Raising Self Instead of Trampling It Down.

Let each man raise the Self by Soul, not trample down his Self, since Soul that is Self's friend may grow Self's foe. Soul is Self's friend when Self does rule over Self, but Self turns enemy if Soul's own self hates Self as not itself.  B.G. 6:5  https://sacred-texts.com/hin/gita/bg06.htm

 Different translations from the Bhagavad Gita's 6:5

Elevate yourself through the power of your mind, and not degrade yourself for the mind can be the friend and also the enemy of the self. https://www.holy-bhagavad-gita.org/chapter/6/verse/5

Let a man lift himself up by his own Self alone, and let him not lower himself; for this Self alone is the friend of oneself,and this Self is the enemy of oneself. https://shlokam.org/bhagavad-gita/6-5/

Let a man be lifted up by his own self; let him not lower himself; for he himself is his friend, and he himself is his enemy. https://vivekavani.com/b6v5/

Hmm! Back to that line from the Gita that was swirling around in my head for days now. It has been translated from the original Sanskrit into English in different ways, as you can see.  Each translation is going to alter the meaning slightly.  I am thinking the translation that Michael Singer oftens refers to is the first one. So in this translation I see three concepts of self possibly in conflict: Self ( capitol S), self ( small s) and Soul.  It looks like the self ( little me, ego, maybe...the personalized mind) belongs to Soul...... and the Soul is the mediator between self and Self? So we are asked to  use Soul ( the individual essence of who we are) to raise the Self (the collective essence of who we are/ higher consciousness/impersonal mind), instead of trampling down the Self/self with Self? Soul is pleased when Self has control of Self ( mind maybe) but if self hates Self...refuses to see itself as Soul because it is so wrapped up in personal mind maybe, if shamer ego has the reins...then there is a conflict between Self and Soul.

 Let's put that into easier to follow words: 

It is all about listening to soul over ego, impersonal mind over personal.  For us  to grow...as we are here to do... we must  befriend who we are in all our forms. We don't beat any part of ourselves up (trample down)... Most of us are still so over identified with the "little me"...the ego self ...the personal mind... that we don't even acknowledge the soul or the Self.  We are lost in the "me" drama.This little self grows under this attention to the point it is who we believe ourselves to be at the expense of coming to know  who we truly are ...a soul seeking to embrace Self.  The self  begins, then, to run the show...self rules over Self, personal mind rules over impersonal mind. This, of course, interrupts soul's mission here.  This is one of the ways we accumulate karma. 

Don't trample down "little me" either

Sometimes this "little me" is not kind to itself. Sometimes it even hates itself.  Speaking in terms of the psychological ideas of self concept and self esteem , which may not be important to the Self ( the light of consciousness), we can often trample down ourselves with our negative self talk etc. So not only are we lost in an ego ...we are lost in a very self abusive one. We beat ourselves up, we trample our selves down.  We live in the lower negative  energies and that is what we use the light of Self to shine on. What a waste of precious energy. We take this amazing powerful light of awareness and shine it down on this little speck we call me and when we are not liking what we see, we see only the negative. 

Karmic Effect

We may not care for the  body, mind and energy  Soul is in, in a positive way. This accumulates karma, as well.   It is important to note that both karma and the law of attraction are real universal laws. The law of attraction works both ways. If our focus is on the negative, we will attract negative circumstances into our lives. (Even if this seems like utter woo-woo,  think about that for a minute. How many positive things happen to you and around you when you are having a real bad day? If you are miserable inside, you see only miserable things around you, right? You are more likely to stub your toe and curse the world for putting whatever that was in your way. You are more likely to bonk your horn at the person driving too slow in front of you, or  snap at someone you love...causing some extra conflict and  negative karma there, right?   Your thoughts and feeling about yourself are also negative so you are less likely to embrace opportunity  and reach your full potential etc. It is just the way it works. )  If we are still over identified with little me's drama we will continue to react negatively  with our thought, feelings, actions and energies to the "negative"  things unfolding...increasing our karmic accumulation  of negative!  It becomes a vicious cycle and it keeps us down, spinning our tires in the mud. 

Self and Soul in the Trampling Down Drama

The Self...universal consciousness...gets glued to this drama even though Soul may be crying out, "No! Don't do that! Raise yourself up out of this pit.  You are so much more than this!" Soul's voice is often drowned out by the sound of spinning tires and Self's glued attention to the mess it is in,  that we don't hear it. Until we listen to this sage advice, "Raise yourself up with soul!"...we are going to be stuck in the karmic loop. Until Self takes its attention away from looking down at self and raises it up into the  spaciousness of what is, we are going to be stuck.  Soul will not evolve as quickly as it could if we simply used it, recognized who we really were, and shone that light of Self upward. 

Though we are here to get beyond self to Self ...this collective higher consciousness...the unity of all...that doesn't mean we are to trample  this mental entity of self, which was created on the individual soul that came here to evolve beyond it, down. We need to raise up Self ...our awareness, our consciousness, by  getting passed this "me" focus and acknowledging the soul within us.  We can start by being more positive.  But not positive in The Secret way. Most of us believe we are being more positive when we don't give up on or dreams and fantasies of getting those things we believe will make us feel good inside. When we say, "Look at how positive she is.  She didn't give up on her dreams of becoming a musician.  She worked hard and struggled everyday, barely surviving, losing her family,  to get that record deal. That's positive.", we got positivity all wrong.

The True Positivity

That is not the kind of positive I am talking about.  True positivity is being able to accept what is  unfolding in front of us, as it is, without being disturbed by any of it. It is all about being open and receptive to all Life offers.   True positivity  doesn't require that we get something out there to make us feel better in here; it means we are able to find peace with what is. We accept we have a self, an ego, a little me that is far from kind to itself.  We learn to have tolerance and compassion for that little me even though we begin the process of detaching from it. We break up with it in kindness.  We counter the self abuse. We meet ego's needs to some extent.  But more importantly we meet the needs of the soul.  We listen to the soul and use Life and whatever it unfolds in front of us as a tool for helping the soul to expand and grow the way it is meant to. We take the Self...the light of consciousness...and shine it away from "me" onto Soul so we can see who we truly are.  Once we recognize what we are...there will be no more trampling down of the self, or Self, or Soul. There will be no more conflict between between Soul, self,  and Self....just harmony. And when self is no longer there in the way, there will be nothing but  sat chit ananda: eternal, conscious bliss.

Hmm!  That was quite a ramble. It might not make a lot of sense now but I will get back to it.

All is well in my world.

Michael A. Singer/ Temple of the Universe ( September 24, 2023) Consciousness and the Personal Mind. https://tou.org/talks/

Bhagavad Gita 6: 5 ...translations from sources above.

Sharing One Impersonal Mind

Raise yourself and the whole world will change.

Michael A. Singer

Okay...this sounds absolutely crazy, I know,  but I feel I have this bizarre connection with Michael Singer. It is like I am thinking or writing about the exact things he talks about after I think , speak about or write these exact things.  Cra Cra, I know. Most of you would say: 

"It is just coincidence , crazy lady!" 

Maybe, it is just coincidence...because in truth, I do not know much. It is getting to the point, however,  I can almost predict certain things he is going to say in his podcasts.  Today I was thinking about raising self with Self, from the Gita,  trying to figure out how I am going to transcend this stuff my personal mind tells me I am tangled up in. This little "self" was feeling overwhelmed and defeated, beat down, as it was so focused on meeting the needs of others it was feeling at the bottom of everyone's priority list including my own...it was being trampled down. I was being so hard on this little self, in my desire to be rid of it,  when it needed a bit of compassion etc. I knew that  though getting rid of self...personal mind... was important...I couldn't do it in a wholesome way by beating it down farther.   Self needed to be raised. I wrote this  down on a piece of paper beside me: "Raise Self" and even spoke to D. about it.  I said  to D. this morning  something to the effect. "Things around me seem to be overwhelming. Though I know it is all about getting beyond the  "self",  I know I can't keep denying the needs of self. I need to raise this Self above all this somehow so things change." I knew the so called "problems" were in my personal mind only.  Yes, Life is doing what it was doing and it seems like a lot but it isn't as personal as personal mind was making it. I also knew I was working off karma...the negative energy experience, I was accumulating with negative thinking. I also knew and spoke to D. about finding a way to peace... not by doing something out there that would make me feel better in here but by redirecting my focus to what is really important. Again I stressed in my mind , on paper, and to D. these exact words: "I have to raise myself above this for the benefit of all."

Then I sat down with my tea to listen ...knowing somehow that this is what would be spoken about.  I was convinced he was going to quote those lines from the Gita: raise self with Self.  Even when the podcast was at 50 minutes, with one minute left to spare,  somehow I knew he was going to say something about "raising self" and sure enough, he finished off with the above line. I looked at my paper that said "Raise Self" and it was like yeah...it really happened. 

You see, regardless if this was mere coincidence or not, there is a personal mind but beyond that there is an impersonal mind. The personal mind  is just an object that consciousness can focus on.  And the kooky thing is , though our personal minds differ greatly, we are all using the same impersonal mind so why wouldn't these thoughts be occurring at the same time from one so called  person to another.  Huh?  Well beyond the personal mind...beyond the separate "me" ideation...there is no separation is there? That seperate me is just a thing the mind made up. This big amazing light of consciousness is something we all share, something we all are. It only seems personal when I shine it on "me".  Take it off "me" focus and amazing things can happen. Hmm! Something to think about. 

All is well. 

Michael A. Singer/ Temple of the Universe. ( Sept 24, 2023) Consciousness and the Personal Mind. https://tou.org/talks/

Letting Go

 If I let go of what is making me unhappy, I am happier.  If I let go of what is pulling me down, I go higher.

Michael Singer

Isn't that the simple truth, eh?  We are here to let go. Yet most of us still have such a hard time letting go. Or knowing what it is that we are supposed to let go of. I think we need to let go of these ideas of "bad, wrong, shouldn't be" or even "good, right, should be" for :It is what it is and I will make the most of it.  I will let go of my resistance, my thinking it should be other than what it is and I will serve whatever this is.

Life changing!

All is well.

Michael A. Singer/ Temple of the Universe ( September 21, 2023) Working Through Your Stuff. https://tou.org/talks/

Memory and Karma

Karma means both action and memory. There is no memory without action and no action without memory.

Sadhguru

All is well! 

Honoring the Teacher

 Teacher

 
Monkey kings
bow their head in reverence,
while once studious and
well mannered students,
 clap and wave their arms about.
The teacher
speaks  only briefly to lessons
reduced to  fading words
and symbols  on
yellowed scripts,
translated and transmuted
into concepts that
hold  only grains
of the sand
Truth is.
 
Once a disillusioned  Indian Prince,
a humble Jewish carpenter,
a Saudi travelling merchant
 and the face of so many others
who have looked directly into the divine,
the teacher stands before us,
an accumulated morphing
 of centuries of shed outfits and forms,
 different languages and pointers
with only one lesson to share.
 
The weary teacher has  traveled far
along the silk road to the east,
the busy industrial path to the west,
over mountains and through dessert,
through  rice patty and through ocean,
through golden lined streets
and war -torn rubble,
to stand here today.
 
 
The teacher teaches,
not so much with what is said
but by what is embodied
within this meager form
that is worn as a cloak
around all that is.
The lesson is taught through
slow purposeful steps,
inspired speech,
and a light that shines
so brilliantly
from eyes that
offer Love to all of us
who so desperately want to know
what the teacher is here to teach.

© Dale-Lyn (Pen),  June 2020

Hmm! I was reminded of this poem I wrote a few years ago, Teacher,  upon doing two things: Firstly, I watched the mini series on Netflix called ,The Chosen, about Jesus choosing his disciples. Of course, he is referred to as "Teacher". It is historically very realistic in the fact that the actors are not blonde with blue eyes but actually look middle eastern lol. Though it doesn't refer to Jesus during those lost years from 12-30 where it is likely he travelled to the East along the Silk Route, it did show him able to speak fluid egyptian to a believer.  

Secondly, I am reading:  The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda. In the short time that he taught in the late 1800's he was all about pointing out the need to recognize the  unifying oneness in all religions.  He was also trying to explain Hinduism to his country's oppressors at the time. So I wrote the poem...not knowing exactly why I wrote it and then this. 

...the whole world of religions is only a travelling, a coming up, of different men and women, through various conditions and circumstances, to the same goal. Every religion is only evolving a God out of the material man, and the same God is inspirer of all of them. 

And when I read this...I was definitely reminded of my poem and felt compelled to put it up again (even if it is only bots chewing at it like termites lol.  I have learned to not resist these strong compulsions:) ) 

The star arose in the East; it travelled steadily towards the West, sometimes dimmed and sometimes effulgent, till it made a circuit of the world; and now it is again rising on the very horizon of the East...a thousand fold more effulgent than it ever was before. 

Anyway, it is what it is.  All is well.

The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda, Kindle Edition

Netflix Series, The Chosen

Note:  If there is anyone out there reading this, please do not try to comment on this like I recently requested.  I do not want you to pick up these termites!

Putting Down the Burden; Accepting What Is

 We must let go of the life we have planned, as to accept the one that is waiting for us. 

Joseph Campbell

Is Life Suffering or Bliss?

Only A Burden in the Mind!

Another serendipitous happening from Life, I suppose.  I did this video yesterday, when I randomly opened to the question:  Is Life suffering or is Life bliss? And I answered it.  Was debating if I should put this one up today or another one waiting on my channel related to Karma.  Opening up to this video made the choice for me. 

So many of us see Life as a great burden we have to carry. ( I wrote a poem about that once...will see if I can find it.) Life isn't a burden...nor is it misery or even bliss really. Those are just adjectives the mind attaches to something that really cannot be adjectivized.  Life just is what it is, a very impersonal but amazing process we get to observe, participate in and experience. 

Life becomes a burden or misery when we pick it up and call it ours. We listen to the mind, that really knows nothing, when it tells us Life should be a certain way to accommodate our "little me's" agenda.  We decide what is right, good and "should be" in Life and pull that in and we decide what is wrong, bad and shouldn't be and push that away. Our hearts  become like selectively  permeable membranes on a cell ...allowing only so much in and closing to the rest. We spend more of this limited time in these carnations reflecting and resisting life rather than experiencing it. Instead of just allowing all of  Life, which knows a heck of a lot more about what is good for us than we will ever know, to come in we try to manipulate, control and get from it only that which we deem as pleasant. Man we live only slithers of a life when we do that. 

Our souls are here to expand, grow and evolve not constrict, regress and hide. Surrendering to Life, accepting and allowing what is to be what it is...takes away the burden.  It takes away the misery...so we can live the lives we were meant to live...fully and with truth as our ally not our foe.

Hmmm!

All is well.

Michael A. Singer/ Temple of the Universe ( September 18, 2023) Living Your Life without Burden. https://tou.org/talks/

Self Talk and the Battling Twins

 Self talk is the most powerful form of communication because it either empowers you or defeats you.

Unknown

Do you ever notice the battle going inside you between shaming self talk and redeeming self talk? I call it the battle of the ego twins: Shamer ego and Redeemer Ego. Shamer is hell bent on making you feel small and deserving of punishment, Redeemer is determined to puff you up and make you bigger than most.  Both are components of ego. 

Oh the ego twins are  still around and they are constantly squabbling in me.  I see them when I witness my human imperfection .  Redeemer Ego wants "me" to appear a certain way to the world.  It has a set of expectations and rules for "me" that it wants me to adhere to.  It wants redemption. It wants to put "Shamer" ego in its place.  So...when I goof up, fail to keep up with appearances and expectations...Shamer ego steps in pretty quickly to put Redeemer in its place. Back and forth the two bicker and compete.  It is quite sad and  quite funny  to watch lol.

I just viewed a couple of videos from many years ago. I started doing videos in 2017...I am not even sure why.  Just had this great compulsion to do so when I knew I would soon be leaving my professional job as  college educator. As an educator, Redeemer Ego was fed, seemingly lifting me up and away from shame. I was meeting a lot of ego's expectations in that role. Shamer was quieted. The prospect and then the reality of  stepping back from that role, however, swatted redemption away and  fed Shamer ego. I felt ashamed of my inability to maintain this role and identity. So Redeemer wanted to fight back with some semblance of, "Well you can teach here! You can do this! You can still identify as an educator.You can still feed "me" and this Self you seem to want to pull up from the background at the same time! "  So I started doing videos about what I was studying and learning...mostly so I could swat away Shamer and feed Redeemer.

I mean, I love to teach and I love to speak.  It is usually very natural and spontaneous for me.  It brings me joy. Doing it "perfectly" was never something I strived to do.  I made mistakes, screwing up words, mispronouncing, doing other silly things. I would quickly point my own mistakes out ( if I caught them. If I didn't the students were sure to point them out :) ) and we would often laugh over them. Still...I was a very effective educator.  It felt so natural to me. It wasn't so natural and easy  in the beginning of making these videos though. I couldn't see the students sitting before me. I didn't have that feedback so I often didn't catch my little goof ups until I reviewed the videos afterwards.  And I am perfectly okay with little goof ups...it makes me and the process more real...but the ego twins weren't okay with it.  lol. Now, I am much more comfortable speaking in these videos, mostly becasue my desire to "impress" and my need to keep up with appearances is greatly diminished. 

It surprised me, then, considering how much I have grown since those years the videos were made, that Shamer still had something to say about my imperfections in them.  It surprised me that I was still reacting to that negative self talk.  As I was watching, I heard the reprimands from Shamer; I felt my belly cringing, my face blushing; and I wanted nothing more than to go to You tube to private those videos and to take them off my site here. Shamer was still attached to the memory, maybe ?? Anyway, I could also feel and hear Redeemer wanting to come back in to save the day. I felt very reactive!! I took a deep breath and just watched what was going on in my mind, the twins in action. Instead of being between them, I took a step back out of the ring. I created distance.  

In that moment of clarity, I made a decision to leave the videos where they were...with all my apparent "imperfections" as a speaker so evident...(one can even hear my old dog snoring loudly in the background). I said to myself...this is perfect in its imperfection!!! Both Shamer and Redeemer were quieted when I became the Observer , rather than the referee. :) 

I am going to encourage you, as well,  to become aware of the presence of battling twins inside you and instead of putting on the black and white shirt and jumping in the ring between them...just stand back and watch.  They will stop fighting on their own when we refuse to feed either of them.  Also...don't be afraid to witness your own imperfections as a human being when it comes to 'creating appearances'. Appearances mean nothing! What we see as imperfect is simply just the failure of the twins getting their way. 

All is well. 

Transcending the Big Noise Karma Makes

The time has come for human beings to transcend the distorting lens of karma-the lens that makes them confuse the projection for the real, their fragmented memory-driven psychological creation for the incredible majesty of life itself. page 57

Some great tidbits of wisdom from Sadhguru. Too perfectly said to paraphrase. 

Karma is one big noise. If you cannot hear it, it is simply because right now you are accustomed to listening to the other world.  page 52

Everything that ever happened on this planet is still remembered by your body, because your body is  just a piece of this planet.  page 53

...life is about seeking what is there, not about seeing what you want to see. page 57

The genetic memories are not inherently positive or negative. It is how we deal with them that makes the difference. We carry the memories of our ancestors within us. But whether this memory has become a source of bondage or one of advantage depends on how much distance we created from it.  page 62

For the yogi, the discernment of the body has nothing to do with personal attraction or aversion, craving or recoil, likes or dislikes.  The body, for the yogi, is as clinical and impersonal as a barometer-it does not judge; it simply perceives. pg 71

Karma sets a boundary for you. When that boundary becomes too comfortable, it is time to start becoming vigilant. pg 73

All is well in my world. 

Sadhguru ( 2021) Karma: A Yogi's Guide to Crafting Your Destiny. New York: Harmony Books.

The Reasons for Wanting to Understand Karma.

 

The essence of everything you consider to be yourself is karmic.

Sadhguru, page 53

I realize my quest to understand karma may be actually adding karma weight  to this heavy Albatross I am already wearing around my neck. Though I may have progressed somewhat beyond the "it is all about me" motive, I still want to understand karma for personal reasons.  When I started on this mission, I was caught up in the "Why is this 'suffering' happening to me and what can I do about it?" conundrum. I was so focused on the melodrama of this 'little me. 'I felt I, as it,  was being punished by life and I wanted to know why. More importantly, I wanted to know how I could  change it. That is why I wanted to look deeply into this idea of karma.  It is actually why I began this so called 'spiritual journey' in the first place.  It was very, very personal. What I thought I was a concept I was very much attached to. 

Since I began this journey, however, a lot of 'me' has been peeled away by the winds of life and by my committed practice. I see how sick this 'little me' is, how disturbed the mind is, how responsible it is for my experience of Life. I am really getting it...finally...that this form and mind I am is only one of 8 billion similar forms and minds and God knows how many beings in total. It definitely, definitely is not all about me! Infact, I am beginning to see that there is no "me" anywhere but in the mind.  So what is happening to this 'me' is not personal. What is left of my egoic  mind still  makes it personal with its reactions. I still have quite a bit of egoic mind left.  That mind questions, albeit less selfishly,: How does karma come  about for 'us' humans and what can we do about it?

There is still a bit of "me, my and mine"  when I speak about karma. Sigh!

Still, I am progressing. I have also progressed from wanting karma to change and life to get easier  to accepting what is and seeing the higher purpose in it. ( Don't get me wrong...I would still very much like Life to get easier lol...please, please throw me a bone... but I am not dependent on it getting easier before I accept what is, before I accept my karma.) 

Right now, I am at the point where I am accepting that if this is my karma, if this is something that needs to be burned or worked off through all these challenging situations for the betterment of those that came before me and those that will come after me...so be it. I will gladly go through it.  If my so called suffering is serving a higher purpose, I welcome this type of karma. I do. I am just looking for validation that it is. ( I hate to think that it is all happening unnecessarily because of something my unevolved self is doing or not doing, you know?) 

Hmm! Confusing I know.  Don't get hung up, though, on the reasons  this form and mind that is writing this is trying to understand karma...understand it for yourself, for the freedom it will give you.  All these things we are truly learning on this spiritual journey are taking us to freedom...right? Even this weight around my neck is offering freedom...maybe not so much for this false identity of 'me' but for the realization of Self beneath the me. 

Anyway, how I ramble.

Sadhguru ( 2021) Karma: A Yogis Guide to Crafting Your Destiny. New York: Harmony Books

Stop Staring at the Mess

 You are the greatest thing that ever walked the face of the earth. You are just staring at something that's not.

Michael A. Singer 

We need to stop staring at the mess we made and realize what we are: the Observer not the observed, spacious peaceful presence, and Sat Chit Ananda ( Eternal, conscious bliss).  We are consciousness and consciousness is everything.  We are not that mess we are staring at. 

All is well. . 

Michael A. Singer/ Temple of the Universe (September 14, 2023) Embracing Reality-Inside and out.https://tou.org/talks/

Image, Karma and the Fruits of our Actions

 

Thy right is to work only, but never to its fruits; let not the fruit of action be they motive, nor let they attachment be to inaction. 

Bhagavad Gita 2:47 (https://shlokam.org/bhagavad-gita/2-47/)

Are images really treacherous? 

I am not sure if  images are treacherous, but they can  definitely be  deceptive. A little look at the stats page, for example,  creates an amazing image for the ego, of a blog well read and "successful" in outer world terms. Thanks to some Singaporean bots(assuming that is what they are) it shows that I have had 28,500 views  already this month and the month is just starting.  Imagine! (Only months before I would have been thrilled with 285 views in an entire month.)

Is this image of blogging success real? 

No...like so many images we attach meaning to in this world, this image  isn't real.  The bot activity on the stats page creates an image that creates a surface illusion of success according to the requirements of the  surface illusion of the material world, that feeds the surface illusion of an ego. All just one big surface  illusion. The numbers are there on this image  in plain black and white, that is real, but what they are pointing to is  not real...I am not what is deemed as a "successful  blogger."  There has not been that many readers ( Google analytics is very quick to put ego in its place lol) . 

The thing is, even if those numbers were legitimate, would that make the image of success real? No...it would just be pointing to a number of clicks onto certain pages.  These clicks of the finger do not mean that the entries were read. And even if they were read? That does not mean that the effort I put into creating these entries was received in a way I would want them to be received, does it? Sure it may herald a certain "success" in blogger terms...which is all about the numbers... about the number of clicks rather than the number of readers...but not in "real" terms...in reaping the fruit of my action terms. 

Fruits of Action Beyond the Image

What fruit am I hoping to reap by my actions here? What I want to do here; what I want to pass on goes way beyond the creation of an image ( which is a good thing considering this blog creates a far from  perfect image lol), and beyond getting a certain number on my stats page. It even goes beyond getting a certain number of people to genuinely read my blog in order to get something from it. Infact, it isn't about the fruit, it is about the action itself. 

Let not the fruit of action be they motive

Still Not Evolved...

Writing is like that for me. I write to write.  Don't get me wrong...I  can still see a big fat greedy ego that wants to gain a certain recognition and success as a writer, that wants to earn some money as a writer lurking around in my psyche. I am not that evolved yet.  I even caught myself  trying to convince myself initially that the spikes on the stats page were legitimate lol.  I was falling in love with the image created there...willing to be deceived by it. The thought of being successful as a writer/teacher ( just identities that reveal I am far from evolved) and the thoughts of reaping the fruits of my actions here ( getting paid and out of this financial slump) were enticing. So I was kind of enjoying the image and was willing to be deceived by it.

...but no longer attached to the fruit.

Still, I knew it was not real.  I knew if these fruits ego was wanting me to gain by writing showed up in my life, they would not sustain who I was beyond the "me" . I knew they were not enough to keep me from enjoying and doing what I do, regardless of outcome. Regardless of what the numbers show on this page...legitimate or not...I would still come here everyday to do what I do. I am so glad to know I have a right to this work, even if I don't have a right to its fruits. 

Eckhart Tolle in the below video link tells us that when we release the attachment to the fruits of our actions and serve and offer because we find joy in what we do,we release ourselves from the  hold of negative karma and may someday even reap the rewards of positive karma.  Sometimes, the fruit will show up ripened in our lives naturally when our motivation is pure  But like most karma,we  may not see the results right away...we might not even  see it in this life time. There are so many writers who struggled through their incarnations with the hope of being known...and who only found their ideas of success post humously.  I would be okay with that.  

I do not need to be known in this life time  but if what I do here will benefit others after I die, that would be great.  I often come here with this little thought chirping in my head..."I  may not get  readers  when I am alive, but maybe after I pass on, someone will have the sense to come here and see what I was spending so much of my earthly time doing, read it, appreciate it and get something of value from it. Maybe my children who are also struggling financially will earn some money from selling something I wrote."

Regardless if  a cent is earned on this that I write,or not,  now or posthumously. If I have no more than ten readers total since inception; if I continue to be viewed by no more than bots....it is okay.  I will not get lost in an image of success and I will continue to write, learn and teach for the sheer joy of it. The fruits of action will never be my motive. I come here to write, just to come here to write.  

Anyway, I thought of that this afternoon and thought I would share. Why? Because I love the action. The fruits of my action are secondary, if anything significant at all. 

All is well

Nerdwriter 1 (2015?) What is the Treachery of Images? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=atHQpANmHCE

Eckhart Tolle (May, 2023) What is Karma Yoga?...The Bhagavad Gita. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K3YRKMB-TIg&t=3s

Ways to Wash Away Karma

 

Reaction and non action both create karma, but conscious action transcends it. 

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar

You can also transcend the seeds of your karma by becoming independent of it. The way you do this is to keep experiencing the Self, your spirit, by going into silent meditation and coming out again. This is like washing a dirty piece of cloth in a stream of water. Each time you wash it, you take away a few stains, and it gets a little cleaner.

Deepak Chopra

All is well!

Is Your Life Suffering or Bliss?

 Ultimately, Life is neither suffering or bliss. It is what you make it. 

Sadhguru

Wow! I just finished reviewing Chapter Two of the below book.  It was probably the most profound of all the chapters and it took me a long time to get through all the highlighting. There is so much to understand conceptually.  I don't know where to even start in summarizing it all. The above quote helps! I also looked into my man Eckhart to see what he had to say about karma.

This is what I have come to understand so far: 

Living in Suffering or Bliss?

 Sure there is karma in our lives...some unconscious pattern of mentally, physically and energetically reacting to life...but ...what we need to know is  that we have a choice in whether we let this karmic reactivity determine the course of our lives or not. We have a choice to continue suffering as identification with  the resisting and reactive mind will ensure,  or to live in bliss, as living in  presence will ensure. Sure we may feel trapped and tangle dup in sme negative karma now, but we can take the reins from karma and control our own journey's forward. 

How do we do that? 

We can transcend and even put an end to accumulation of karma through three things: our recognizing , our volition, and our commitment to living in presence, and awareness.  We  start with recognizing what we are doing and seeing how it only keeps us stuck. Karma is accumulated by our internal tendencies...by the mind and identification with form.  Know that.  Karma, according to Tolle and so many others is more about reaction than action.  How are you reacting and resisting life?  ( and yeah...you are!!) Recognize that.  Be vigilant! Ask yourself: Has what I have been doing so far been effective in leading me to bliss, or is it keeping me in suffering? See how entrenched you are in habit mind, in your wanting and not wanting.  See how you are selectively choosing from life what you will allow in, and how you are resisting the rest. See how this only adds more negative karma to your life...more suffering! Observe your mind and see how you are creating your own karma!

Next use your volition ( effort and will) to break through this compulsive and cyclic  wheel, this habitual way of reacting to life.  Again be aware of what you are thinking, feeling; what you are saying and doing; and what you experiencing energetically ( I am a little stuck on that one...not too aware ,as of yet, of my energetic contribution to my life). Is it wholesome? Is it skillful?  Be willing to notice, water, and nourish the seeds that will bring peace and bliss into your life (and that means the lives of others as well...eventually we will see that it isn't 'all about me'...we will see that it isn't about 'me' at all because 'me' is only a mental concept that keeps us entangled in karma.).  Be willing to notice and remove the weeds that will contaminate your physical, mental and energetic garden. What seeds are you watering in your mind? What weeds are you pulling out by the roots?  Keep your physical, mental, and energetic garden wholesome and nutritious enough to offer much needed sustenance to a hungry world. This takes effort and will and continuous vigilance.  

After putting in the will and the effort to stop acting/reacting through selfish, compulsive and habitual mind tendencies which create negative karma and nourishing the thoughts, actions and energies that allow for positive karma, you need to become still, attentive, and aware as you observe life and how you are reacting to it through presence. Then instead of selectively resisting any of it, make a commitment to become an active participant in the great molecular dance of the cosmos, accepting all of it inclusively. 

How do we participate fully in life rather than the half hearted way we have been doing in order to avoid karma?  We embrace all of life, not through an identity as a seperate little self, but as Self.  We fall beyond our roles, our identification with "me", our attachment to worldly things (including the 'fruits of our actions') and we become present and aware. We approach Life as the Observer of this 'little me' going around making a mess of things. ...knowing that is not who we are. And we open up to Life in presence rather than in ego.  

There is no karma accumulation at the higher levels of consciousness and awareness.  In presence we will be free.

Anyway, that is what I picked up so far in my studying of "karma". 

All is well. 

Eckhart Tolle (May, 2023) What is Karma Yoga?...The Bhagavad Gita. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K3YRKMB-TIg&t=3s

Eckhart Tolle ( July 25, 2023) The Negative Impact of Karmic Action. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CiMZFfJOgis&t=12s

Eckhart Tolle( Jan, 2023) You Can Go Beyond Karma. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UgSPEkD16ss

Sadhguru ( 2021) Karma: a Yogi's Guide to Creating Your Destiny.  New York: Harmony Books.

Knowledge versus Knowing; Concept versus Reality

 

The famous pipe. How people have reproached me for it! And yet, could you stuff my pipe? No, it is just a representation, is it not?  So if I had written on my picture, "This is a pipe", I'd have been lying. 

Rene Magritte

Ironically, I pulled out this question yesterday and I think it is well suited to the last entry on reality vs concept. 

All is well 

Have a look at this:

Nerdwriter 1 (2015?) What is the Treachery of Images? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=atHQpANmHCE

The Concept is Not Reality

 Am I here to change it [reality] or is it here to change me?

Michael A. Singer

That is one of the greatest questions we can ask on our journey to truth. There is nothing wrong with truth.  Reality is not a difficult thing we have to endure.  It is the mind that makes reality into a problem...into something that needs to be manipulated and controlled, fixed and altered...escaped...pushed away, avoided. It is the mind that does that. 

How ? It creates concepts.Concepts are just projections of reality, not reality. You need to have a look at this on Magritte's famous image, Ceci n'est pas une pipe/ This is not a pipe painting: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=atHQpANmHCE

We get so hung up in our concepts, believing them to be reality, we fail to see and experience reality for what it is. Reality is just reality.  It has a heritage, Singer tells us. It has to follow the laws of cause and effect. 

What is must be because it is the result of all that was...

Yet we want it to be the way we want it to be don't we?  We form these concepts in our mind...these ideas...these mere projections of a made up reality and wrap them all up into a model of who we believe we are and how we believe the world should be to suit us...and we expect reality to match that.  When this reality which is a result of billions of years of evolution...the effect of an infinite number of causes ( that have nothing to do with us) doesn't match this model we freak out, don't we?  This is our suffering. 

Most of these concepts that we created and which make up our psyche model are fear based.  What we want from reality is " for things to be the way that doesn't hurt me."  It is all about "me and my fears", isn't it? So when change comes, if we are basing our sense of life experience on these mixed up schematas in our heads, we are going to resist, struggle against, grasp and cling, prefer, push away etc. This leads to suffering.  It isn't reality... that is just doing what it is doing becasue of too many causes to count...it is attachment to this model in our head that is the problem.  What we need to do instead is say to reality, 

"With this act of change take from me what is afraid of the change!" 

The problem is not reality.  The problem is what we did in our minds. If we keep clinging to our un real concepts, we will suffer endlessly and needlessly.  We ( as these "me"s)  need to get out of the way. Reality can help us do that.

All is well. 

Nerdwriter 1 (2015?) What is the Treachery of Images? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=atHQpANmHCE

Michael A. Singer/ Temple of the Universe ( September 11, 2023) Choosing Reality.https://tou.org/talks/

Understanding Karma

 When there is no "I", there is no Karma.

Ramana Maharshi

Okay...I want to start understanding karma better.  I want to take the book from Sadhguru and analyze it a bit better using other resources as I do.  May take some time. Bear with me. 

What is karma?

Karma simply means action and when we think of the  existential mechanism of Karma ( Sadhguru) we see there are  consequences for our physical, mental and energetic actions. What we do or say, what we think or feel, and how our energy is expressed determines the course of our lives. 

Purely Internal

Contrary to what most of us believe, karma is not something that is determined 'out there'  as a reward and punishment system for our actions.  It is purely internal.  Though something else seems to be pushing your buttons.  Someone else seems to be driving the car...(Sadhguru, page 14)....this is not the case. It is this continual oscillating and repetition of thoughts, feelings, behavioral and energetic tendencies that are attracting things to us and/or pushing them away. 

Ram Dass reminds us that "Our karma is our mind". And Sadhguru says:..."your mind shapes the way you experience the world around you. This becomes your karma- an orientation to life you have created for yourself in relative unawareness. (page 9) He goes on to say, the unconscious mind is a tremendous library of karmic memory...(page 12). 

Responsible

Our minds, to me, are like fans spinning around sucking things in and pushing things back and away. We are doing it all unconsciously, not aware of how we generated these patterns that got the fan spinning, not seeing the roots of our karmic tendencies...just reaping the fruit and saying "WTFork? Why does this type of thing keep happening to me?" And the fan keeps picking up momentum the longer we are stuck in these compulsive and unconscious habits.We have to see we are the makers of our own karma and are therefore the creators of our lives. We have to know we are responsible for our own destinies if we want to shut the fan off, or at least slow it down. 

What got this karma fan moving? 

We accumulate "impressions" over the years based on the massive amount of input we take in from our senses. This creates our psyches, our tendency to think, feel, act a certain way. It also affects our energy. If the impression is strong, it may create a samskara which in turn will create a blockage in our energy body (pranamayakosha) and this will disturb the natural flow of shakti through us adding to our karmic consequences. We see life through this veil of psyche, through these thoughts, feelings, through these energy blockages and "react" accordingly creating consequences for these action choices.This creates a cyclical effect.  Life responds to our thoughts, feelings, words, actions and energy expressions by giving us more of the same. It feeds the fan we set in motion. We turned the fan on and both life and our own reactions to life keep the fan moving. 

Do I stink? 

Another way of looking at how karma determines our lives is through Vasana. Vasana is the type of karmic smell we emit......what moves toward you and what moves away from you are determined by the smell that emanates from you.  Your vasana depends, of course, entirely on the kind of residual memory or karmic content you carry. (page 18). 

All we have accumulated over the years of our existence in this life and the others has a fragrance to it. Though this smell  is neither good or bad in existential terms, our human minds may have to see it as such to understand it. Maybe  our thoughts, feelings, deeds and energy expression were helpful to humanity creating a very lovely fragrance that we emit. Or maybe they led to less than positive karma accumulation leaving an offensive smell.  We might smell like roses or we might smell like garbage based on an accumulation of past actions in this life or another. The garbage smell may keep the pleasant at bay and attract the predators ( challenging and unwholesome life circumstances) and the roses may attract the admirers ( the wholesome and easy life experiences). 

So how do we stop it or slow it down? Go Beyond Mind, Body and Energy to the Self

Sadhguru reminds us that are five bodies ( physical, mental, energetic, etheric and bliss body) and that karma only takes place in and effects the first three.  The more we focus on and reconnect to who we are at the ethereal and blissful level, the least we will be impacted by karma.  

Maharshi also taught it was our attachment with the first two body levels, especially, that creates karma and keeps us stuck in these karmic loops.  We are not our bodies or our minds. We have to stop trying to put all our energy and conscious awareness into attempting to  deal with the consequences of karma on these bodies and minds, into trying to rectify our karma, and instead go right to the root and pull it out.  What is the root?  This ego...this sense of "me" with its identification with body and "me, my, and mine". We need to transcend self for Self.  As long as we identify with a body, with doership, we are going to be lost in karma.  Self realization, a focus on the other two bodies,  frees us.   

Karma can be, according to Ram Dass, our dharma.  We can use our awareness of it to transcend it into this Self realization that Maharshi proclaims is the only way out. Hmm! Something to think about. 

All is well in my world. 

East Forest & Ram Dass (2019?)  Mind Karma ( feat. Trevor Hall) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5fUoSrlrwyU

Ramana Maharshi. Medicine of One ( August, 2021) Karma, Destiny, and Free Will https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P34TFZItBjA&t=48s

Sadhguru ( 2021) Karma: A Yogi's Guide to Crafting Your Destiny. New York: Harmony Books

The Grass is Green

The grass is green, flowers are red, and the water is blue.

Zen Koan

It simply is the way it is.  It all has little to do with us.  We need to stop asking , "What does that have to  do with me and what do I do about it?" and simply learn to say: Thy will not my will!  It isn't all about "me".   It just is!  And it is amazing as it is!

Hmm! 

How small and depressing we make our lives when we insist it  be all  about 'me'. 

All is well!

Michael A. Singer/ Temple of the Universe ( September 9, 2023) Temporary Compensation Vs Permanent Fulfillment. https://tou.org/talks/

A Friend to self and Self

 Elevate yourself through the power of your mind, and not degrade yourself, for the mind can be the friend and also the enemy of the self. 

Bhagavad Gita 6: 5 

Do you use your mind to raise yourself up or do you use your mind to tear yourself down?  And what is this self that we are tearing down?

Hmm!  I often tear myself down and what I am tearing down is that which is something that is getting in the way of me being all I can be. I am told and believe that it is not healthy to tear this self down. Ironically, then, I  am concerned about tearing down the "self" ( note the little 's')  that is in the way of me experiencing who I really am...the Self ( note the big 'S').  Is that not the case for most of us with twisted psyches...self concepts that are less than healthy and positive...created on a platform of negative messaging from others?  We come to believe in our core that we are not enough and that we deserve reprimand and punishment. So we live a life of tearing down the self with the mind...with what I call the "Shamer Ego" component of mind, an enemy. Living out self fulfilling prophecy, self sabotage, and negative and critical self talk often becomes the way of tearing down this self.  Any psychologist would tell you how unhealthy that is.

Big 'S' or little 's'

Yet, at the same time , if we are inclined to take those steps to deeper understanding that go beyond psychology, we will see that this thing we are tearing down is not something we want to preserve for higher reasons than self punishment anyway.  This thing we are tearing down is actually just a veil, an idea, an ego, a mind created blockage, that is in our way of something greater...the Self. It is something we are addicted to, something we are so inclined to focus on for shaming or redeeming reasons that it takes up all our conscious awareness. It is something we get lost in and overly identified with becasue it is all we can see. 

All we can see

Why is it all we can see? It is all we can see because it is all we are looking at.  We narrowed this amazing light of Self ( pure conscious awareness) to shine onto this entity and its "me, my, or mine" drama, at the exclusion of everything else. This self is not real yet it is what is causing all our suffering. It is like a big blob in front of the One thing that is real, beautiful, true. ...the One thing that is full of light, love, safety. The blob is so big and dark we can only see glimpses of light around it, if anything at all. So if we are lucky enough to catch a glimpse of the light and reality beneath this blob, why wouldn't we want to knock down this wall of self( with the little 's') so we can feel that warmth, peace, joy and ultimate safety of the Self with the big "S"?

Enemies to self

Hmm! Most of us, however, who spend their lives tearing down the self are not aware of the light beyond it, are not aware that there is more. We are consumed by the blob, believing that is all there is and that we are it.  We are so busy focusing on the negative drama of little me...a drama we created by the way, with our resistance to what Life was handing out and our karmic consequences brought on by the ways in which we resisted....that we are lost in it. Shamer ego rules. We use the mind to tear down and degrade  self not for Self, but for self. We make enemies of our minds. It is unhealthy.

Being kind to self to get to Self

Yes, the ultimate goal is to get to Self...well to fall back into Self, realizing that it is there and has always been there...but we failed to see that because we were distracted by our focus on self. So, yes we do want to remove self...to die to be reborn. We want to be able to use this amazing power of the mind to shine on everything without that annoying blob limiting our clarity and vision. We want to see who we are is Self, and that we were never self...that entity we degraded and beat down so often. Still we do not want to keep beating down this thing we are believing we are in the meantime. We want the mind to be a friend , not an enemy.

A friend

Let's stop making the mind the enemy of self.  Let's just, without degradation or abuse, remove the light of consciousness from this me-blob we believe we are and shine it towards the background where the light is sure to shine, if only in glimpses at first, until all we see and feel is the light of Self.

It isn't going to be easy.  Breaking an addiction takes committed will power and practice. Even our self abusing tendencies are habitual...but just knowing that can be a step forward can't it? We do not have to continue using the mind to tear self down, we can use it to shine on Self.  We can.  We can. 

All is well in my world.. 

 Michael A. Singer/ Temple of the Universe ( September 8, 2023) The Focus of  Consciousness. https://tou.org/talks/

Wanting and Craving

 Crave for a thing, you will get it. Renounce the craving, the object will follow you by itself.

Swami Sivananda

I just read something I wrote in 2017 when I was still very much into desire manifesting.  It sounds so contradictory to what I "believe"?/"know"? now.  It was in 2018 that I began studying Buddhist teachings and gaining a different but much clearer perspective.  

Normal to Want

Yes, I believe as humans we are going to "want" and even "crave" for Life to be wholesome and somewhat easy.  It is so "normal" to want, dream and fantasize about something other than what is when "what is" is full of one difficulty after another. It is so human to "hope" for something better when the moment we are in is full of obvious suffering. That doesn't mean, however, that we should get so attached and so caught up on this "me" getting what it wants that we fail to see the bigger picture.  We need to get to the point where we see that the problem isn't so much in not getting the thing we want...it is in the wanting itself...more specifically,  in our attachment to desire.  

Attached to Desire?

We may manifest that thing on our dream board but for how long is it going to make us happy and is it truly going to fulfill us in the long run?  If we take the time to examine our minds and how they operate, we will see that we do not stay happy very long after we get what we dreamed of. We will soon hear mind telling us to go after or seek to manifest something else, then something else, and something else. Won't we? It is a never ending striving this wanting takes us on, isn't it?  

Already in you

As far as having that thing fulfill us/ make us happy/ solve all our problems etc ...it doesn't. We just think it does.  We are already fulfilled.  We already have all the conditions we need for happiness, even in the midst of so called suffering.  We are just closed to them, that's all, so we cannot feel that flow of peace, joy, compassion, bliss ( sat chit ananda) that is within us already. When we get the thing on our list we open and we experience this wonderful flow of shakti through us.  .....so it is like "Oh my...I got what I always wanted and now I am happy." That is just ego trying to be the hero , taking credit for what isn't its. You were always happy...you just didn't know it because you were so busy looking out there  you failed to recognize what was already in you. You attributed your happiness to a condition of Life.  You attributed your happiness to manifesting a thing because it helped you to open to what was already in you. We need to observe how the attainment of our dreams and desires  fails to keep us open. There is no permanence to any of these things we are attempting to manifest. Relationships, wealth, abundance, success, recognition etc are just outer world conditions that can leave us just as quickly as they can be "manifested" into our lives.  It is like trying to hold on to beech sand. It doesn't sustain our happiness.  It doesn't fulfill us.  It is just a bunch of ceaseless grasping and clinging to things we cannot hold. 

Internal Cause for Both Suffering and Happiness

Our dreaming and fantasizing often increases in times of suffering. When life is challenging and difficult we often want it to be different. We resist what is and dream of or attempt to manifest something better. But just as the things "out there" have nothing to do with our happiness and fulfillment, they also have little or nothing to do with our suffering. The source for both our suffering and our happiness is internal, not external. Once we realize that we stop being so attached to our desires.  We stop attempting to manifest in this way. We find peace with the moment regardless of what is going on in it as we take accountability for our own inner states of being.  Instead of asking "How can I get this or that so I am happy?", we ask: "What do I need to work on inside of me so I open to the happiness that is already there?"  Totally different ball game, let me tell ya. 

Dealing in the  Interphase

There is an interphase we might encounter, however, between this realization that desire is the source of our suffering and our being completely free of its hold. In the podcast linked below, Michael Singer talks about  our tendency to want to suppress "desire" which I believe he sees as renouncing. Once we see how damaging dreaming and wanting  and attempting to manifest can be to our acceptance of the reality of the present moment, we might decide to go to war against it. He sees this as taking part in a tug of war between the higher Self (who we are behind mind)  and the lower self ( our desires and habit mind). The higher Self is beyond desire and knows that all the peace and joy we want is already within us; the lower self is that habit mind that attempts to fulfill the wants and needs of "little me" by manipulating and taking from the outside world.  Once we commit to awakening from little me's dream, we may make it and the mind's habitual tendencies the enemy, and set out to fight those pulls or calls toward desire and the lower self energy. We may resist with great might our habit minds and our human inclination toward wanting. We feel, for example, a desire coming up, say the craving for a cigarette after a month of not smoking. Though it is true that  we should not give into that desire to smoke because every time we give in we reinforce habit, we might erroneously assume that we should tighten our grip on the rope and pull against it. We might attempt to resist, repress or suppress the desire with great force. We might hate it or ourselves for having that desire as we try to squish it down below the surface of conscious awareness like we so often tend to do with energies that are disturbing. This, Singer reminds us, doesn't work.  It just creates more struggle and we will find ourselves  constantly attempting to put out fires, constantly trying to make our dips into negativity less negative,

Don't Resist, Transcend. Relax and Let Go

The only way to deal with desire and our lower energies  is through transcendance and this takes time and practice. Instead of attempting to put out every fire and disturbance of energy craving creates, we should recognize our desire, allow it, be compassionate with it and ourselves as we lean back and loosen our grip on the rope we are holding onto. We don't fight it.  We don't give into it.  We just relax and let go.   It doesn't have to be a battle between desire and us. We do not have to be pulled face down into the mud.  We do not have to resist.. We can simply relax and let go, falling back into that peaceful place of Higher Self. The lower energy will dissolve on its own. 

Anyway, that is what I thought of as I read my entry on the "not wanting cancer" and observed how much I have grown since then in my understanding of both dukkha and sukha. Hope it makes some sense to someone other than me.

All is well.

https://dale-lynwritin.blogspot.com/2017/05/acceptance-vs-giving-up-on-wanting.html

Michael A. Singer/ Temple of the Universe ( Sept 4, 2023) The Yoga of Letting Go-Staying True to Your Higher Clarity.https://tou.org/talks/

Thank you

 

If the only prayer you ever say in your entire life is thank you, it will be enough. 

Meister Eckhart

Well I have the new Google analytics up and running and those spikes in numbers of views are not legitimate lol.  Rational Mind knew that but there was a tiny remnant of ego in me that wanted to believe they were real and that I was suddenly becoming popular. I was even looking into amortization. I had this thought...Maybe I can get paid for doing what I love to do here.  Wow. Wouldn't that be cool.  

I am not as awake as I thought I was. I am still caught up in desire and still caught up in an ego...focusing on its likes and dislikes....assuming the answer to my financial woes, and the key to  happiness can be found in some form of writing notoriety. And I thought I was so far beyond all that.  I didn't come here to get thousands of readers...just enough to know I was fulfilling the writing cycle.  I didn't come here to become a renown teacher; I just needed a venue to share what I am learning in.  

 I am not done yet, I guess. I am still clinging to things, to desire, to  a tiny expectation that Life should be different than it is, that the way it is isn't enough. This was a wonderful little lesson on the impermanence of those things the ego  seeks in hope they will fulfill us. It was also a good lesson on the unreal vs the real. Even if those stats were true...what I assumed they would give me could never be real.  Readers come in and they go...just as notoriety does...just as a money does.  Not that there is anything wrong with having these things...there isn't . We do not need to renounce and say "no" to external world success, if it should come our way.  The only issue would be in becoming attached to having these things...seeing oneself  as needing them in order to be whole an complete. 

I already have within me everything required for joy and happiness.  I already have within me what is important and what is real. It is enough.  It is more than enough.  I have loyal readers.  I see you on google analytics. Thank you! Thank you!

All is well!

Done Taking?

 When you are done taking, you are done with yourself.  You just serve. 

Michael A. Singer

Another glorious day out there.  The sun is shining, the air is warm during the day and a bit crisp at night.  Pears should be ready soon and the apples are waiting on that first frost. The trees are already starting to change in colour.  Seeing glimpses of reds, oranges and yellows as I look about.  I love September.  It is my favorite season. Oh, there I go preferring again.  Preferring something over  another is such a part of habit mind, isn't it? 

Let's talk about the preferring and habitual personal mind. 

Most of our day to day affairs are propelled by habit mind, wouldn't you say?  We proceed through the day, not quite aware of anything but personal mind's repetitive instructions: "Go here, Get that, Do that, Don't do that. Stay away from there etc." It is like we are sleep walking. Goldstein in the linked podcast below tells us that habit is just a gentle word for addiction. Hmm! We get addicted to things "out there" and "in here" being a certain way, don't we? (Well ego gets addicted). We just listen to the mind, as if hypnotized, and follow its instructions, getting so caught up in its drama and story,  without truly realizing what we are doing. Maybe we need to stop and have a good look at our minds and what we are thinking, feeling, saying and doing in reaction to them.

Singer reminds us that we have this tendency to become so fixated on the personal mind...that ego...that thing we created with all its habits, preferences, likes and dislikes, with all its story and drama,  that we cannot see the impersonal reality beyond it. Waking up involves taking our attention away from personal mind and placing it on the impersonal reality of what is.

Hold on crazy lady!  What do you mean by" personal mind" and "impersonal reality" ?

Personal mind, your ego, is the self-concept that you created.  There truly is nothing in this existence that is personal except for what you made up in your mind.  This idea of a "person" is just a self-concept...an idea made from all the memories of experiences you have had over the years. It really isn't real.  There really is no "me, my, or mine" in the fabric of existence. Yet, we are all so caught up in this drama of  "me", and thereby  using whatever we can in the service of this "me".  We habitually attempt to  take from the world around us what we erroneously assume will bring happiness, comfort, joy and fulfillment to this ego, this idea of "me"and to push away what will disturb it.  We attempt to use the world to serve the "me" and its addiction. So focused on serving "me" in this mind made drama are we that we fail to see anything beyond it. We are so tangled up in our habits...those preferences...that all our energy and consciousness goes to the service of this unreal personal mind.  Our ever expanded, spacious consciousness constricts and contracts its beam of light so narrowly on this personal mind when we do that. We miss so much!

What is Real

According to the teachings of the Buddha, as passed on by Joseph Goldstein...there are only six things we can experience as human beings: the sights before our eyes, the sounds we pick up with our ears,  the tastes and smells we absorb, the sensations we experience through the skin and all the mental stuff going on in our heads .  This is what our body picks up and through the veil of "me" we wear it is often not experienced fully. Our perception colours it and often makes it less than real.  The universe, on the other hand, is real but it is not here to serve"you"or "me" as we come to believe it is in our self centered focus.  It is here with its own agenda. It has been expanding, growing and evolving perfectly  over billons of years to get to where it is now...to get to that narrow window of experience that enfolds in front of us in each moment. We are not meant to take from it that which will help our ego grow, that which will feed our addictions...we are here to experience it, enjoy it, respect it, be in awe of it as we serve it. 

Refocus the Light of Consciousness

If we could learn through steady practice to remove the light from this idea of "me" we would see something so much greater. Of course, it all begins with the willingness to stop and observe our minds and our habits and what we are doing, to wake up a bit from our sleep walking tendency.  It starts with recognizing that "preferring" did not take us anywhere but to suffering and bondage. It starts with wanting to be free of our addiction to "me".  We can refocus the light of consciousness on what is real by simply removing the light from the unreal "me". If we want to be free, we need to let go of our preferences and our habit minds...we need to die to be reborn.

Anyway, there is so much more in the below linked podcasts than what I could ever offer you here. Have a listen.

All is well. 

Joseph Goldstein/ Be Here Now Network ( August, 2023) The Wisdom of "No" with Joseph Goldstein-                   Insight Hour Podcast-Ep 178. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BacE8zOrcGk

Michael A. Singer/ Temple of the Universe ( September 3, 2023) Understanding Personal Vs                                  Impersonal. https://tou.org/talks/

 

Did I really have over 1700 views today so far, over 3000 yesterday and over 13, 000 since September first? I strongly, strongly doubt it.  So what is going on? Any ideas anyone? 

If , on the off chance, it is legit...thank you very, very  much Singapore!!!!!! And a giant thank you, as well, to all my other readers, So very grateful!

If I sound suspicious it is because I am lol. Such a rapid spike would leave anyone questioning, wouldn't it? I  just can't understand it. 

It is all good. 

Renunciation

 

Renunciation is not getting rid of the things of this world, but accepting that they pass away.

Robert Baker Aitken

I'm back! Lovely weekend away, full of adventure. We trail rode horses, zip lined, repelled down cliffs and played golf.  D. and I slept in a two man tent that truly was not meant for someone who is 6 foot 1 lol and though my mind loved being beneath the stars in the fresh wooded air, my body did not like the hard bumpy ground.  That would take some getting used to.  It reminded me of Ram Dass describing how he made the trek through Northern India to meet his Guru for the first time...a fairly well to do westerner toughing it out, lying on the ground for nights and nights.  His body reacted miserably to the trials and tribulations he put it through on that journey  but eventually he got used to it. Of course, I did not endure as much suffering...it was all very pleasant except for the ground and the back is still growling a bit but I did want to tough it out a bit in honour of him. 

Dealing

Anyway, I came home to the same circumstances I left. I was  re-energized but a little less rested than I hoped to be.  Oh well...we will deal. 

So in the process of dealing...I am contemplating what to say "yes" to and what to say "no" to.  Of course, the very first thing to do is accept what is as it is right now; to notice what is unfolding in front of me, allow it ( without resistance), look deeply into what is happening "out there" and what is happening "in here" as a result of it...what am I thinking, feeling, saying and how am I acting.  Is it wholesome or unwholesome, skillful or unskillful and then I need to nurture myself with some loving compassion as I nurture the others involved with the same level of compassion. Hmm! Not so easy as it looks. 

Back to "Yes" or "No"

I just happened upon two podcasts today...and both address this idea of renunciation in their own ways,one from a buddhist perspective and one from a Yogi perspective.  The core truth is the same in both teachings but the "concept" possibly differs. Speakers in both podcasts speak of the Buddha's amazing insight that the core of all suffering is our craving, our desires, our clinging and grasping and our preferences which creates the habit mind. The habit mind binds us. The way out of suffering is a letting go of these habit tendencies, this attachment to things being a certain way "out there". They both also speak of the counter part to desire which is aversion, stressing it is the opposite side of the  same coin that leads to suffering. 

Renunciation from A Buddhist Perspective

Goldstein says that renunciation which is a big thing in Buddhism...involves renouncing the "unwholesome"  habit tendencies towards sensual desires, ill will and cruelty so we can cultivate the seeds of happiness, joy , kindness and compassion etc . He goes on to describe how the Buddha, who instructed that we must be very aware of what we are thinking because the more we think on one thing the more it will become an inclination of the mind, also advised putting our thoughts into two lists: those that are wholesome and those that are not wholesome or skillful in getting us closer to freedom from suffering. Wholesome thoughts are those that cultivate peace, joy, happiness, compassion and kindness for self and others.  Unwholesome thoughts are those that lead to affliction -more suffering- for self and others.  

It is usually much easier to recognize and deal with the unwholesome thoughts of aversion, anger, hate, etc because we see how they cause suffering in self and others and are usually more motivated do change them,  The unwholesomeness of desire, however, may not be so easy to recognize therefore we may not have the motivation to renounce that which we desire.  We often get that which we want bringing about pleasant results so it seems gratifying and worth pursuing. We often fail in recognizing the suffering desire  causes until we lose that which we were clinging to. There is no permanence in that which we desire from the physical world so it cannot fulfill us for long. It will eventually cause suffering. We will feel the pain of that impermanence, and will then grasp for something else, then something else, and something else.  We will find ourselves on a cyclical  path of struggling to get what we erroneously believe will fulfill us from "out there" ...one thing after the other... until wanting itself becomes what we desire. 

All desire is addictive!  It is a vicious mental game we play and we won't see how it is one we cannot win until we examine our minds. So Goldstein makes  a strong argument about the need to renounce not only the obvious unwholesome thoughts, feelings, actions and words  but the less obvious desire. 

Renunciation from a Yogi's Perspective

Michael A. Singer, however,  often tells us not to renounce anything! "If you try to renounce...you are not through with the physical world."

He stresses in the beginning of his podcast that renunciation and craving are the very same thing. They both mean that we are not done with "things" .  As long as we are not done with things, we will want more or less of what Life offers.  This is preference and desire and this is the cause of suffering. If we are renouncing things then that means we want less of something life offers and  are therefore not done with "things". So I found this contrast to be confusing until I realized the difference in the understanding of   'renunciation' both are using. Singer seems to be  talking about renouncing "things", all that which unfolds in front of us, and Goldstein is talking about renouncing the unwholesomeness and unskillful tendencies of mind. 

When it comes to saying "No" to one thing and "yes" to another, Singer tells us the Yogi says yes to all of it.  They put away judgements of "good or bad, right or wrong, should be or shouldn't be" for "it just is and it has nothing to do with me".   We, as the experiencer, are here to simply  experience and enjoy the dance of creation unfolding in front of us and through us. He tells us to say "yes" to all of it. That doesn't mean we decide what is desirable and go after it ...we just don't determine anything as desirable or anything as undesirable. We don't prefer one thing over the other.  If a relationship unfolds in front of you...wonderful...say "yes"...don't grasp it, don't renounce it.  If Life doesn't offer you a relationship...wonderful...say "yes"...don't crave one or seek one. If material abundance and wealth unfolds in front of you...wonderful...say "yes" ...don't grasp, cling or renounce it. If poverty unfolds in front of you...say "yes"...don't push it away, don't crave or seek wealth.   

In a sense he is saying the same thing Goldstein is saying: See the unwholes tendencies in both aversion and  desire. Stay equanimous. Accept and allow what is

Confusion

I think the confusion, for me, comes with the word "renunciation". It seems to be applied differently. There also seems to be distinction between what the Buddha asks of his bhikkhus and what he asked of  householders. We are all to renounce the attachment we have to the physical world, not necessarily the physical world.  We are, afterall, physical beings.  We are to do as Christ taught, "Be in this world but not of it." Bhikkhus ( Monks and Nuns) outwardly express their detachment to the physical world by giving up their hair, their fashion, their material wealth and relationships with "special" others. Devoted yogis do the same. This is what we come to see as renouncing but is it?  Could this renouncing  be more of a symbolic display, than a practical necessity to take us to freedom? Seems that way, eh? I don't know though. 

Is Loosening Our Attachment Renouncing?

What we all really renouncing, if anything, is our attachment to desire, our attachment to the world needing to be a certain way.  Once we see how desire leads to suffering, how addictive it all is, we won't want to lose ourselves in that bondage anymore.  We will want to be through with things. Not that we won't experience things or have things in our midst, we just won't seek them, cling to them or push them away through resistance. No expectation, no preference, no aversion...just wonderful acceptance and awe of the process of Life.

All About Letting Go

Both speakers agree on one important truth.  Our path to freedom is not about gaining anything...it is about letting go .  We need to let go of this "me", this ego, this habitual personal  mind  with its preferences and aversions, its addictive tendencies, its cravings, its resistance and reactivity.  We do not need to worry about saying "No" to things of this physical world, as much as we need to be willing to say "yes" to all that life is beneath the drama and the masks we wear. 

Hmm!  I am not sure if that says all I meant to say but that is what came out of me on this topic of renunciation. I do not understand it completely. 

All is well.

Joseph Goldstein/ Be Here Now Network ( August, 2023) The Wisdom of "No" with Joseph Goldstein. - Insight Hour Podcast, Episode 178 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BacE8zOrcGk

Michael A. Singer/ Temple of the Universe (August 31) Being Done-The Path to Freedom. https://tou.org/talks/

Breaking Clear Away for A Few Days

Keep close to Nature's heart...and break clear away, once in a while, and climb a mountain or spend a week in the woods. Wash your spirit clean.

John Muir

I need to get off my butt and get moving.  We are going camping today. Taking a loved one who so needs the zap of a dopamine rise, on an adventure that will rise the dopamine, let me tell ya. Not sure if this old ticker that wants nothing more than a decrease in Adrenaline and the other sympathetic hormones...will like it or not ...but we are going to give it a try. Dopamine is the friendly loving cousin in the sympathetic response...though she  often travels with the other not so friendly ones, she is someone we all want around. It makes us feel good and excited, more so than fearful.  I, myself, could do with a Dopamine zap. We will see what happens.

One thing about tenting out in the wilderness, is that it requires a lot of planning and effort. And I am a wee bit tired from that planning and effort, especially after chasing  my grandson around for ten hours. I have yet to finish packing and getting everything together. Sigh.  I need to kind of anticipate that there might not be a lot of "rest" over the next 48 hours to recover in either. Oh well, we are gong to make the best of it and enjoy what we can. I might even bring my cameras...

Anyway, It is all good. See you in a few days.

Favour?

 Find your tribe. They will allow you to be you, while you dance in the rain.

Shannon L. Alder

Okay this blog hit the magic number of 100,000k and just for  last month the site reports 15,000 plus views.  Though there are views from other areas ( grateful...thank you), most of the views are said to be coming from Singapore.  I really, really do not know what is going on. I would like to know if any of the views I am getting are authentic. I am going to ask readers to comment if they will.  Just a "Hey" (and maybe what country you are from)...will suffice. I know it is a lot to ask but if you are willing, I would appreciate it. Thank you. 

All is well in my world.