Tagged: being
The answer
“Love” is not the answer
When there is no feeling, “Love” is only a word.
Say that word ad nauseam. There is no meaning other than more words.
To know the answer I must BE it, for BEING is to KNOW.
How am I to know when only living in the world of words?
“Real” solutions for “real” problems
That was a time of uncertainty, fear and turbulence among people in the world. No one expected such a time, for most were busy and entertained, producing wealth and pleasure for themselves. No one expected the unexpected. The news were flowing with unusual distress and the ‘experts’ talking heads, were spreading their own stress and emotionality non stop, through the omnipresent tube.
The disciple asked: “ Master, many people believe that spirituality does not give any real solution to the problems that the world is facing. For example, what kind of advise could spirituality give to a person who is watching over his older parents and relatives going through emotional and physical issues, while at the same time living a time of high Covid-19 infection; where cash flow is uncertain and there is fear of catching the virus or giving it to someone?”
The master smiled and gave a comforting pat on his disciple shoulder pad before continuing.
The master said: “ Spirituality is not a source of advise. It is a source of strength and inspiration. Strength for what? you may ask. Strength to go through the test or problem that Life may offer. Spirituality will give you an overview on Life’s laws. That should give a person a starting point in their understanding. Experiences will arrive to test that understanding and to make that theory into something practical. Without those tests there is no possibility to move on in consciousness. Those are the tests of the school of Life itself.
Observe your intention. Through that intention establish a good conversation with your relatives. Merely put your ideas, worries and hopes on the table. Do not look for solutions and rationalizations, but for understanding at the emotional level. After that meeting, the sense of unity should be there rather than finding a solution.
Most humans think in terms of ‘solutions,’ that is an ideal formula that will make sure the outcome of circumstances will be according to their wishes. There is a solution to fix a computer, but among humans and Life, solutions are very rare. Have you noticed that? Someone will be discontent or dissatisfied despite a rational ‘solution.’ Life is not a problem to be solved. It is an experience to be experienced.
Once your good intention is known, that is the lighting candle that will light up the others. Life, death, health, disease, abundance or shortage…. Those dualities are part of experiencing Life. Sooner or later we will experience those experiences. Therefore; be aware of your intention behind your actions, behind your words for there resides our liberation from making a Life experience into a bitter traumatic experience. Finally, be open to accept Life as it comes to you. Some call that surrendering to Life, others trusting it.
Fear comes when we have our minds set in a future which Life may not bring to us. Then, we want to fight, we want to oppose, we want for others to be on our side and help us to get our way. At the end, Life will continue on and so, are we. Do you understand? We will continue on.”
The disciple understood as the master explained in a calm, non emotional voice. However, he wanted to summarized what was already digested in his BEING after hearing those words, with a couple of catchy words perhaps to remember the teaching or remind others. The disciple then said: “ Master, you are basically saying to DO my best then?”
The master laughed and responded: “As you said; but even better, BE your best. Meet the movie of Life as a hero actor.”
The ontological question of BEING.
The “reality” of the “normal” person is surrounded by a man made “reality” of formulas, formalisms and philosophy known as economics. The poor and the rich are man made. That is not something coming from Nature or Life. That “reality” is what most humans are conscious of. A man made illusion which has become “real.”
Similarly, at this time in Spirituality; there is the “reality” of the “ethereal body” for some individuals. This is related with the touted “Ascencion to the 5th Dimension.” where it is said that “everyone in the planet will go through that.” That “5th dimension” is not a place. It is a state of consciousness where the bagagge of emotionality will be dropped by some individuals (those who are ready) with the outcome of a non-violent being who is ready to explore the meaning of love. Thus, the development and awareness of this vehicle (ethereal body) has importance according to this time.
Below is the conversation between Mathias ( A being of light manifesting as a tree of Nature) and Ahnanda about some ontologycal questions surrounding BEING. I am reproducing it, for it shows the interconnection of BEING with the Totality. The question of “who I am?” is answered in an orignal way. Note that many religions or philosophies may use other labels.
Ahnanda: Now that you mention about the importance of developing the ethereal body at this time, I read many articles with contradicting information about the ethereal body. Could you tell me what the ethereal body is?
Mathias: It is “you” but bigger. It is a world of giants. En each part of those worlds, there is “you” as well, but you are under the illusion that you are only here. The ethereal body is the body limit which unites these dimensions with another sublime reality where density is not nor duality. It maintains a connection and interaction. It is like the roots, stem, leaves and the flower. The ethereal body is the leaves before the flower.
Ahnanda: What is the flower in this analogy?
Mathias: The essence, my friend.
Ahnanda: The essence? That is what is known as “soul.”
Mathias: That is what is known as “spirit,” that is “you” not “I.”
Ahnanda: Isn’t the soul the essence, as I have been taught by religions?
Mathias: If you wish, we can call that soul.
Ahnanda: But, you call it spirit…
Mathias: Yes.
Ahnanda: And that flower is the one having experiences of many lives?
Mathias: The stem has the experience of many lives, my friend. What would you call the stem? The stem has two parts. The first one is the emotional body and the second part is the physical body made to enter duality. Then you have the roots.
Ahnanda: But that stem unites everything.
Mathias: Of course, my friend.
Ahnanda: And… where is consciousness then? I mean, the plant who is conscious of the stem, the roots and the flower.
Mathias: In the water, my friend.
Ahnanda: Water is the Universe?
Mathias: Everything. Water here is everything. It is called Totality.
Ahnanda: But there is a difference between the plant and the Totality, right?
Mathias: Correct. Do you want to know a label for that?
Ahnanda:Yes.
Mathias: It is called nothingness.
After the talk with Mathias, I was wondering what would be the “root” in this analogy of the plant.
When I recalled that he used the word “root” to refer to my ancestors, my “roots.” My past, my genes which make up my personality. That is the connection with the past, which is part of the stem.
Thanks to this talk, I understood how spiritual schools, religions and philosophies emphasize only one label, one thing as the most important aspect of the human being when responding to the question “who am I?”: Soul, spirit, genes, physical body, consciousness, etc. without seeing the connection.
The plant is not only the flower or the roots. The plant requires water to survive.
Every human being is living their own “reality” of “who am I?”and thereby, the answers that he will validate as “the truth” are the ones fitting that “reality.” Very convenient indeed.
Who am “I”? 🙂
Laughing at that question, is my “rational” answer.
Words don’t bring inner change
I have been sharing some quotes from J. Krishnamurti for the past month.
I consider that J. Krishnamurti had deep insight into human nature and what we know as “spirituality.”
Krishnamurti transmits through his own words, a description of what is like to observe and experience from a different consciousness. Reading his words may bring agreement, it may bring intellectual understanding; but there is no practical change in consciousness that could be experienced by the reader.
In short, Krishnamurti truly expresses “truth,” but that is unreachable for those who do not share the same consciousness. That is why, Krishnamurti is not “practical” at all, for the immense majority.
It is important to understand that words cannot bring change in a person. I am not talking about change of behavior, which is superficial. I am speaking about “true” change which is consciousness.
Little Carlos may not hit his dog if he “understands,” that this is a “bad thing to do and that God will punish him.” The elements of moral standards and fear are there to induce change of behavior. However, Carlos’ violence is still there and he may not hit his dog anymore but he may hurt himself or others in different ways.
“Little Carlos’ consciousness” is the collective consciousness in society. The concern of the machinery of society is to change behavior through “practice,” or through “effort” to reach an objective. Religions operate in the same way.
Reading and understanding words in “spiritual” topics are only meant for us to look deeply at the self. To resonate with the words so they bring a different way to look at Life. Intellectual understanding is futile, for we will not be able to “put them in practice” in real Life; for Life is not a “recipe” that fits all. Life will bring “tailor made,” unique experiences in which we may not be able to recognize the words or the examples used by Krishnamurti, thus; we will not be able to “apply them” as we use a mathematical formula. Through that “practice,” we have no chance to know who we truly ARE.
Consciousness is gained through the experience of the “yes” and the “no.”
In a religious setting, I was taught to reject and suppress anger. Although my behavior was as if I had no anger in the eyes of others; due to the commending comments of those who observed my lack of reaction; I too believed that I was “anger free.”
To my surprise, I had plenty of anger inside stuck as emotional traumas which only needed a greater trigger to be displayed. Thus, “I tricked myself” for years.
Nevertheless, anger needed to be displayed so I could be free of it. Emotions will need to be displayed to be free from them. Through Observation of my own violence, anger diminished.
Through that full experience of anger and lack of it, a new consciousness appeared, which is now able to understand anger without rejection. I could not learn that by simply thinking: “Anger is bad. Don’t show it” or by believing that “God was going to punish me for being angry,” or by reading Krishnamurti’s words about anger and having a solid intellectual understanding of what those words meant.
Change of consciousness occurs when we assimilate Life experiences while we are AWARE of it. Without awareness there is repetition of experiences and through that vicious repetitive cycle, a dull feeling of bitterness mixed with apathy until a compulsive need to change occurs through the experience of suffering.
The “good news” is that eventually we will change; not because we understood some “words of wisdom,” but because Life will give us the complete experience. The “yes” and the “no,” that is a new consciousness.
The spirituality of placebos
What we ARE, displays in inner INTENTIONS (feelings underneath intellectual rationalizations) which later manifest into outer actions (DOING). This is the “natural way” without struggle.
BEING-→ INTENTION → DOING (Action)
However, the spirituality of “practices” and “training” are placebos for they only focus on ACTIONS.
“Our teachers are trained in compassion”. That is fake compassion.
“Our practices will lead you into being a more secure individual”. That is a fake security.
Practices and training have a place in our society where we are trained to become “something” in Life, but those have no place whenever we deal with inner knowledge, self-realization.
The “spiritual market” selling tips, training, practices, master classes, etc. are only focused on the outcome, the DOING. An actor is DOING something on the screen, nevertheless; that is fake DOING. It is just a script. In that, there is no spontaneity in Life.
Our social conditioning, our “training” deals with structure. That structure is a construct of a controlling mind.
CONDITIONING → Training → DOING
That is the path taught in our society.
BEING “good” or “better” in Life, is not the outcome of performing certain actions which we have been conditioned to believe to be “good.” That repertoire of repetitive actions, takes away the joy of living by feeling Life, but rather supports the pre-arranged script of the mind.
Is drinking alcohol “good” or “bad”? OBSERVE that we are concerned in labeling an ACTION with some moral label. That is the religious conditioning tinted with heavy social traumas. We forget about the people involved and the quality of their intentions which shows their BEING. In our society we are conditioned to simply judge things based on ACTIONS.
Although that formula may work in our society, in “spirituality” or living Life in harmony; that social practice is pointless, childish.
OBSERVATION, AWARENESS, being AWAKE, STILLNESS, TRANQUILITY… those are words pointing to what could be useful in living Life in harmony. We need to discover that ourselves.
For some, that may be the chance to make those words into some profitable “practice” or some best-seller “training” book.
The inner experience of those words are not “practices.”
When the mind is empty of our “busy-ness,” the worries concerning running “profitable business,” and our daily “fill the day” activities; then there is space to sit, relax and smell the roses. Then, there is room for no-mind. Emptiness is a requisite for newness.
The experience of those “keywords” above, will appear all by themselves little by little, without rush. If we “catch them,” then we will be practicing without practice. We will be trained without having training. We will be “better” without “making effort.”
Those are “real” practices. For it is through uncovering BEING how our intentions and actions cannot be fake.
We become “real.”
Question: What is mind? What is no-mind? How to get to no-mind?
“What is MIND? Can you explain through words what is MIND? How to move from MIND to NO-MIND? No-mind is also called pure space, emptiness, what does this mean? I personally feel the mind is total illusion (Correct me please if I am wrong). And if the mind is illusion, how illusion can be associated with purity and impurity? You know they refer it as “Pure Mind” and “Impure Mind”.”
Thank you for your question.
A description will set limits. This may work for tangible items; but when we are referring to intangible such as the “Mind,” is not that easy.
For example, let us take a look at a dictionary definition of MIND: “The element of a person that enables them to be aware of the world and their experiences, to think, and to feel; the faculty of consciousness and thought.”
From my experience, that definition is quite inaccurate; but yet because it is a “dictionary definition” most will believe in that. Of course, if there was AWARENESS we could know the answer, but yet we want words to make intellectual sense of something that is readily observable.
Consciousness is AWARENESS. The MIND is accumulation of experiences and conditioning which shapes our perspective of Life. We use the filter of the mind to make sense of the world. The mind is the one knowing “what is right or wrong” according to society’s teachings. It is the internal voice speaking which brings our conditioning forward.
For example: “masturbation is sinful.” That is conditioning. That is stored in our mind. That becomes our guiding “truth.” Thoughts will appear to support that core belief. Once those thoughts have drilled down in us and we believe them despite our inner conflict; then feelings will settle and those will create emotions, that is; the body will be affected. Then we may play the “dishonest” game of defending that “truth” verbally, while still DOING it. This will increase our sense of guilt and from there, it is only a step into emotional and mental disturbances.
If you want to understand, do not try to make sense of my words. Just use those as guiding symbols. OBSERVATION, AWARENESS is what will allow you to know.
If you go deeper into this, you may be able to recognize that the MIND is not YOU, but conditioning that have shaped YOU into something. It has given you a “form.”
For example, you are clay; but the mind will present that clay into the form of a little house made with clay. The mind will defend that “form” at all costs for it thrives in identity, which will create the ego-mind. Ego is mind.
You said “The mind is total illusion.” I ask you to confirm that through your own observable experience, after reading this.
Is the house made of clay an “illusion”? Yes and No.
However, what is important is to see clay in every “form.”
That is deconditioning. It is not to negate by saying that everything is an “illusion,” but by OBSERVING that clay will present itself in different forms. Every form is a perspective, the way we look at Life.
“Reality” presents itself through different “forms.” All of them are “real,” but illusions at the same time. It all depends on the one observing. His conditioning. His perspective.
This is the reason why the “I” is real for most, it presents itself with a marvelous form… but it is an illusion at the same time.
When there is no-conditioning, what is there then? An Empty mind. That is space, emptiness. Many labels to refer to “no-mind.”
My friend Mathias, one day explained that “emptiness allows for decoration of a room.” If the room has already stuff in it, there are limits as to how we could decorate. For most individuals, the mind is full of stuff, full of furniture, there is no space for anything “new.”
The terms “purity and impurity” are mental abstractions. A duality created by the mind. Concepts to play with.
“Purity” is not to DO some things and to avoid others.
“Impurity” is not to DO things which are not “pure.” Observe the trap. We must define what is “pure.” That definition entails a particular perspective, a particular reality. For example, some religions believe that sex is “impure.” Thus, their definition of “purity” is no-sex, celibacy.
It is not that sex is pure or impure, but it has been defined in a certain way. There is a particular perspective in such statement.
Since the mind is more less a “computer hard drive” full of experiences and conditioning influencing the output of our actions, there cannot be such a thing as “pure or impure” mind, but rather pure and impure experiences, which can’t be. Experiences are only that, experiences.
No-Mind is not the negation of mind, but to empty the conditioning of it, the “furniture” in the room. That is how it is said: “A pure mind is an empty mind.”
The next question will be: How do I empty my mind?
“You” don’t DO it. Once AWARENESS sets in, it happens while at the same time, emotional disturbances may need to be dissolved; but that is part of someone’s particular path. There are no “recipes.”
You want to DO something? OBSERVE yourself, BE AWARE of your thoughts, emotions, reactions, movements. Learn from yourself. “Know thyself.”
Beyond the trap of purity and impurity, there is AWARENESS and lack of it.
AWARENESS is like breathing. We are so used to “automatic pilot” that we need to read what the “expert” says about “how to breathe.” That is the conditioning of the mind: Believe the “experts” if you want to know.
Once we read the opinion of the “authority,” thoughts will arrive saying that “I know what breathing is.” To de-condition means to open to the possibility that “I don’t know anything, despite reading about it” and go through the breathing experience ourselves.
The mind will try to make “my” findings about breathing into a “best-seller.” That is conditioning. Got to make money! Get ahead!
My moral values will tell me that “I shouldn’t make a profit through spiritual teachings.” That is conditioning as well. That conflict will come from the mind.
An empty mind, is empty of that sort of conflict, for BEING knows the direction in Life. There is no need to make a choice, for that is mind.
To listen to that message without distortions, means to discover no-mind.
The belief on “Spiritual Teachings.”
Any spiritual teaching presents a vision to understand Life, the world. That vision is like a map. It brings security to the follower to mitigate his uncertainty; although that vision is limiting.
Why is it limiting?
A map is not the real thing. If I need to explain this further, see Life as driving in a highway. We enter into the highway and the “decision” will have to be made right there. There is no time for questions. No time to review the map. Speed up? Slow down? Use your signal? Change lanes? Slow down to speed up? There are so many variants. Are you looking for the “right one”? Was that ever written some place in a holy book?
The “spiritual teaching” maybe something like: “Be careful while driving in the highway.” Fear is introduced.
Let me ask; is there any meaning to that “be careful”?
Perhaps be AWARE is a far better “teaching,” however; it is another pretty word to say to look “good,” concerned…
AWARENESS cannot be taught. You ARE or you may not be AWARE.
It is through AWARENESS how we could realize things about ourselves and through that “teaching” our BEING will behave (DO) in the world. That knowing is experiential and valuable. It is not second hand.
AWARENESS is some sort of sensibility. It comes when we are conscious of ourselves (feelings, thoughts, emotions) alone and in relationship. The word describing our “teacher” in Life is OBSERVATION.
The capacity to observe will bring sensibility and that in turn will bring awareness, consciousness.
We are conditioned to judge, to follow what is believed to be “right,” which is some script that we have learned from someone. We call that discernment. A pretty word to hide conditioning.
When you know the features in your car, you can use them to ADAPT to the environment, what is happening, the “now.”
Observe the person you are talking with. Can you FEEL his intention, his vibe?
Did he shake your hand? Yes?? He was following the map. You “thought” he was a good fellow, well educated, well-conditioned.
Let me briefly explore mainstream “Tantra” teachings: A certified sex guru is needed. Someone to tell us what to DO.
Step #1: Breathe slowly. Step #2: Move slowly. Step #3: Last as long as you can…
That is the software to “practice.” The teaching to follow to be “successful.”
If we had OBSERVATION, we wouldn’t follow STEPS. We would BE those naturally.
OBSERVE our own rigidity. Our own pre-conceptions. Our need to be in control. Observe the need of our ego to perform to some standard. Observe our inability to feel pleasure and enjoy pleasure with the simplest things in Life: The feeling of water running through our naked body, a caress that spreads to our whole being… Observe how our capacity to enjoy has diminished to the point where relaxation is never felt, sensuality is not part of ourselves. Sexual pleasure is merely an “itch” to get rid of.
That sensibility to feel is gained in solitary aloneness. That is the needed space. Through that gained AWARENESS the “map” is no longer needed. Every moment is to BE in the highway of Life. Forget about the prescriptions, the methods, the technicalities. Our unpracticed, unlearned sensibility will take us places… Just relax, unwind. Let the last second “decisions” come without thinking about it.
“Spiritual teachings” are needed only because we live in the mind, so we cannot BE. Thus, we DO them, practice them, follow them, copy them.
Outside of the mind, there is a world of sensibility, which is unknown to most. How do we call that world?
Love.
Sensibility is her daughter. AWARENESS, her twin sister. 🙂 The height of human sexuality is in that “family. ” Spiritual teachings, will tell us to DO what is not meant to be DOne.
Exploring the Depth of Living 