July 5th, 2006
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We create pressure in our lives unconsciously that can end up making us very unhappy. Some of these pressures are deeper and some are more superficial. One person creates a "have to" situation with accomplishments he/she wants to create at work. Someone else on a daily basis sets up to-do after to-do and then feels bad for what they didn’t accomplish rather than good about what they did accomplish. Jobs can be self created pressure. So can houses, cars, and salaries.
We often aren’t able to appreciate our success once it comes, because it tends to move. I’ve been with successful people and watched them accomplish goals, and rather than enjoy the accomplishment, they immediately and unconsciously create new goals.
So what pressure are you creating? This talk points out that we can spend time working on, or watching, what pressures we create for ourselves. The exercise we could do would be to learn to find your self created limits, or pressures. Once you see what yours are, you may choose to soften them, or you may not. It’s nice to learn that you can lose your job You can move. Your life could be different. The other side of that is the fact that a conscious goal is a powerful one. We can choose to work harder for our pressures if we really want to hold onto them.
External pressure is often actually created by us, and thus is internal pressure. Watch when pressure is created in your life and see if it’s really external pressure. An interesting point is how unconscious these things become. We sit and think "Of course I have to do these things…" It’s good to realize that we can live in the smaller house. We can drive a cheaper car. The kids can go to public school. But they also may not have to. Becoming aware of our pressures allows us to support them or put them down as necessary. It’s up to us.
The Pressure We Create:
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June 26th, 2006
Question I’d really like answered for a future talk: What, if anything, would be the best thing humans could do to make the world a better place? Please leave an answer as a comment to this blog or email me directly.
In this talk we explore paradoxes and logic and point out where we’ll find them in learning about stillness.
One interesting paradox is "This sentence is false." Another might have to do with using language to define impossible situations. The logical mind doesn’t like paradoxes.
The most common paradoxes we will find in these talks tend to come from different levels of experience clashing against the same thing, or the idea of the same thing. Normally those two experiences come from a mind that feels separate from the moment, and the mind that feels at one with the moment. If you have no concept of what being one with the moment feels like, it is simply when we are doing anything without critique. That’s stillness in it’s simplest form.
Another example of paradox, as I’m defining it here, is the good/bad dilemma. Having something that seems bad turn out to be good. Or learning something from a bad thing, and finding good value in that learning. Then the thing is good and bad, etc.
What I am really trying to describe is the problem with being "away" from reality. The normal existence of man feels separate from life. We feel distinct and separate from other people and things. I’m trying to discuss the sense of oneness, and how a separate mind will often not find logic in discussing oneness. In that lack of logic we will often come to paradoxes.
All spiritual traditions seem to be based, or at least discuss oneness. In Christianity, the original sin is about mankind leaving stillness, or oneness, to come to knowledge. We obtained the knowledge of good and evil. It’s man entering duality. In Christianity they say that after death we go to heaven. Is it possible that all that needs to die is the self? Because there is no self in stillness, can we come to a heaven on earth? Taoism speaks of everything being the Tao - that is their reference to oneness. Buddhism speaks of stillness and oneness frequently as well. This is all mentioned only to point out that oneness seems to exist, even though our normal experience is a separate one.
So are we OK with paradox? Can a mind see that paradoxes exist, and move past them? Can we put down the discerning mind to come to peace?
What Does Paradox Have To Do With It:
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June 19th, 2006
It seems many people want to get the idea of what enlightenment looks like. We’re all trying to "figure it out." I get many emails discussing understanding these ideas. This podcast is about doing them instead.
The "Now" has become very trendy. So let’s not get lost in ideas about it. We even have great philosophical minds telling us we don’t have time to be in the now, which is a bit ridiculous. What I think they are saying is that we shouldn’t be trendy about the Now.
Because we can play with words and ideas and labels at this level we should see that we will never "figure it out." Rather we should look at the desire that we have to figure it out. The idea of how to do this is less important than doing it. Our minds want to become experts, and so we look at all the possibilities of "getting lost" so that we can be sure that we will win "when those things show up." But that state of mind is already lost. The waiting, thinking, planning mind is exactly the mind we are trying to put down.
Someone comes across the idea of being at peace. And they are listening to these podcasts, and trying to meditate. And they realize they are not at peace. The mind that is trying to get to peace is lost in time. The mind that wants to "DO" peace is the mind that puts down expectations. This may feel very unnatural to us. We want to figure it out instead.
So when we "DO" peace, when we allow for peace of mind by coming to this moment, whatever it is, we are doing it "all the time". Because we start to realize that now is all there is.
The important concept is this: getting to this moment "is the end of it", EVEN if we leave this moment. Sounds like a cop out, and is hard to get your mind around, but it’s the truth.
So let’s look at the actuality of living in the Now. We don’t care if we can do it permanently, because that is another idea. We just want to do it now. When we come to the Now in this moment (whenever that is), we realize that this moment is always here. So that is all we have to do. The mind will kick up again and say things like "You won’t be able to do that in the future." And that may even knock us off a bit, but seeing that once we DO come back, there is no tally of how long we’ve been gone. So doing it now IS doing it forever. Because the illusion is the mind that creates a future that doesn’t exist.
So doing it in the now is as simple as coming to what you are, your breath, this moment, the sounds, the fears, the whatever, without worrying if you can do it again later. If you’re doing it now, you’re doing it forever.
Referenced: Pema Chodron, Eckhart Tolle
June 12th, 2006
Important thought: The gap between our experience and our expectation is our unhappiness.
Experience is what’s happening to us. Expectation is what we’d like to happen to us. How many people do you know who live in a state of almost constant disappointment over their life situation? They are simply comparing what they experience to what the expect, and leaving a huge gap between the two.
There is a freedom away from this type of mind if we want to find it. It takes a different mind set. It will help if we can see the pain this behavior creates.
Which can we control, experience or expectation? Movies and TV often imply that we can control the world, or should be able to. Science implies that control or prediction should be our greatest goal.
An awake person realizes that we can control, or at least deal with the expectation part of this better than the experience part of this. That realization is huge.
Expectation vs. Experience:
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February 5th, 2006
When is it okay to think?
When something makes you angry, there are two healthy ways to deal with it. You can become still, or you can investigate the situation using your mind. So at what point should you use your mind or thoughts to work with a situation? You should use your mind when you are aware you are using your mind.
What I am trying to convey is that thought is okay, it just needs to be conscious thought. So what is conscious thought? Thought that sweeps us away into a busy mind is an example of unconscious thought. Working out a problem, finding patterns, working with logic, setting appropriate boundaries on certain levels, using judgment to discern things are all good uses of the mind, as long as we are aware we are doing it.
Challenges will not stop. Neither will “good” and “bad” emotions, feelings, situations, etc. When we change, the world still comes, but we can deal with the world differently. By being detached from the ego, we can free ourselves of being upset that we are sad. So sadness doesn’t stop. Instead, we become okay with sadness.
Depending on how deeply in the world I’m going to live, the more things tend to define me. And hence, the more I need to protect. Be aware of what you are protecting. Be aware of what you are attached to.
Two sides of being alive can be described as thinking/experiencing, or thinking/being, or mind/body. Philosophers have discussed mind and body for ages. The goal is to have mind and body in the same place (here) at the same time (now). We could call the act of accomplishing that a higher state of being.
We don’t want to avoid things through meditation. The act of dropping thought is used to learn about thinking, and to show that thinking isn’t all there is. It is not used to abandon thought entirely. Krishnamurti’s book “Think On These Things” was mentioned to point that out. It was also mentioned that Krishnamurti often suggests “looking at things deeply” which implies using thought.
To sum up, it is okay to think when you are aware you are thinking. Thinking is a tool, and we need to learn to use it as such.
Referenced: Krishnamurti
To Think or Not to Think:
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