying to calculate the flows of heat and electricity through quantum superlattices.
In order to calculate anything in solid-state physics, it's necessary to make the Relaxation-Time Approximation. This says, “let’s imagine that the atoms are all static and only their valence electrons are moving.” In other words, “let’s ignore, at least initially, all the affects of heat and the fluxes of heat, as well as any imperfections in the crystal lattice (which may, themselves, also be in motion).”
The RTA is practically arbitrary — I felt like such an idiot building my professional career as a thermoelectric theorist on an arbitrary distinction between what is static and what is dynamic.
Why do we say that “fist” is a thing, when clearly it is a verb? Or is it both? Ditto, for friendship. And for waterfalls. And even for lovers.
It is so easy for our minds to become entangled by all of this. — Where did my fist go when I opened my hand? Where did my job go; I had it on Monday? Or my marriage? And who is Cathy, now that so many years have passed?
Look carefully at any waterfall. Turn around and look again. Why do we fool ourselves into thinking it is the same waterfall when all the water is different?
People, too, are like this, on a different timescale. Indeed, we too are just waterfalls in slow-motion.
Time, then, is like a key.
Consider the scales over-which time flows — picoseconds, microseconds, seconds, minutes, hours, days, years, decades, centuries, millenia, eons —
These timescales yield to us something like perspective —
The songbird flits past (seconds)
as we study ourselves in the mirror (minutes)
looking at the progression of wrinkles on our faces (years)
as the silver condenses (decades)
and the glass flows (centuries)
becoming primordial sand once again (eons)
— all of this eventual grist for a supernova (whenever that time comes).
Each process occurs on a different timescale, though all occur simultaneously. It is within this wild crazy time-cacophony that our minds evolved. They are part-and-parcel of the same craziness, zooming-in and zooming-out — able to perceive dynamics on a particular timescale, yet only to become blind to change on all the others.
Pick a scale. Anything that evolves on a much-longer timescale seems motionless, static as a mountain. Anything that moves on a much-briefer timescale simply disappears, like tears in a typhoon.
Crazy Time-Cacophany explains, then, the Great Mystery of Physics and the RTA, and somehow justifies all that computer code. I suppose it also gave shape to what I was hoping to do during my time in Japan — and now, looking back, to the life I’ve led since then.
Our minds have evolved the capacity to zoom-in and zoom-out, because that seems to be somehow practical. The universe itself seems to want to be perceived like this. Some things in motion, some things not. Some things missed entirely.
Both my psychologist-friend Kris and my philosopher-friend Teja agree that our minds are in some sort of cosmic-dance with the universe — neither succumbing to the other, neither leading nor following, simply dancing together.
Subject, object, noun, verb — like rhythm & harmony,
— All happening at Once. —
I am reminded of this romantic couplet from my mid-30’s:
The decayed dust of stars is resurrected in our veins —
You and I are drawn together like magnets of blood.
The ego is the very primal power that holds together the identity we call, “me.”
It is the gravity of our identity.
It will not go away in our lifetime, but we can learn to reduce its insatiable hold on us through practice.
Now, that is one thing, ego is necessary.
The more apparent aspect is that it rears its head in relation to the magnitude of the threat confronting it.
This means, that when our beliefs, opinions, and ideas come into question, the inner wall starts to rise up, our defense mechanism intensifies and we want to defend and protect our opinions, either more or less, depending on the strength of the confrontation.
So, ego is our gravity and its nature is self-preservation. It has a pull, a hold on us. It’s just not going to give up or die, it will fight like hell!
There are other permutations of the ego, all influenced by various psychological weather systems within us that affect our inner environment. If we are stricken by clouds of gloominess it can show up as “poor me.” If we are showering our emotion on our favorite football team, we beat our chests screaming, “Yes!! go, go, win this game!”
Surprisingly, the usual way of thinking about ego; when we think we are special or better than others, is not as intense as the other manifestations.
In all cases, our ego is the center of our attention.
So, to come to your question, it's not that ego is conscious or unconscious, it expresses itself to the degree we hold on to and defend our “I-ness.”
Did you ever see this children's toy, a small woven tube that you stick both your index fingers into? When you try to take your fingers out it gets tighter and tighter and you start to pull more and more.
The only way out of it is when you relax and push your fingers towards each other that the “finger squeezer” slips right off. The ego is a bit like that!
This is the very reason meditation is such a wonderful tool to bring moderation to the ego. We consciously practice letting go.
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It’s easy for our ‘minds’ to get confused about Awareness, Enlightenment, No-Self, Emptiness, Nothing/Formlessness appearing to somehow ‘give rise’ to Form/Everything, etc.
Because ‘mind,’ or illusory “I,” cannot be any of these, only conceptualize them as separate subject-object.
As such, “you” will never be “aware,” “enlightened,” or ‘one’ with Oneness/Nothing/Everything.
That said, the illusion of a self-enclosed, separate-from-the-Whole entity called “I’ or “you,” can spontaneously evaporate, leaving nothing but What Is.
Pure Awareness - not aware of something
Pure Is-ness - not some form that has apparently arisen in Is-ness, or emptiness that is still ‘unmanifest,’ Nothing.
Pure Energy/Light - not ‘enlightenment.’
Nothing can cause that spontaneous collapse of illusion - no study, practices, guru/deity worship, or any other ‘personal’ efforts…because that could only perpetuate the illusion of a separate ‘person.’
However, certain ‘realizations’ and ‘koans’ can foment a temporary cessation of mental activity and ‘figure-out,’ that, in turn, creates a wide-open space you can ‘fall into,’ in which your true seeing & resonance can spontaneously ‘wake up.’:-)
Here’s a few of those beyond-mind clarities that “you” may find foster this sudden, stunning ‘awareness,’ happening to ‘no one:’
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Student: Why did this chaotic manifestation ever arise?
Many gurus/teachers: Well, it’s just the play of Brahman, the Divine Lila, The One delighting in splitting Itself into Two so it can go looking for Itself.
Student: Why did this chaotic manifestation ever arise?
Ramana Maharshi: See if it arose. See if anything arose.
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Sleep is not the absence of Awareness, it is the Awareness of absence.
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upon request to compare the experience under psychedelics to that of ‘enlightenment’ and ‘awareness.’ Upon the completion of his LSD journey, he remarked "This is ‘form is emptiness’ - which can be relatively easy to understand. But this is not ‘emptiness is form,’ which takes a lifetime to realize.”
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“Witnessing, you discover your self as the watcher. Standing motionless as Pure Awareness, only watching dispassionately, you discover you are actually one step back from the watcher/witness. You are the light (enlightenment) behind the watcher.
Going deeper, eventually you see your True Self is even a step behind the light. The source of light is dark, the source of knowledge is the unknown, and the source of all ‘somethings’ is Nothing.
You are the Emptiness in which all light/dark resides and from which all apparent manifestation emanates. That source alone Is. Fall back into that source and abide there, as You already do. - Sri Nisargadatta
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Awareness is once removed. It’s still subtly dual. Liberation is totally beyond the watcher, witness, awareness. Awareness is still an experience. And the difficulty with Advaita and other forms of self inquiry is that people get into this ‘awareness’ but they can’t stay in it, obviously, because it’s still in a space-time story. It’s still in a dream of a separate “you.” “You” try to stay in it, and you can’t.
The main thrust of all teachings & explanations about ‘awareness’ and ‘enlightenment,’ is based on the presumption that there is such a thing as a separate individual who is capable of making choices and generating effort in order to attain something called ‘enlightenment.’
There’s only one constant - Being. It never leaves. It doesn’t come and it doesn’t go away And we rush around looking for it. You can’t do Being. You can’t achieve Being. Being is all there is and it lives through “you.”
When the apparent separate identity falls away, the radiant wonder of Being - not Awareness or Enlightenment - becomes apparent - to no one. It also becomes clear that there was no one who ever needed to be liberated or ‘enlightened.’ - Tony Parsons
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