Thought colors our perception of the world. Thoughts inform us how to feel, what to do, how to act. They are incredibly powerful and for most of us they are the shapers of how we experience life and living.
So what thoughts are we thinking? Are we even aware of them? Do we believe them wholly as absolute truth and follow their orders without question?
A dream is a good metaphor. A reality made up entirely of thought. A simulated reality that our monkey brain accepts as real. It reacts to it and feels emotions about it.
So how is so-called waking life different?
Thought still overlays our perception, informing us of its version of the world, not of the world as it is in the now. Thought holds on to the past - it is the past - and keeps us there, living in it.
Until we wake up from the dream of thought.
Make a space if you can. A space between the thought and your perception of the thought. Take as much power out of the thoughts as you can. See that they are like planets, asteroids, suns, galaxies floating through infinite space. They each have their own gravitational pull. Some thoughts are immensely powerful and complex - galactic thoughts - if your awareness gets caught in their gravity you can be caught for days, months, years. A lifetime.
See if you can become aware of space and be free of the gravity of thought.
Monday, December 31, 2012
Sunday, December 30, 2012
The Past Can Never Contain The Present
What is awareness and what is thought?
Everything is outside of awareness. There is no "inside" of awareness. Awareness is the singularity. The "I am".
Thought is one of the many things that passes before awareness. It is an object, like the senses and emotion that is fleeting and passes with time.
Why is this even important?
If this is true, then at my most fundamental essence, I am not my thoughts or emotions. Pulling awareness away from thought or emotion and just watching them puts me in touch with something else that is not made up of them. Something else is there. Space, peace, stillness, sacredness, aliveness.
Thought has its place but to be run by thought is to be lost. To give thought so much of my awareness that I cease to be aware - that is the deep human problem that causes all suffering. That has been my experience.
Thought and emotion make up fear, hurt and violence - all the imbalances of the human psyche. They are of the past and have no relationship to the present moment. Thus to live totally within the turmoil - no matter how slight - of thought and emotion is to live in the past, never being able to relate actually to the present moment. The present moment will feel empty, not enough or it will be painful, anxious and I must resist or escape it. The mind will need to get more, to run away, to numb itself.
To live in the past is to pour water into a bucket with a hole in it.
The past can never contain the present.
Everything is outside of awareness. There is no "inside" of awareness. Awareness is the singularity. The "I am".
Thought is one of the many things that passes before awareness. It is an object, like the senses and emotion that is fleeting and passes with time.
Why is this even important?
If this is true, then at my most fundamental essence, I am not my thoughts or emotions. Pulling awareness away from thought or emotion and just watching them puts me in touch with something else that is not made up of them. Something else is there. Space, peace, stillness, sacredness, aliveness.
Thought has its place but to be run by thought is to be lost. To give thought so much of my awareness that I cease to be aware - that is the deep human problem that causes all suffering. That has been my experience.
Thought and emotion make up fear, hurt and violence - all the imbalances of the human psyche. They are of the past and have no relationship to the present moment. Thus to live totally within the turmoil - no matter how slight - of thought and emotion is to live in the past, never being able to relate actually to the present moment. The present moment will feel empty, not enough or it will be painful, anxious and I must resist or escape it. The mind will need to get more, to run away, to numb itself.
To live in the past is to pour water into a bucket with a hole in it.
The past can never contain the present.
Thursday, December 27, 2012
It Is Not Easy Until It Is
It is hard not to believe the mind.
It is all we seemingly have to perceive reality and it has been warped by experience. It is hard to meet the present moment clearly.
Most, if not all of the time, I am looking at reality through a filter of the past. I am looking at reality through my memories, my experiences, my conditioning.
The question is, am I aware that I am looking through this filter?
If I am not, then I am on rails - so to speak - I will automatically follow the pattern of the past. I have no conscious choice in the matter. In truth, I am not in touch with actual reality - I am in touch with my own perception, my own prejudice, my own interpretation of reality.
The results that I get from the actions that arise from those perceptions are going to be inadequate, meaning they will not reflect the actual reality. They will reflect my perception which is usually based on a negative or painful memory.
Any action that is not responding to the present moment is going to be "out of sync" with what actually is. It will produce a result that falls short, leaves us wanting more, or makes us and/or others suffer.
To be in harmony with what is, our action has to operate from clear perception. That means perception without any bias. Perception without conditioning.
It isn't easy until it is.
It is all we seemingly have to perceive reality and it has been warped by experience. It is hard to meet the present moment clearly.
Most, if not all of the time, I am looking at reality through a filter of the past. I am looking at reality through my memories, my experiences, my conditioning.
The question is, am I aware that I am looking through this filter?
If I am not, then I am on rails - so to speak - I will automatically follow the pattern of the past. I have no conscious choice in the matter. In truth, I am not in touch with actual reality - I am in touch with my own perception, my own prejudice, my own interpretation of reality.
The results that I get from the actions that arise from those perceptions are going to be inadequate, meaning they will not reflect the actual reality. They will reflect my perception which is usually based on a negative or painful memory.
Any action that is not responding to the present moment is going to be "out of sync" with what actually is. It will produce a result that falls short, leaves us wanting more, or makes us and/or others suffer.
To be in harmony with what is, our action has to operate from clear perception. That means perception without any bias. Perception without conditioning.
It isn't easy until it is.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)