TA
Most of the confusion, frustration and complaints around meditation ‘not working’ stems from the unfortunate ‘goal’ orientation it was assigned by misguided dharma and sadhana ‘teachers’ since ancient times.
Meditation is not a doing. It’s just Being.
Meditation is not supposed to lead anywhere. It’s just Being.
Meditation is not about ‘attaining’ a ‘state,’ any state. It’s just Being
Whether sitting in silence, walking or even working through your daily job, if you can notice you have thoughts & feelings, and then notice there is some kind of still awareness that is noticing those things, which itself is not another thought or feeling, just an unengaged, dispassionate Being-ness, you are ‘ace-ing’ meditation.
And you can notice that. Anyone can.
Anyone can tell that thoughts are thoughts and awareness is just awareness, not more thoughts. It’s the space of Being in which those thoughts can arise and pass.
Without that totally unengaged, still space, thoughts, feelings and body sensations may arise, but you would not know it. There must be an awareness there, too.
But unlike the thoughts and feelings, awareness is not arising and passing. It’s just always there, uninterested, unjudging, un-reacting, just pure noticing or observance.
It is the unmoving floor on which the dance is taking place, not the rising & passing of the dancer’s feet.
In meditation, calmness or joy may arise. They are just feelings. Not the awareness of those feelings. Calmness or joy may last for awhile after meditation, maybe even for hours or days. They will eventually pass. Even if you’ve been meditating hours every day for decades.
In meditation, ‘states’ and samadhis may arise. They are just ‘states.’ Not the awareness of those ‘states.’ Since they appear to be happening to an illusory separate and centralized “me” identity, they must also pass.
If in your meditation, you notice that still, impartial awareness, the absolute. emptiness/silence in between two thoughts, feelings, self-identifications, desires or judgments, even for just a moment, that’s meditation and you are doing it ‘correctly.’
What may happen is that those moments of noticing or even resting in that empty, still awareness may expand and sustain a bit longer. Or not.
What may also happen is you may become intrigued by the nature, quality or open bliss of that empty, still awareness, more intrigued than all that stuff passing through your thinking activity. Led by your intrigue, you may ‘fall into’ that empty, still awareness, like falling into a cool lake on a stifling day, with the thinking activity and even the”you” that was identifying with itself disappearing in pure awareness. Or not.
Since meditation not goal-oriented and there’s nothing to attain, it doesn’t matter.
Meditation is just Being, and being the awareness of just Being.
You’re doing it perfectly!
A
RS
Gita 16:8. They say; "This universe is unreal, without any foundation and without a Controller (Iśvara), brought about by mutual union, with lust for its cause; what else?”
Is this verse really addressing the modern community of atheists? The verse opens with the clarification that the suspects believe that the world is unreal - Verses 15 and 16 say that the group being criticized perform Yajñas – Vedic rituals, and offer charity through ostentation and for fame and gain.
Do atheists really engage in religious activities and is this general condemnation applicable to them all?
(One could also say the group being addressed are the Mimāṁsakas who were atheist ritualists.)
But the next verse clarifies what the problem is with the people being condemned:-
9. Holding this [atheistic] view, these embittered ruined people of deficient intellects commit many atrocities that lead to the destruction of the world.
So the problem is not atheism per se but the commission of atrocities that result in global harm.
The verses from 10 to 19 elaborate on their objectionable charactersistics.
- unjustly appropriating resources for self-gratification.
- committed to vicious resolutions through ostentation, pride and arrogance.
- regarding sense-gratification as their highest ideal
- determined to succeed through whatever execrable means possible
- Self-conceited, complacent, intoxicated with pride and wealth
Then verses 18, 19 say that, not only do they not believe in a God, but actively hate Krishna and lack all empathy and altruism and are hostile, cruel and the most contemptible of humankind.
So the conclusion is atheism is not the problem – because 4 of the classical schools of Hindu philosophy were non-theistic, the problem is their wicked and misanthropic behavior.
A
PF
This has to do with how one is aware. Humans tend to focus on that which they wish to be aware of, and by focusing their awareness they narrow it, and become only aware of that which they are focusing on, while becoming oblivious to everything else.
If one focuses on one’s thoughts, one becomes oblivious to everything else. It is not thoughts that make one do this - one chooses to focus, and one can focus on thoughts, on feelings, on sensations, on a passing dog, on a TV show, on anything.
The clarity comes from being aware of being, the entirety of being, or at least of however far one’s ability to be aware extends. This requires that one unfocuses. One is aware of being not by focusing awareness, but by resting in awareness.
This is the practice of meditation: resting in awareness. Awareness is not focused on anything specific, instead it encompasses and includes everything that arises. One learns how to be aware in an unfocused way, so that awareness expands, and one becomes aware of the entirety of one’s being. When this happens, clarity emerges.
A
A
RM
I think knowing about your past life can be helpful in understanding why events occur, or why patterns emerge. However, the most profound lesson I can offer is that while studying deep hypnosis sessions, people report that we choose our lifetimes, and choose the difficulties involved with those lifetimes, so that we can learn or teach lessons. By accessing that information, it allows me to see that I chose my previous lifetime or lifetimes, and that I chose this lifetime, and to see what they all have in common, or what the theme of my journey is. In that sense accessing a past life changes the future - because we can observe why things happened in the past, which changes our perception of things happening in the present, which will then change who we are in the future.
A
People who are open to experience have a lower risk of developing dementia, research finds.
People who are open to experience are more likely to be imaginative, sensitive to their feelings, intellectually curious and seekers of variety.
A
No comments:
Post a Comment