We act as though comfort and luxury were the chief requirements of life, when all that we need to make us really happy is something to be enthusiastic about. // Charles Kingsley
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Therapist Esther Perel on the importance of relationships: “Life will present you with unexpected opportunities, and you won't always know in advance which are the important moments. Above all, it's the quality of your relationships that will determine the quality of your life. Invest in your connections, even those that seem inconsequential.” — Tribe of Mentors
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suic note “Today, on my 47th birthday, I re-read the suicide note I wrote on my 27th birthday about two minutes before my girlfriend, Carol, showed up at my apartment and told me, ‘I’m pregnant.’ Her words were honestly the only reason I didn’t follow through with it. Suddenly I felt I had something to live for, and I started making positive changes. It’s been a journey, but Carol is now my wife and we’ve been happily married for 19 years. And my daughter, who is now a 21-year-old university student pursuing a degree in medicine, has two younger brothers. I re-read my suicide note every year on the morning of my birthday as a reminder to be grateful—I am grateful I got a second chance at life.”
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LONG BORING SHIFT
As silly as the work was, I would focus on it completely. I would organize the food samples, and talk to people and engage, and not allow myself to space out, daydream, stand around doing nothing.
Focusing on the task at hand, being completely present in the here and now, removed boredom and made time pass much faster. Incidentally, this is what meditation is: being present in the here and now.
My suggestion is: when you are at work - work.
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Survival of the friendliest? Why Homo sapiens outlived other humans
We once shared the planet with at least seven other types of human. Ironically, our success may have been due to our deepest vulnerability: being dependent on others
HUMANS today are uniquely alone. For the majority of the existence of Homo sapiens, we shared the planet with many other types of human. At the time when our lineage first evolved in Africa some 300,000 years ago, there were at least five others. And if you were going to place a bet on which of those would outlast all the rest, you might not have put your money on us.
The odds would have seemed more favourable for the Neanderthals, who had already adapted to live in colder conditions and expanded to inhabit much of Eurasia. Or Homo erectus, who had made a success of living in south-east Asia. By contrast, our direct Homo sapiens ancestors were the new kids on the block, and wouldn’t successfully settle outside of Africa until more than 200,000 years later. Yet, by 40,000 years ago, or possibly a bit more recently, we were the only humans left standing. Why?
Many explanations have been put forward: brainpower, language or just luck. Now, a new idea is building momentum to explain our dominance. Ironically, it may be some of our seemingly deepest vulnerabilities – being dependent on others, feeling compassion and experiencing empathy – that could have given us the edge.
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Forest ecologist Michał Bogdziewicz ponders ‘mast’ years, in which trees go nuts producing huge numbers of seeds, cones and acorns
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NOT A VILLAIN, JUST A DICK
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This question was originally asked in 2017, so by now, I’m sure this young questioner has long since followed his wealthy friends and gone for the gold and every material thing, and probably forgotten all about non-duality (which is good, ‘cause non-duality it not something to be ‘thought about’ or ‘remembered’:-) Or maybe in spite of his young age, our friend turned his back on the material world and disappeared into non-duality quite some time ago :-)
But this question is still repeated, quite often, by other ‘seekers’ here in 2020. So for any new readers, the answer is simple. As simple and direct as Pausha’s and Vikram Iyer, both great answers:
Even a little contemplation of the question reveals the breakdown instantly - the “I.”
Every time the questioner mentions I, the question immediately collapses.
“I want to sustain the state of non-duality”
”When I am alone, I can do it”
“When I get with friends, I admire their material wealth”
”Then. I wonder if my plan should be, get myself wealthy first, and later I will contemplate the self.
This person thinks non-duality is a ‘state’ (object,) that can be ‘attained’ (now or later:-) through his personal (subject) ‘contemplation.’
But the very definition of non-duality is totally devoid of subject and object. One not two.
An “I” can never sustain or even experience non-duality. That takes two - subject & object. If you think you are experiencing non-duality, you are not. The “you” would have had to completely disappear, and then, oops, no one around to have a subject-object experience.:😳
The questioner is still talking about experiences, all of which are still in the dream. ALL, no exceptions.
And the questioner is still talking about ‘becoming,’ not Being. Becoming something in some imagined future, that he is not already. Not content to Be What Is, Now.
Non-duality is just a concept. Being with Reality, this moment, without any human filters, is not a ‘state’ one can achieve, because it’s our natural ‘state.’
And since, when there are no ego/mind filters, there is no one there - just the One Reality - there’s your non-duality.
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To understand ‘something that is aware of gaps' you have to understand the difference between witnessing and witness.
In witnessing still there is subject - mind's ‘I' or duality or there is subtle traces of ego.
But the witness is beyond subject and object and that is none other than AWARENESS.
AWARENESS is is-ness (movie screen) where everything happens but nothing changes like the sky - clouds come and go but the sky remains as it is.
How should I proceed further now?
This part of the question is my concern because this part also shows your longing to progress and that is where we all tend to fail.
Why?
When you tend to strive for progress then you reinforce duality and this pushes you away from AWARENESS.
What is the solution? How will it work?
The gaps you experience are the gaps where the meditation happens or in a way you touch the AWARENESS. If you just ‘be' and don't try to do anything then these gaps will become larger and larger and one fine day one of the gaps will become permanent - you will enter NO-MIND.
NO-MIND- The permanent cessation of mind as master.
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“Nirvana means the ultimate enlightenment, the state when the ego disappears, when man is no more separate from existence — not even a thin curtain separates him, not even a transparent glass separates him — when all separation disappears. That meeting with the total, that merger with the whole, that melting into the absolute, is called nirvana.”
(Osho: ‘ Don’t Look Before You Leap’ Darshan Dairy 1978)
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“Enlightenment means exactly that: when meditation has become natural. You are meditative — not that you sit sometimes in meditation, not that you have a few hours of meditation every day — your whole time is meditative You move in meditation, you walk in meditation, you sit in meditation, you eat in meditation, you love in meditation, you do your businesses in meditation. Your whole life becomes surrounded by a new kind of energy. It is not NECESSARY, it is simply natural.
Enlightenment is nothing but your becoming light, your inner being becoming light.”
"…He is not conscious about enlightenment; he is simply conscious. He lives in consciousness, he sleeps in consciousness, he moves in consciousness. He lives, he dies in consciousness. Consciousness becomes an eternal source in him, a nonflickering flame, a nonwavering state of being. It is not an attribute, it is not accidental; it cannot be taken away. His whole being is conscious”.
(Osho: ‘ Yoga: The Alpha and the Omega ‘ vol 3 , 1976)
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So there are actually three samadhis. The first you may call atma samadhi, the second brahma samadhi, and the last nirvana samadhi. The very first and false samadhi you may call satori. This is the one you should guard against, because it is very easily attainable.”
(Osho: ‘ In Search of the Miraculous ‘ Vol 2 : ch 8. The Esoteric Dimensions of Tantra)
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While we pursue happiness, we flee from contentment. - Hasidic Proverb
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