You are invited to share your thoughts, feelings and experiences of the teaching expressed by The Daily Now.
Quotes from Eckhart Tolle and random thoughts on EMDR & Nondual Wisdom
You are invited to share your thoughts, feelings and experiences of the teaching expressed by The Daily Now.
Just to say that I am in the thick of all this right now…taking care of 96 yr old Mom for a long weekend… a comfort to know there is no perfection, just living the emotional signatures less and with not as much intensity….even some humor..so the definition of love that I keep learning is that love and giving in our family is conditional…but we literally have screaming scenes b/c this is so…..Thanks…Fran
To fall within “the norm” is normal. What I seek is the Natural.
RT
MB and JVS say: Unconditional love is ours to give. I am reminded of the saying “we are the ones we have been searching for”. Or what about the song–”looking for Love in all the wrong places”? Blessings, Kat
at first it seemed depressing to me to realize that unconditional love is NOWHERE to be found in the world of form…but after the initial resistance to this fact dissolved, i felt so relieved! at peace even!
when we stop reaching outward to the world for our sense of security, and self– a world which is always fleeting and thus destined to let us down– we are no longer let down!
we find the spacious, peaceful bliss that is our essence and that IS true love….an all-accepting, ever present love that is NOT reliant on ANY outside conditions.
the moment we truly accept that all love in the world of form is temporary and fleeting– and we start reaching within instead of without for the unconditional love we all crave– we are home. we are one. we are the love we want in the world.
peace and love to all.
When I was a child from age six to seventeen I was given unconditional hate by my stepfather who was given unconditional hate by his caretakers. I have been fighting hating myself for many years, but at least I decided never to have a child and expose it to that hate, shame, perfectionism, etc. I’m not sure but it seems the way it goes in this (reality), one learns what something is by experiencing it’s opposite. I know what unconditional love is and it is experienced. The reason I said “it is experienced” is because I dont experience it as this seperate someone, but as the One. Peace
Nis: ” As nothing and nobody you are safe and happy. You can have this experience for the asking. Just try.”
JVS: Do it now.
Is it really that easy? I (this body/mind) during a dreamless sleep, unconsciously is nothing and nobody. I think Nis is suggesting this state or nonstate be achieved consciously.
Can anyone reading this do it now? Comments?
Larry: You ask if anyone can live in nonstate now. I certainly can’t. One thought is if I try to I will never be able to achieve it because I am trying. I suspect what Nis is saying is it is our true being not something we can achieve through effort. By knowing that it is our natural state we allow? Kat
Kat what you say sounds very much like Tony Parsons in [As It Is]. Being nothing and nobody was part of an experience Tony had (or nobody had), he calls enlightenment. He says no one becomes enlightened. Enlightenment simply is. It cannot be owned or achieved like some trophy. All and everything is oneness and like you say we can not make it happen. We can only allow it. It does seem Tony suggests we get into present moment awareness. But, he says never try to make anything happen beyound that. Realize you can’t make anything happen. “The life story that has (apparently) happened is uniquely and exactly appropriate for each awakening. All is as it should be,right now.” “because all that is,is divine expression.”
I’m considering continuing my spiritual search by giving up, letting go.
I have experienced oneness beyond the intellectual knowing of it as I have experienced the dreamlike quality of reality. [ my reality?] I have apparently manifested things and/or phenomena sometimes by just liking something. I have manifested something by really wanting it, but it took quite a while. I think really wanting it, slowed down its manifestation.
I have also seen what is called the future while I slept. Sometimes what I dream happens as I wake or it has happened 4 hours later or sometime the next day. I have drempt what people close to me are talking about on the phone hundreds of miles from where I slept. It seems like there is no space (distance) or time in [my?] reality. [My] reality seems to be made out of intellegent consciousness or one might say thought. Not matter, space or time.
Some people like me become psychics but I am drawn to unconditional love and compassion which feels more spiritual to me. Namaste
Larry, your abilities seem amazing to me. I think your choices of unconditional love and compassion are wonderful.
Blesssings to you. Kat
I love this! Forgiveness is a collapsing of our positioning. Yes, this is really what it comes down to.
If any thing I ever say or write causes any of you beautiful conscious/beings to experience love, unconditional love, and or forgiveness I am eternally grateful. On the highest level we are one. Namaste
Two wonderful and connected concepts comming from the Feb 3rd Daily Now are acceptance and forgiveness. Applying both of these Ideas to my life experience, has made living more joyful and tolerable.
I like and agree with what ET and Nis are saying in today post. It seems what they are saying is similar. We (all conscious beings) are the same. Not the form, face, gender, intellegence, personality, skills, etc, etc. These and many other concepts cause the illusion of seperation. The essence of all is the same. We are all conscious, we are all being. We are all experiencing. We are all one. My take on this, (that most life forms see only the differences) is because the one wanted, decided, or had to have this experience. For me it seems like the (main) purpose of this experience is to realize it, while I am in it and eventually to awaken from it. Peace
ET – INDIA 2002: “And if you can’t be more because you’re better, greater, stronger, know more, look better…whatever…if you cannot be more there, then what’s left is you can be more miserable than others.
And that also work…and some people have that strongly.
If they can’t create a satisfying identity by having more knowledge, or beauty, or physical strength, or more money than others…then at least I can feel more miserable and have a self image of one who’s been treated unfairly by life.
That’s very satisfying because now you know who you are.
And then you seek to confirm that story-based, image-based, identity by selectively interpreting life around you.
You begin to see only those things that conform with your sense of identity…your selective interpretations of reality and selective… perception.”
damn! ET’s India retreat 2002 is the bomb…he is so on point he’s on fire! today’s quote had me laughing and laughing (at myself of course!), its so true so true! and even though i can’t necessarily ‘do’ or ‘be’ anything he’s talking about, it seems to be so clear what he is expressing and ‘hits’ me right in the solar plexus. i wish there was a library of some kind that i could borrow the dvd from and just listen/look at it for awhile and absorb it thru osmosis (i don’t have the hundred or so bucks to purchase it right now and i don’t need to own it, which is a biggie for me)…but maybe receiving it in small doses a la jordan’s daily now is exactly what is required. perfect.
namaste
~mf
Larry: “My take on this, (that most life forms see only the differences) is because the one wanted, decided, or had to have this experience.For me it seems like the (main) purpose of this experience is to realize it, while I am in it and eventually to awaken from it.”
i’m going to meditate on that for a minute…don’t know why but something about realizing it while you are ‘in’ it, strikes a chord…
namaste
ET 2002
I agree with everything that ET says about what people do to try to establish a satisfying identity. Trying to be better, stronger, better looking or the most miserable. It’s all so true. I may be wrong, but there seems to be an assumption that individuals are deciding to do this or anything else of their own free will. Thats why we laugh at ourselves as we realize ‘oh yes, I do that.’ But [who] is it thats really deciding to want and do everything ET says people do? Are there really seperate individuals, acting like this and wanting that? Or is that all an illusion, {including the individuals}. Is it possible that EVERYTHING is divine expression? Comments?
In other words are we watching a movie that we are also acting in? Namaste
first i want t give a big thank you for the DAILY NOW…
MB: “Negatively judging people around us is the act of seeing a cry for love as being something else”
as i wrote in my blog (in german – sorry http://gewaltfrei.blogspot.com/)
even the cry for love – sometimes expressed in violence – is jduged as something else – is judged as something that has to be prosecuted – to be disciplined…not knowing that discipline is to come from inside …
most of those judging ones judge because of their own cry for love
and as soon as i learned this
i was filled with acceptance – unconditionally – the one counerparting..
love you
Hey Larry,
Really dug your last post…got me thinking and feeling into it.
My first response is that yes, everything IS divine expression and that there are really no separate individuals.
It is when we are identified with our MIND or EGO that we “act out” in search for love, a better identity, more…etc.
Our identification with our mind keeps us feeling separate and isolated and blind to the connection of all things at their core.
But that must be divinely orchestrated too, no? and how weird that seems…like you said, our egos are acting out a mental movie and until we disidentify with our egos, we dont realize we are actually the “watcher”…
feel some uncomfort here i’m gonna sit with….
Traci, I feel, this more than just believing it. Even though it makes perfect sense to me also. Everything is divine expession including all we call negative, wrong or bad. I also sometimes feel from my limited point of view, uncomfortable with it. This is a quote by Tony Parsons which may cause many if not most discomfort.
“At the death of the body everyone simply returns to what they already are, which is the divine at rest.” [Question] Even people like Hitler? “Oh, absolutely. He, like everyone else, played out the character that consciousness chose, and death is simply a return to the source from where the character appeared. The beloved plays every part in the play; even the part that believes it is seperate. At the end of the play the beloved is just the beloved.” “Once awakening happens, it is seen that there is no such thing as right or wrong.”
What I love about this belief is there is no blame, No guilt, No sin, No karma, or any debt of any kind. All parts are being acted out perfectly, as scripted by the divine. Even though I love forgiveness, there is nothing or no one to forgive. Namaste
I signed up for Kips free music weekly quote. [Freedom from the mind.]
To quote a small part of it ” if you can change yourself, if you can have more positive and less negative then you will find contentment.
But the very act of trying to change what is keeps you discontent.”
My question. If your now consists of stress and discomfort, why try to change it to peace and bliss by meditating and listening to Kips
Bliss Music. Wont that keep you discontent?
Nis: “Beyond mere living and dying, it is the all-inclusive, all-exclusive Life, in which birth is death and death is birth.”
JVS: Hmmm.
dsp: Not so much hmmmmm as Ommmmmm . . .
poem by vermarian
There is fear
When there is birth – why?
There is fear
When there is death – why?
Cut off the fear from your heart
When there is birth
Cut off the fear from your heart
When there is death
Is there a tear
My dear?
Live full lives in love
the cycle here on earth
I am the Birth and I am the Death
I love you
When I come to meet you
As one of your very best friends
We met so often
When you were curious to come to earth
When you were tired to stay for longer
only wanted to relax
I am the Death and I am the Birth
I come to you
Because I love you
I am your friend
With me you learn to understand
What’s going on
What’s to be transformed
And we laugh together
Cut off your fear
May be there is a tear
In your eyes and mine
Because we meet in love
Cut off your fear
It is only now
And now is truth
The truth is told
The truth is heard
The truth is the truth
unconditional
absolute
infinite
I used to believe since I was into love and compassion, I was better than sadists, murderers, etc. Now, I no longer believe thats true. How can it be if we are all one, if we are all god? Namaste
larry
for me
they carry the side for me that i am not here to carry
and i carry the side they may like to carry too
but do not see it yet…
they experience things i experience through them…
and they experience things through me…
“It’s rare, but occasionally you see it…it’s like a picture book: a family, two children, both doing well, a happy marriage, beautiful house, good job, promotions, status in society, two or three big cars.
It’s too much!
Usually when you scratch and look beyond the surface, you find something else.”
-Eckhart Tolle
Hi All:
I hope everyone is fine; I’m checking in.
The quote above really impacted me; one of my heart’s desires, visions, and I mean this in the upmost, nonattached, non-ego way, is to have the wife, children, home, car, good job, happy family, etc.” (I can do without the social status and the third car though.) I literally have this sketched image right now before my eyes as part of my ‘dream board.’ Oh, Eckhart forgot to mention the family pet (just kidding LOL).
Thank you for ‘listening.’
Paz,
Jose
Jose
a (woman)friend of mine
has the same vision as you….
shall i give you her emailaddress? (LOL)
she sees it
in every “vision quest” she does….
love
vermarian
Jose, after I read your last post I wanted to quote the chorus of a recent song (I) wrote.
“can’t always depend on your dreams my friend
i do hope your dreams all come true
so go on, you have your dreams but then,
don’t let your dreams have you
Peace
Vermarian,
yeah, go ahead, please, give her my email! (LOL) Vermarian, you brought a much needed smile and hearty laugh to my face!
Larry,
right on brother, right on! I hear you. You’re right. Thanks for the reminder!
In continuing to follow Eckhart’s thread on ‘illusion’ via today’s daily meditation, I find it prophetic, especially in light of the ’signs of the times,’ i.e. worst economic crisis since the Great Depression in the 1930s.
I am amazed at how this is not the first time this has happened in our nation’s history. It happened in the 1920s with the Gilded Age; a madness and greed for power, usually at the expense of others. As a former history public school teacher I was shocked when I learned of the causes of the 1929 Stock Market Crash, i.e. greedy, mad men and their corporations much like today, and the devastating, negative impacts it had on good, hard working Americans, the working poor, leading to single mothers, fatherless children, broken families, shattered communities, etc.
I hope and pray this does not happen again. I plan on ‘doing something’ about this some sort of action, either through a job/career, volunteer work, my art, etc.
Peace, Love, & Joy
Re Jose: I have a friend (not the one mentioned below) who had a dream/vision board for a husband, etc…and she got it. She’s very happy. So if its working for ya…go for it…
ET: “But let’s just say that yes, they are happy in that they have neatly arranged their life situation in such a way that everything seems to be working. And it’s only a question of time before something in there collapses… ”
I DO know someone, fairly well and for awhile, who does seemingly have “everything” or at least the picture book happy family, successful careers for both parents (and their 2 kids are actors in major films and tv shows; and both are smart, well-loved & well-adjusted kids), money, the wife (my friend) just had another baby with no emotional or financial stress whatsoever…and I often wonder how they are thriving while so many others are struggling and they have always done well–not to say i begrudge them their happiness either–so is ET saying that their life is going to crumble at some point just cause it has to? Granted, I don’t know how ’solid’ my friend feels her life is, but I don’t see why some impending disaster has to befall them either. And even if it did, if I know my friend(and I could be wrong, of course) I think she would bounce back quite easily. Somehow, she’s figured something out for herself and her family that I haven’t been able to.
ET: “Huge structures that appeared so solid and it took only a few madmen, and they collapsed.”
I noticed , in reference to 9/11, that ET doesn’t seem to have a problem calling the terrorists “madmen”. Admittedly, he doesn’t say it was ‘right’ or ‘wrong’, but calling someone mad isn’t exactly neutral. I don’t get the impression ET is going in the we’re all one, so nothing is good or bad, direction here. But, maybe I’m missing it.
And haven’t societies/civilizations fallen, rebuild, fallen, rebuild, etc etc throughout (at least recorded) time? who really doesn’t realize things change and that nothing lasts forever in the same form? I have never met anyone in my life who doesn’t know that, and who hasn’t experienced it in some form or another. But we get to have our feelings about it. And some of those feelings don’t feel so good. But even so, I think many people have problems with change (myself included) is that we were never allowed to have our feelings about ANYTHING much less something ‘bad’. I can remember expressing happiness as a child and being told to ‘quiet down’ or ’shush up’ (actually, whether i was laughing or crying the same words were used–bizarre). In a way, this is why I gravitate toward MB–at least i get to have my feelings no matter what they are. What a relief!
So, to make my circular point: I suspect people know insurance policies, buildings, banks, bonds, etc aren’t “solid” but illusory security blankets that can unravel at any moment, but it’s too scary to admit. I feel it reminds people of death so we “forget” what we know. Then an external event (bad or good — hey a plane landed in the hudson and everyone survived!) occurs to remind us. Probably relates to control which is why I have such a hard time grappling with this. Thank you all for listening!
namaste,
~mf
It seems to me, many have a strong attachment to what is illusory, which is everything. Your husband, your wife, your children, money, things like houses, cars, and of course your life as an illusory person. When it is realized that everything is consciousness, ie: the infinite, the divine, then hopefully you can begin to let go of the people and things of this material (reality), and know you, everything and everyone is God.
Love, God
“I was walking in the north of Los Angeles in a little park and there was an old building that had burned down.
It was a part of an estate that had burned down forty or fifty years ago, and a beautiful wild garden had grown up around the ruins….trees growing inside the building and (nothing is solid).”
~Eckhart Tolle
Dear MF:
Thank you for sharing. I am learning there is nothing wrong with the partner, children, house, two cars, good job, etc. so long as one does not make an idol out of them nor get attached. Although I do not know your friend, it seems like a lot of people, myself included to a certain extent, think, feel, believe all these things are going to make me happy, i.e. bring me salvation. I include myself because I am only beginning to awaken to the wisdom of detachment, non-attachment, let go, etc. Believe when I say I painfully struggle with this to this day.
I am also learning the best way to “enter” and/or “be” should this be my calling/vocation, is in a state of true freedom; in a state of consciousness and awareness. Although rooted in the Judeo-Christian Tradition, I am not defined by this.
My understanding and interpretation of what Eastern “Religions” are saying about this is what Christianity says when God warns us about “Not worship any other gods besides me.” And in the “desert,” when Moses was leading the formerly enslaved Hebrews out of Egypt to the Promised Land, they “fashioned and worshipped a golden calf” not realizing, being aware that “God,” Being, if you will, makes me complete and whole, is pure and true Love, Joy, and Peace!
Paz,
Jose
Los Angeles, CA
PS I just had to include Eckhart’s reference to “walking in the north of Los Angeles,” my hometown, because one of my goals by June of this year is to north Los Angeles!
PS PS Please accept my apologies for the ’sloppy editing’ on my most previous post.
> JVS: Like MB said, in Iraq there Peace and Silence right now…just remove the people and that is what’s left.
Not even that, just remove the unrest in the minds of the people…
ET: “(nothing is solid)”
Nis: “In pure consciousness nothing ever happens”
I’m reminded of the movie (The Matrix) The first of three
In the movie people are living out their lives in a computer generated reality which is an exact duplicate of the God generated physical reality we currently find ourselves. The Matrix spoke deeply to me about the physical reality where I (seem) to be now. It also spoke to me of the illusion of this body/mind.
For many reasons I highly recommend seeing it. Namaste
Feeling goofy….
Jordan, your comment about the ego and a pinata was awesome. It also inspired a funny thought: Post pinata stress syndrome.
Hope it made you giggle.
Lovingly, Belinda
from today:
“MB: “The ego always covers up its limitations by making excuses and casting blame.”
JVS: That’s not very nice. ”
why do you say this is not very nice, Jordan?
i really like this quote
my ego tells me with that blaming – making excuses -
that there is a line, a fence a whatever
that wants to be lokked on…
the more i listen to this wonderful ego
i learn how to take it as one of my teachers
and we both can “make it” – not fix it…
and so the limitations “soften”
and the next moment they are – where?
love sent via a sunny blue wintersky around
Nis: ” you could as well see me jumping into the fray to save somebody and getting killed. Yet to me nothing happened.”
JVS: This isn’t logical because he is not making a linear argument
I believe Nis is talking about two different (me’s). In traditional Advaita there is the little physical me (ego) that can be observed by another. And there is (me), the One impersonal Self or God if you will.
Nis is saying your experience or me (which is a body/mind personality, etc is not my experience of me which is the One Self (God). And to the God realized nothing is happening.
After I wrote my last post I was thinking about the two (me’s). The first is this person, this human being. The second is the One Self, ie: God. Suddenly there was an experience. This experience was that this body, this city, this world, this universe was happening within me. There also was a clear knowing that this was the higher truth. Something deep within knew this was the truth. Namaste
“Anything that is decaying is half way between form and no form.
And when you are there, allow it to be and watch.
It’s liberating.
It liberates you from form.
What could also liberate you from form is the realization that your own physical vehicle is subject to that.”
~Eckhart Tolle
Vermarian and Larry, I hear you.
I feel a deep sense of sadness by the quote above in the context of a ‘re-uinion’ I had with my own father just this past week.
I was driving him to one of his ‘regular’ doctor’s appointment here in Los Angeles. He will be 76 this year and his physical health has really deteriorated. My father and I have some ‘unfinished business.’
So on this overcast morning, we stopped to have breakfast at an IHOP. Without going into details and for the sake of time, there was a moment when tears welled in my eyes at his physical deteriorating condition and how it seems like literally, yesterday, when he was in my shoes, young and strong.
I know I am headed in this direction; on a another level, it was like seeing my father for the first time in many, many years.
Thank you for listening.
Peace,
Jose
I don’t know how many people reading the Daily Now signed up for the free Bliss Music Weekly Quote. I signed up for it but if no- one else or very few are reading it, perhaps I should not comment on it.
Jordan, I know you read it, so this comment is for you or anyone else who is reading it.
Kip is suggesting in this weeks free quote, we deal with the past experiences that are effecting our now, by witnessing them as memories/thoughts and letting them go as they arise.
Jordan, what do you think of this idea and what do you believe MB would have to say about this method of dealing with one’s past?
This is the poem Larry is referring to:
“If you look
at your problems logically,
you will see that the past
is not your problem.
Whatever hurtful things happened
to you a minute ago,
a year ago,
a decade ago,
are no longer here.
But what happens
is the mind replays
the situation
over and over.
And you end up chewing on it,
being totally involved
and identified with it
without ever even
being conscious of it.
All of these incidents build up
& get replayed over and over
and it becomes your identity,
the program that determines
your experience.
By witnessing your thoughts,
and letting them go as they arise,
the thoughts still may come,
but they no longer
determine your experience.
They no longer
have any power over you.
If you are not
identifying with the thoughts,
then the whole thought process
loses it’s power over you.
Everything slows down,
conflict dissipates,
and your identity as your past
falls away.
The memories can still be accessed,
but they no longer define who you
are in this moment.
Blessings,
Kip”
Larry, I appreciate your investigation here.
It seems like Kip is missing the part of the teaching that Michael Brown points to which is the emotional body, and feeling the feelings as they arise.
I think witnessing thoughts only goes so far, at least that has been my experience. It’s a nice ‘idea’ but doesn’t carry in real life experience – whatever that is.
It does seem to fit Echart’s concept of the Watcher. No?
I am not sure what ET had in mind as the watcher, but past hurtful experiences that were not felt at the time they occured, remain frozen within as unfelt feelings to a great extent, and as thoughts to a much lesser extent. These unfelt feelings are waiting to be fully felt and will not leave, (continue to effect your now) until they are felt. Once they are felt (not thought) they can remain as memories that no longer disturb your now. Peace
It is great awareness on your part that “unfelt feelings will not leave” – it is also true that “felt feelings” don’t necessarily leave.
When traumatic memories are experienced, they are stored as ‘implicit’ memories. This means that they are unresolved and constantly running in the background, waiting to be triggered by the next external (person, place or thing) or internal (thought, emotion) event. This is what you are experiencing, implicit memories being triggered over and over.
The way to resolve and integrate them is with EMDR. It works at below the thinking level of the brain. It helps the brain reprocess the memories from ‘implicit’ memory to ‘explicit’ memory. It is fast and efficient and the most direct means of doing such, although can still take a long time if complex trauma is involved.
Your psychologist should know about this. If he/she doesn’t then it is his ethical responsiblity to find out. If he looks into it, or says he ‘knows’ about it and doesn’t think much of it then go elsewhere. (After all, some people still think Palin could have been pres. – my inlaws, for example.)
On The Daily Now, read the EMDR write-up link. Also, you can go to http://www.EMDRIA.org to find an EMDR therapist in your area.
Eckhart and Michael Brown do not know about EMDR, except what I’ve told them about it. They didn’t seem to tune into it or understand its level of importance. Oh well.
You are dealing with bio-chemical blocks in the brain. When those open up then your spiritual nature can open up as well. (My experience). Until then, it is much more difficult.
JVS: Sometimes I feel like defending the ego. I wonder what part of me wants to do that?
dsp: The ego.
+++++
Nis: “The real does not die, the unreal never lived.”
JVS: Sounds like that quote from “A Course in Miracles”, “Nothing real can be threatened. Nothing unreal exists. Herein lies the peace of God” that Eckhart often refers to.
dsp: Exactly!!
Although I have done Primal Therapy, Radix emotional release work, and some of John Bradshaws Inner child work, I have never done EMDR(Eye movement desensitization and reprocessing), but it sounds amazing and very interesting. I do feel my spiritual nature has unfolded but then there are many who became aware of there spiritual nature without any therapy. There are also many who became aware of their spiritual nature through various types of meditation.
The Ego: When I think of the ego I think of the individual self that feels seperate from everything and everyone. The ego is not inherently evil but because it is not aware that we are all one, there is envy, greed, hate, harming (others), killing (others) etc.
This came to me during my walk today:
Who Am I?
I am the one who sees.
I am the one who hears.
I am the one who tastes.
I am the one who feels.
I am the one who smells.
OK, that’s funny.
Then who is it who understands?
Who is it who laughs?
Who cries?
Who speaks?
Who thinks?
Who is it who has Being within me?
I am the one who sees.
Hi Jordan,
thanks for the link to the ABC News Interview of Eckhart. I will forward to my family, friends, etc.
I also appreciate all the most recent posts, including Larry’s. They resonate and speak to me!
Presence
MB: “Our needs stem from our unresolved past. Our wants arise from our future projections
Our needs stem from unfullfilled desires that are REFLECTED in our unresolved past.Our wants arise out of the stimulation from the environment captured by the five senses.The want is then projected into the future. It does not come from the future all of creation flows out of the eternal present moment.
Instead of using the words (living in the now or being here now), I would rather say use (present moment awareness). Because even if we are thinking of the past or the future we are doing it in the now. We are always in the now. It is our awareness that we use to focus on the present moment or the past or the future. So let us use our attention and awareness to focus on the present moment. I’m reminded of that saying “life is something that happens while we are making plans for it” Namaste
Do most of us seem to “get” Ekhart, then Michael Brown, then Nisargadatta in that order?
For me I resonate to Nis, Then MB and last ET.
The ocean and the wave…………
Celeste is answering the following question.
Others?
Nis: “…realize that your present existence is like a shower of sparks, each spark lasting a second and the shower itself a minute or two.”
JVS: I haven’t heard of the ’shower of sparks’ metaphor before. We have the ‘rope-snake’ metaphor, the ‘movie-projector-screen’ metaphor…what are some of the others?
Todays post- Nis = The misunderstang that we have as humans is that the physical world is permanent along with the body are senses tell us so. The reality is that the world is transitory.It is a reflective world showing the effects of consciousness. We have real needs of the soul, if we did not there would no purpose for this world. It is through the fulfillment of these needs that lead to the main need expressed as knowing our true nature. Part of the spiritual process is to distingush from a real need that leads to permanency and those that are just for temporary gratification of the sences.When we do not surrender to these needs we experience suffering and pain. Part of lives does need to be spent achieving and part need to be spent receiving. This is the yin and yang and makes up the entire being. The reality of subdueing our wants and needs is nothing more that suppression and denial. Saying yes is a choice it is the use of the will. Being able to say yes for a extended period of time is willpower. It does not have to be momentary. It can be permanent. When Eckhart speaks in the video presented he addresses “habitual thinking” There is a difference between habitual thinking and deeep thinking with conscious choice. The problem that people get into with these teaching is that when they hear that this is just a dream world it becomes confusing. It is only a partial reality not the complete reality but to say it isn’t real is just wrong. I once saw a master teacher slap a student quite hard in the face and then asked him how real that felt.I have heard people say that they wish they could just wake up like Eckhart did- really he was on the verge of suicide.In the end it comes down to the degree to which you have developed conscious choice. To be present now is a choice. If something interfears with that choice then you have your first step to address.This is your spiritual work.
I was once hit by a car. I was on my back in the street bleeding from my broken legs and back. I was going into shock and in a lot of fear and pain. This idiot comes up to me and says “dont worry so much, after all your only dreaming. I said “what are you crazy? dont you see the blood all over,? I’m dying”. Then I woke up. Why are some so sure they are the choosers and dooers? Perhaps they think they are real and not just an illusory character following their script in the play we call life. I guess thats the part their playing. I live as if I’m the chooser, but in a deep way know I’m not (because thats the part I am playing). Don’t worry, were all playing are parts perfectly. How could we not be? Some say not my will but thy will. Meaning let me not do my will,let me do God’s will. You never have done anything but God’s will. Peace
Are parts include the typos and spelling mistakes or any thing we call mistakes, so if your able to “Dont worry,Be Happy” Love Larry
It is Gods will that we evolve. We have little choice in that. The gift we have been given is free will.It is our choice how we re-act or respond to this inner urge.
What you describe Larry is a puppet in some play.
Nis:.dive deeply within yourself and find yourself, this alone will solve all your problems.
This is the same as John Sherman, “Look at yourself” or the “I am” that Nis asks us “look at.” I don’t really get it but I do it anyway. What I sort of take it to be is look at the self that is not your thoughts. The underlying being or space that is there.
By doing this, it reminds me that I am not my thoughts.
It is a practice that I don’t really understand but I do it anyway. I’ll let you know how things develop.
It reminds me of meditating while you are awake. The thoughts come and go still but there is an awareness that you are not the thoughts.
What I am describing is the one self’- the infinite, the divine, intellegent consciousness- as the only (entity) that is (that exists). Non-duality 101. We as individual body/minds do not exist as anything but an illision. If there is free will only God has it. If we are anything, we are God, but not as these seperate forms. This is a game, dream or play God plays where it forgets who it is or what it can do. God is the cause of this play and God plays all the parts including the part that believes it has free will which happens to be around 99 percent of the population. Each seperate character in the play does and believes whatever it script calls for. I know it is uncomfortable for many to hear they are not the chooser or the doer I.E they do not have free will. But remember the One-God has free will and thats who you really are. All it takes is surrender.
Joy, I’m going to see John Sherman tomorrow Sunday Feb 22 at 2:30 PM in Santa Monica California at 633 Kensington Road Joslyn Park-Crafts Room. It is free or donation. John is refreshing for me because he does not talk very much about philisophical ideas.
He just uses many words to tell us to look at ourselves. Many people say doing only this has made their experience of life much sweeter. Peace
MB:”One of the most powerful transformations we can invite into our life experience is our evolution from reactive to responsive behavior.”
so it is for me
when i find a moment where i have to re-act
then i know there still is a trigger that wants to get
rel-ease-d
this is easily found by a message from the body – sometimes not so easily – but the more one is used to this kind the more -
and the next time
when it seems to be kind of the same
re-action? is gone but response is possible or not necessary any longer…
this is what i show the kids at school
and for me this is a method in the “anti-aggresion-trainings”.
peace and joy
v
JVS,
Thanks so much for last night’s Presence Conference call!
Your talking me through staying with the inner body while speaking to let “that” speak was just what was needed. Also when you said go to the inner body, then go even deeper to the inner body (paraphrasing), made that experience real for me.
I really love these calls!
Lots of Love,
Celeste
I’m glad it was helpful. You did a great job of staying with what was being pointed to. I benefit greatly from those calls, as well. Thanks to those who join in sharing Presence. Between the teacher and the student is the lesson. Jordan
Larry-
I have it on my calendar for next months (March) meeting in Santa Monica. Have you been to Ojai to see him?
Thanks,
Joy
“The greatest ashrams would be old people’s homes because that is the potential of old age.”
Wouldn’t it be great to start a spiritual nursing home.
Joy, I live right near Santa Monica so I see John about 3 miles from my home once a month. I have not been to Ojai.
I notice I have not been speaking from my own experience in some of my recent posts. Although what I speak of is what I have experienced, it feels like I want to phrase it differently. For instance; This is (my) experience. Every choice that is made by me, every move that is made by me, feels like it could not have been different than what it is or was. Although this is my experience it may not be yours. Yes, this feels much better and truer than speaking about philisophical ideas. Peace
It also feels like this me is’nt real so it does not matter if it is a puppet or a robot. It seems like it is only a thought or thoughts. John Sherman says (I am here). There is discomfort with the word (I). It is much easier to say (Something is here) or (Something is). If that something is me, thats wonderful. At least I exist. What does not seem to exist is this thought or idea of me. Peace
That s a good question, jordan — What does not suffering mean to you?
I wonder if it means not fighting against suffering just accepting it and using it.
in response to your comment: You get the feeling these guys sit around alot.
I seem to remember that the big event for the day for Neem Karoli Baba was that he would turn over to his other side on his mat and would occasionally toss an orange at someone.
Now that’s livin!
ha ha! Really, William?! That’s funny.
The “what is suffering” thing is huge to me, I seem to have come to a place after a tremendous amount of self imposed suffering through substance abuse and isolation and discomfort as a result of that where I seem to think that what most others view as suffering appears to be no big deal to me. My whole life has been like that, I am the tortured artist you know! Hmm… On the other hand I am confident that looking from the other direction where people have a variety of real “problems” like health and family issues and the like, my petty little discomforts are just that “discomforts”. Notice the word comfort is there. Is that really suffering? I think that MB would say that embracing these experiences is what really would liberate one and allow them to feel their way through it whatever it may be, and therefor being fully alive. And oh, I too spend a great deal of time sitting and lying around. Does that mean I am highly advanced? I hope so.
Not doing anything all day but laying on a mat, seems to be a type of surrender. You as this person would be giving up trying to achieve or become anything. It may be because as this person, you realize you dont exist. So what is there to do? Namaste
larry/jeff o:
hmmm…laying around all day not doing anything…ok, well would that mean not eating or drinking so your body eventually starves to death? are we talking suicide? but if you don’t exist anyway would that still be considered suicide or not? cause a ‘body’ requires action in order to function properly or it dies. also, is this what these (spiritual?) teachings really mean, what they are pointing to? in other words, is death (physical and otherwise, not just of the ego) the result that is intended if these teachings are believed/followed (or whatever)? i.e. jonestown, and the one who convinced followers that they were going into space (can’t remember his or groups name).
i’m not being facetious, i’m really asking the question.
namaste
When I say laying on a mat all day there would be some basic things your body would have to do like breathe, eat, etc, although some have been known to eat very little. What I am talking about is not trying to achieve or become something in this world. Perhaps because you realize you as a seperate self and your reality is an illusion. And maybe your not interested in illusion.
Most (more than 99% of the world population) believe they as individuals and their world, the universe and everything in it is real. Thats what their human brains tell them. Thats what their senses tell them, so to them it’s a no brainer. I believe your illusory brain is fine for the illusory world,as far as apparently doing things. But your brain and senses are not telling you the truth about what is real. I believe that must be the way God wants it.
Then there are people like me who dont believe their brain and senses are telling them the truth about reality. I believe no thing exists, nothing is solid, and nothing is happening, much like a dream during sleep.
I choose the (choiceless choice) at least for now, to mess around with illusion. It is so much easier and peaceful when you know it is all illusion. It’s like realizing your dreaming while your doing it. You can have fun and not be so serious.
Others that believe like I do (choose) to do as little as possible. Perhaps they would rather spend as much time as they can meditating on what is. Namaste
I realize the above is my truth. My way of seeing and it may not be yours. This way of seeing gives me comfort but may not give you comfort. If what I say causes you discomfort than believe whatever gives you comfort. After all, I could be wrong. Peace
How are the authors precisely defining “surrender”?
Pleas explain this term so that there is no uncertainty about intention.
There is also something to: “Chop wood, carry water” Menial tasks can feel really good. Just enjoying the movement of the task.
Something I got from Byron Katie was that she looks at a pile of dishes in the sink and doesn’t go through the litany of complaints in her head. “why doesn’t he do them?” “Could someone help me please?” She looks at them and thinks “pile of dishes that need to be done” And then she either does them or not.
She also has a really interesting take on making decisions. She doesn’t make them but they do get made.
If we look around we see a planet full of creation. Has anyone ever considered that our purpose on this plain is to learn to be creators. The bible does say that we were created in the image and likeness of our creator. Maybe we are here having this experience to become mature and like our creator. What tends to evolve in a person is perception. It moves from the perception and engrossement that the world is the total reality. This is one end of the polarity and on the other is that it is all just an illusion.The truth being that it is a fraction of the total reality and that this plane serves a definite purpose. Understanding and living within this purpose connects one to everone else. It moves from intellectual concepts to a reality that is felt on a deep level
There is nothing to get from life everything is given. This is understood and is lived in the daily experience. We have a direct connection to our daily experiences.
The question to ask is do I know this – is my experience with full trust or is it a belief. It is the difference between living intellectualy in the brain vs.knowing through experience. This is the metaphor of Jesus and the Pharasees. The pharasees spoke from the letter of the law and gave lip service. They spoke from concepts and intellectual ideas but did not understand the true nature of the Law. The true nature of the law which is universal law which is timeless.
There is a common belief in most of the major religions of the of the world including Christianity.It is as follows. There is God and then there is what God has created, i.e. the universe, the world, people, animals, trees, plants, etc.
There is an old Sufi saying about God which I really relate to in much more than an intellectual way. It is:
La Illaha Illa La Hu.= There is nothing but God.
Sometimes I think about myself (the personal I) as a scammer, a cheater, selfish. Not an upstanding moral person.
But when I looks at I- When the personal ego looks at itself, I begin to feel this incredible intense love. It is everything I want. It is peace, beauty, and love. I am not talking about Larry. I guess I’m talking about who I,-who we really are. What everything really is. The personal I (the ego) is looking at itself to discover who and what it really is. Namaste
She left me. My life stinks turns into where in my body am i experiencing this. Then the goal of disappearing that pain.
Is this just another story.
She left me. It hurts. End of story.
what’s next.
Save 20 years of therapy?
Yes a real bind to be sure. This approval seeking activity keeps one in the worst type of bondage. No real creativity can take place, one is not spontaneously alive in the true sense. There appears to be a relatively fine line between feeling and expressing everything as it is happening, and being considerate and compassionate towards others. At least in my world. Anybody?
Hey all,
Jeff O, “There appears to be a relatively fine line between feeling and expressing everything as it is happening, and being considerate and compassionate towards others.”
Agreed from my experience too. Fine line.
William so true!- “the goal of disappearing this pain”… one more thing to latch onto!
Thanks all.
Jeff O, I dont think it is possible to express all your feelings as they are happening. It is easier to feel your feelings as they are happening. Most of the time you can do this. I remember getting really angry at a driver who cut me off and almost caused an accident. As soon as I could (which was about 5 minutes), I pulled to the side of the road and screamed and hit the seat next to me for quite a while. Even as I was doing this, I kept looking up every so often to make sure there were no people or police near me. I was arrested once for screaming outside of my car. Someone heard me and called the cops. Now grief and crying is much easier to express in public. I would cry on a bench in a public park and no-one bothered me too much. If someone said “are you OK?” I would say I’m OK, please leave me alone. So it can be tricky.
Remember,
Expressing – letting it all out. (go to jail)
Supressing – keeping it all in. (live in your own jail)
Containing – Burning with it – walking the fine line.
j
Supressing, that appears to be out of the question, prison to be sure, although most in fact do it. I’d like to think that there is in fact a finer fine line that allows one to traverse through expressing and containing while delicately staying authentic and alive through commpassion mixed with a tiny bit of cynical love. Uhg! probably BS but maybe someone has an idea.
hi all
re the last few comments: there is a great movie ‘man on wire’, (that just won the best documentary oscar) about the french guy who walked a tightrope between the twin towers in nyc in the late 70s — the film’s subject and subject matter addresses the issue that is being discussed here, i.e. expressing vs suppressing vs containing emotions/feelings…specifically the film draws, literally and figuratively, the ‘fine line’ that everyone in life seems to tread whether we like (or understand)it or not, and challenges directly and indirectly, what is considered real and what is illusion by engaging us in a story about an impossible dream that came true…its such an amazing film! we had to watch it twice (which i hardly ever do for a doc!)
namaste
~mf