Tagged: ocean
There is no fulfillment in the mind
The intellectual, the philosopher is not ready for inner change.
While we obtain more information through books, classes, DVDs, conferences, etc. less aware of inner observation we will be.
It doesn’t mean that classes and books are “bad.” It just means that what we gain in information, we lose in inner awareness.
The authority in the book is giving us a concept. We repeat that concept. We think we “know.”
What we hear, we interpret it according to our experiences. It just remains as an “idea,” a nice concept to like or dislike.
A strong experience, something intense will change a person.
Why? Because that person does not have control over it. The “I” is unable to fight back and “teach a lesson” to another.
We easily label the experience as “bad” or “good” according to our interest or some moral code. However, the bottom line is change. That change is not fake, for it does not come from intellectual understanding.
Any intellectual understanding when referred to living Life, is worthless without inner awareness. However, intellectual understanding is necessary to survive in the “office world,” our society away from Nature and Life. In that world, inner awareness is not needed, in fact; it may be an obstacle for proper conditioning.
The rupture is evident. Most intellectual neophytes will pretend to understand Life under the premise of accumulation of information, concepts, ideas. Nevertheless, part of the spiritual journey is to unlearn all of that.
If we just go to Nature and observe the Ocean, we will learn all we need to be in tune with Life.
There is high tide and low tide. We ask: Which is better? Which one is good? Which one is more convenient?
Both are one. Just different polarity. To understand that, may take a Lifetime to many. Those who are busy “choosing” between high and low, left and right, straight and crooked, good and bad, right and wrong… Those are the intellectuals.
Yes, they “understand” the concept that opposites are complements; but because there is no first hand experience, because there is no observation… still they will be trapped in labeling incidents, judging outcomes, taking sides, babbling opinions.
What is empathy? They may ask. They want a concept. A definition. The Hawk grabbed a fish from the Ocean.
Is the Hawk empathic with the fish? Well… that doesn’t fit the definition of empathy. Is the Hawk compassionate?
No? Here comes the rationale: Therefore, the Hawk is “bad.” If the hawk was “good,” the hawk will display empathy and compassion. What about a human fishing and taking a fish out of the Ocean? Is he empathic? Compassionate? Yes/No? What the mind says? Isn’t this a moral problem? an ontological issue?
Hawk, fish, Ocean, wind… all are one. Life sustains itself through different forms. Our moral concepts are worthless to understand Nature.
The Ocean moves, changes. It is alive. The wind is part of the Ocean, and so all the creatures although for intellectuals; those are different things.
There is no better lullaby than the waves of the Ocean breaking into shore. It is the magical tune to quiet our busy minds… but rather than listening to it, we may ask: “What is the cause of that sound?”
Oh! It is the Jacques Cousteau Factor… The mind is happy. It has an answer! The intellect knows… while that empty container called “self” is still looking for fulfillment…
Plenty of Time
When we get out of the world of the mind, we will see things differently, thus our experience will be different.
Intellectual understanding of “spirituality” is pointless, although necessary in our process. It is a way of flushing the mind from stale information.
When was the last time you went to the Ocean? How often do you allow yourself to enjoy it?
That is what is Natural. In that world there is no need to intellectually understand anything. You are there, you are part of it. Become absorbed, Be the Ocean… If you are looking to intellectually understand this, you will not.
In that state of absorption, the “office world” is over. The “problem” at home is non-existent. Your Life as a “soap opera,” with the emotional highs and lows, is discontinued.
All you have to “DO” is not to think about it.
Why is that so hard? Why the thoughts continue to arrive despite our strong willingness not to think about those issues?
The “I” fighting to overcome his own thoughts is an illusion and so any “effort” not to think.
Just become absorbed in the enjoyment of Nature. That is all. If the “I” is separated, there is a fight.
But… you don’t have time for these things… Have places to go and things to accomplish, here or for the after Life.
Who has time to enjoy Nature, when there are so many things to accomplish?
That person is not ready for depth.
A busy person is not ready to move forward “spiritually,” for he does not have time for himself.
When you are ready to BE different, you will have plenty of time.
Ah! It will not be “your” decision. Life will put you there when your time arrives. In the meantime, enjoy being busy! 🙂
Appreciate your own Divinity
“ I am breathing,” we say.
In fact, there is only breathing. The “I” is not doing a thing. Breathing just happens.
What makes it tick?
That is a question without an answer. It does not matter. It is an utterly meaningless question.
Do we see that?
But… why?
I could come up with every single theory. I could come up with every single belief and every single concept to explain breathing, how it happens and how it begins… God could give you the “answer,” but still an “answer” is not what is important.
What is important?
That breathing exists. Acknowledge it. It is an experience. When we are aware of that experience, we could begin our “knowledge” about breathing.
Knowing its length, its depth, its relaxing properties, as well as how emotions appear when there is a lack of flowing movement in our breathing.
“Knowing” is Being it.
Then we could observe “our” stomach, lungs, thoughts, feelings and posture, become aware completely of that which we call “I.”
Isn’t that an amazing, divine being?
Are you in awe of experiencing a body through senses, thoughts, emotions and feelings through this human experience? Are you in elation when you recognize the “I”?
No? It is the same old thing to be aware of that stuff?
We take for granted what it is, a wonderful experience.
It is through this “falling in love with your divinity,” how there could be an appreciation of another. You are unique and so is that one.
It is through appreciation of that divinity how a magical source of inspiration appears.
Why is inspiration so important?
Because it drives our life. It teaches us without a willingness to teach. It is no longer about following to become someone. It is no longer about the greed to “have it,” to “be it” just to feel important.
Inspiration is the nutrition of the soul.
Look at the Ocean. Isn’t that a source of inspiration?
Isn’t that the moment when appreciation is born all by itself in a natural way?
That appreciation is necessary to relate with everything in Life.
“Being good” is no longer a moral duty or an obligation, because of a promise, a code of conduct or something external.
That inspiration is natural, subtle, gentle. There is no effort or learning required.
Become immerse in the stillness of the Ocean. That is called “contemplation.”
As our world of movement meets stillness, then stillness will appear, all by itself.
The mind used to moving from place to place, only needs to be united with the stillness of the Ocean to taste that sensation beyond the perception of an “I.”
It is at that point, when we meet Oneness.
“I am everything and everything is I.”
In that wonderful feeling we may need to peel off the language barrier, the “misunderstanding” which separates:
Let us take away the “I.”
“Am everything and everything is.”
Beautiful.
It is in that nonsensical phrase, full of grammatical errors where we could find the deepest meaning of Life.
No need to look somewhere else.
The “Other” and God
Consciousness is like the Ocean. That Ocean has a particular movement and timing, which appears in a particular circumstance.
What makes the Ocean to move?
Many things and nothing.
It will be many things if our consciousness is residing in the “Self” for that consciousness separates.
The moon, the wind, the particular Season, the Earth moving, the beings residing in the Ocean, human activities and their consequences, etc.
Many different, separated things.
It will be “none” if our consciousness could observe that everything that exists is inter-related and our separation is fictitious. All the things named above and many others, act as one… they are one.
Life is change, it is movement in itself.
When that consciousness manifests itself through different forms (humans, manatees, dolphins, bees, flowers, rocks, etc.) that consciousness will vary according to the nature of those forms.
When that consciousness identifies itself through its form, then ego appears and thus, separation.
The above has been simplified tremendously to explain something that is not meant to be explained through words.
Observe carefully the Ocean, Nature to grasp the meaning.
When we say that “we want to help others,” what is the consciousness behind those words? Is it the “self” speaking? Then, that action even though it “looks good,” it is full of ego, separation.
That is why it was mentioned before, that “Karma” is not related with the activity but the intention behind the action, the consciousness.
When a drop of the Ocean, separates itself from the Ocean and starts thinking, then that thinking comes from a point of reference, the self.
“I think therefore, I am ….a drop.”
That drop could live a life in separation from the Ocean. That drop could only see its own benefit. That drop could perceive the Ocean as “others” separated into other drops, which are different. That drop perceives duality through its separation. That drop could imagine that there is a hierarchy; a “bigger drop” which has created all drops… and who will save the “self” from experiencing darkness, death, hell, fear, etc.
That “bigger drop” needs to be worshiped, feared, obeyed and … loved.
For God’s sake… All there is …is the Ocean…
It is in that consciousness of “self” when God is perceived as separated from everything else. It is in that same consciousness when “good and evil” appears and with that, all dualistic religions and philosophies…
If the Ocean is all there is, where could you find “God”?
Your answer will be according to your consciousness. 🙂
To integrate rather than reject
Ananda had a task given by Mathias, the wise tree.
The waters of the Ocean are full of emotional energy. Ananda should help to dissolve that energy in a very gentle way.
After this task was completed in the Ocean, Ananda sat by a rock close to the water. The sound of the waves crashing by the shore, the wind blowing a cooling breeze and the sunshine warming up the day, gave that moment a distinct flavor.
Ananda started thinking at that moment but he felt a “thank you” coming from the Ocean.
At that point, Ananda thought: “Thank you for the opportunity to enjoy.”
That was the “aha!” moment for Ananda.
Words without feelings are like a beautiful scenery without eyes to see.
The language of feelings without words is what will connect a human being with everything else.
Feel that gratitude rather than just saying “Thank you.”
Ananda was mesmerized in this realization, while remembering the words of his friend, Mathias:
“ Reasoning kills your feelings,” when all of a sudden, he heard someone calling: “ WILSON, GET OUT OF THERE!!!”
That took Ananda out of his “nice experience.” 🙂
It was a woman screaming her lungs out to her little West Highland White Terrier, Wilson.
The dog didn’t want to obey her.
Ananda failed the “test of integration” at that point. Integration means to accept everything that is.
Ananda rejected that scene.
Ananda thought: “ If I ever have a dog, I will never call it Wilson.”
After a few days Mathias, the wise tree; shared his “secret formula” to Ananda.
“Intensity without feelings does not have the strength to transform. Reasoning is the tool to measure the intensity in the moment of transformation.”
The intensity of a beautiful moment needs to be accompanied with plentiful of feelings.
The intensity of a rejected scene is capable of damaging someone’s well being if there are strong feelings of rejection. The intensity of the moment is measured by our reasoning alone.
As life has it, there was another opportunity for Ananda to test his ability to integrate rather than reject.
Ananda was meditating by the Ocean in a very small strip of sand. Suddenly many dogs appeared from nowhere, splashing water on Ananda and sniffing him while he was sitting in the sand meditating.
Ananda did not think a thing. Because he wasn’t moving, the dogs finished their “playful ways” and decided to leave him alone.
Ananda did not feel rejection towards that scene in the middle of his meditation. He accepted it.
Ananda was able to integrate.
Life will provide with the tools that we need. Every moment is an opportunity to discover things about ourselves for the ones who are aware, conscious.
The chances are plentiful, but only by passing one particular test in life, we could be able to move on to the next… Just like in school.
Life is the greatest school of all. 🙂
The deceiving question: Who am I? :-)
When the drop of the Ocean asks: who am “I”? That is the beginning of intellectual deceit.
It is obvious that this drop of water is the Ocean itself, but some sort of myopia of consciousness takes over.
The drop of water beliefs to be something else.
“I think therefore, I exist.” That becomes the law of certainty as being something different, something special, something divine as if everything else wasn’t that special or divine.
Q: Avyakt7, you are contradicting yourself. 2 years ago you mentioned here, that “I am an eternal soul.” Then, you changed into: “I am pure dynamic consciousness,” and then you even said that “I am nothing,” and now it seems like you are changing into “I am the Totality.”
Can you make up your mind?
A: Do we see that a question such as “who I am” is only strengthening that idea that “I am” a drop of water?
Do we see that any definition of “who I am” is limiting through limiting words and never accurate?
All those different things that Avyakt7 mentioned that “I am” range from a something to nothing, to everything… according to Avyakt7’s consciousness.
Avyakt7 covered all possibilities of being! 🙂 Now, someone looking at this writing from a belief system, will not hear the answer given above. That person is only looking for the keyword, so she can say: “I believe.”
For instance, If someone believes “I am a soul.” That is a great belief! Now, let me ask: What actually that means?
For some it will be about denying everything that “I am not” to find “who I am”…that soul. But how that drop of the Ocean will find what “it is not,” when it is the Ocean itself? How denying something about himself will bring that person into the Totality, which means a different consciousness?
The above is a pretty deep explanation. Hopefully clear as well.
Right now, if someone asks Avyakt7, “who am I?” … well, a smile will come as a response… 🙂
If Avyakt7 dares to say something by adding more words to define “that,” Avyakt7 will be lying more and more by being away from what it is, through fancy words.
Do we see that?
Q: So everything that you said before was a lie!!
A: Everything that Avyakt7 said before was according to his consciousness… and “right” at that time for those in that consciousness as well. It was an honest answer. Let me tell you a “secret:” Unless you live what you talk about, you will be a fraud. When you are fake, what you communicate does not have any strength. In Spirituality, you discover things. It is not about someone telling you “this is the answer.”
If it was that way, then everyone will be “illuminated” by now.
“I am a soul” so… what? Is that another belief or an experience? If it is an experience, how come your consciousness is the same as any other person who does not know that “he is a soul”?
Many seekers in the past have shared their experience through words. Those words may have been seen as contradictory through time. (He said this before and now he is saying the opposite.) Followers who do not have an experience of those words, will be only concerned in making sure that everything that person has said from the beginning is “consistent” so the “dogma” looks the same. Nevertheless, those followers do not realize that those honest seekers, were merely sharing their own discoveries through limited words, and those discoveries will change as his own consciousness change.
To discover means to change.
Anyone who takes these words literally so he looks “educated” when he talks to another person about Spirituality, is not truly a seeker. That person is only concerned in concepts and dogma.
When you discover something for yourself and perhaps these words help you a bit in your own search, then… we are moving “someplace…” 🙂
On Omnipresence
When we truly understand not intellectually, but deep down in our core; that everything is interrelated and this individuality concept is “real” only under a state of consciousness, but it is not truly under another; then we could start seeing that there is not a moment in time when “I” wasn’t.
We can divide the Ocean in drops of water. When that drop acquires a personality, then that drop separates from the Totality of the Ocean. “Hey. I am ME!” 🙂 then, that drop of water could still fragment his personality into many “individuals” that is when “ME, I and MYSELF” direct the show of insanity.
Once the drop of water is not aware of a personality, that drop of water will always exist as the Ocean. Not as “part of the Ocean” but as the Ocean itself.
The same is with us. We will always be. Consciousness is always there, but we manifest that consciousness in different forms and at different times with a different consciousness according to a role.
That is the journey.
There is nothing which lives in isolation. Even our own concept of God is part of that Totality, that Drama, that Universe and that God has manifested under different forms through different times to different individuals who are under a specific state of consciousness.
So is with “you” and “I.”
The issue is the personality. That is the illusion. That is what “individuality” strives to maintain.
Just imagine how a “primitive” non-educated individual could perceive the divine in the part of that Totality. That individual could say: “God is in the tree.”
An educated person residing in the consciousness of individuality will say: “How crazy! He thinks that God is a tree. I know who God is. God is so and so… I should convert that poor primitive fellow to save him.”
As time goes by, other “followers” who have not experienced another consciousness but individuality, will start worshiping a tree. For the tree is “God.” 🙂 while more educated ones, will look for a picture or an image to worship.
That follower has not idea of who God is, but through collective consciousness, the belief becomes the “reality.” It is easier to worship something and call that “divine.” Nevertheless, very few will realize that this same act of worshiping only shows that ego.
Why?
Feeling lower than someone is a sign of that ego.
At the same time, we have the “new age” movement stating: “God is everywhere. We are God. We are part of God,” etc.
As long as that “new age” person is residing in that consciousness of individuality, the above will be senseless.
Not because the statement may not be logical or reasonable or even because that may be considered “irrational,” but simply because there is no experience of another state of consciousness, for otherwise; that person will realize that by making a statement defining God, that person is not telling the accurate truth, for words are unable to define the indefinable.
That is how those who speak about a God, those who have a definition of God or a concept of God do not know God.
Moreover, those who have a concept about who they are, those do not know who they are.
Paradoxical, huh? 🙂
Do we see why words cannot convey a paradoxical “reality”?
Nevertheless, the above topic has been the favorite issue to debate and to fight among people who has never had any other consciousness but individuality. That is how religions appeared with a dogmatic “truth” to follow (God is this) as well as a world, which supports that consciousness of individuality at all costs.
“You are German. You are Black. You are Hindu.” Let us make a division. Let us make a container where we could put everyone who looks alike in the same category. “All Jewish are this…” I am different…
In the meantime, some “individuals” could despise the word “omnipresent.” They could despise the craziness of believing that “I am omnipresent and so are you.”
Those individuals have all the right to do that. Their consciousness will not allow them to see something different.
All is good. 🙂
Ananda was riding his bicycle early in the morning to see the sun appear in the horizon. You could smell that freshness in the air, that newness which starts the day… Birds were flying and gliding by the waters of the bay, as the soothing sounds of Nature were filling that day with joy…Nevertheless, people were passing by walking, looking down, serious faces, completely unaware of the beautiful setting around them. That setting could be part of them if they just allowed that to happen… but no!…their personality has acquired such a “reality” that they may need for God to save them.
Exploring the Depth of Living 