I Am

         Within 18 months, even after major life changing events such as a major accident causing permanent disability or winning millions in a lottery, people tend to return to their individual baseline level of happiness. This is referred to as hedonic treadmill or adaptation https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hedonic_treadmill The topic is further complicated when we consider locus of control https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Locus_of_control and openness to experience https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Openness_to_experience

    These Western psychological concepts likely overlap somewhat with one's level of spiritual maturity. I have no idea if & how spiritual maturity could be assessed, except perhaps by someone with an exceptionally high level themself and has integrated this as completely as possible into their day-to-day life ie consistently 'walks the talk.'

    NOW as individuals, as a human race, and perhaps as the entire cosmos, we are ALL in the process of evolving spiritually and integrating this higher state of being into our day-to-day, moment-by-moment behavior. We are ALL starting to experience peace, unconditional love & joy that is independent of external conditions. 

    “By shifting our attention from the fluctuating nature of experiences ("I am this" or "I am that") to the simple, ever-present sense of "I am", we recognize the foundational being-ness that underlies them. As this recognition deepens, being-ness imbues all experiences, revealing a ground of peace that transcends understanding.” Amoda Maa

    Let us continuously remember who we truly are, our true nature, our authentic Self.

Amoda Maa "Recognizing the 'I Am' That is Always Present"

Unconditional Love

     Most of us underestimate how DESPERATELY we NEED acceptance, approval, respect - ok LOVE - throughout life. As soon as we're born we cry out for attention, "Look at me! I'm alive & I NEED to belong to & be cared for by this family / tribe!" But conditioning very quickly teaches us to change our cry to, "Look, I am USEFUL to this family / tribe!" This is a shift from rightly seeing ourselves as worthy of unconditional love simply because we're alive to begging for scraps of attention.
    Sadly some, unable to attract even such 'conditional love,' will then pour their energies into attracting negative attention. Being alone, ignored does not seem to be a viable option. 

    "Self-compassion is a way of relating to ourselves kindly, embracing ourselves as we are, flaws and all."
    Kristin Neff PhD TedX talk: "The Space Between Self-Esteem and Self Compassion." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IvtZBUSplr4

    But self-compassion can only actually take place by undergoing a fundamental identity shift, from the conditioned small needy lonely self, longing for, & 'looking for love in all the wrong places' (“the story of me”) to who we really, truly are, which is the unconditioned, transpersonal Self (Buddha-nature, “Christ within”, etc) - the very source of unconditional love. This is a massive unburdening AND what any transformative maturation ultimately depends on.

    "According to the saints and mystics, love is the very fabric of what we are; we are fashioned out of its warmth & openness. ... love is the central force that holds our whole life together and allows it to function."
    John Welwood. "Perfect Love, Imperfect Relationships. Healing the Wound of the Heart." Trumpeter, 2006. 

    Ultimately, the source & central theme of life is Intelligent Unconditional Loving Energy: http://www.johnlovas.com/search?q=unconditional

    "O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek ... to be loved, as to love ..." Portion of Prayer of St Francis 

Namaste 

Love and Presence

    In this follow-up to last week's introduction to Presence, Eckhart Tolle discusses the critical role of Presence in our relationships:

    “What is the connection between love and Presence? That’s an interesting question. Of course, first of all, we need to look at love and what that is. Love is usually interpreted as being an emotion. And in a conventional sense, love is when you feel a strong attachment to a person, for example another human being that you fall in love with. And that is a very strong emotion, a clinging emotion. There’s nothing wrong with it.
    But when you look at it more closely, you will find, and you may already have discovered that in your own life how quickly that emotion, that love, can actually turn into its opposite, and suddenly turn into hate. In relationships, how quickly the honeymoon, one, two, four years later, there’s the most intense hatred between the same human beings, who had not long before professed eternal love and thought this person is definitely the person who is going to make me happy. So there’s an emotional thing that’s called love that usually does not last that long and can easily turn into its opposite. 

    There’s also something deeper in human beings. There’s something deeper than an emotion, a certain state of being. And that deeper thing, where you recognize something in the other that is not separate from who you are, something that deeply connects you to the other, that is something different.
    How can you love another human being in a way that is deeper than the transient emotion of love? The only way that the deeper state of love can arise, is by being in that state of consciousness that we call Presence. When you are Present with another human being, then you’re not trapped in the judgments of your mind. You’re not imposing labels on that person. You’re able to look at a person in that space of clear Presence when look at a person, and at the same time feel or sense the Presence that you are, which ultimately is the Presence of Consciousness. And at that moment, you look deeply into that person, and you can sense the same Consciousness that gives you life, in the other person. Regardless of the personality of that person which is the conditioning, regardless of the conditioning of their minds, you can sense something in them, that is One with who you are. So you’re only able to do that when you are Present.

    When you are not Present, you’re identified with your mind, and then all you have are concepts about the other person, or emotions, emotional needs and so on, projected onto the other person. 

     Ultimately, true love, beyond emotion, is the recognition of yourself in the other. So ultimately, you recognize the other, essentially as yourself. Not the personality, but the essence of the other as your Self.
    Somebody already talked about that 2,000 years ago, but it was misunderstood. When you are Present, you love the other as yourself. It does not mean you love the other person as much as yourself. It means you love the other person because you recognize the essence of who you are, in the other. Then you love your neighbor as yourself, to quote from what Jesus said. So that does not require you, necessarily, to be in a so-called relationship with that person. You can encounter a person casually in a restaurant, in an elevator, or buying something. And there can be a moment where you connect with another human being and you sense that essential space of Presence between you. You can sense that this Consciousness that is you, is ultimately also the Consciousness that is the essence of the other person, no matter what their personality manifests at that moment. And that’s a deeply satisfying thing actually to feel the Oneness with the other. So whether or not you are in a relationship with that person, doesn’t really matter. Actually it means that you could have that love emanating from you whenever there is an encounter with another human being. And that is true love. 

    Now when you have a relationship with another person, then it is likely that the emotional love is also present. So in addition to that deeper love, which is the recognition of the other as yourself, you will also have the emotional attachment. But as you start living with the person, you notice that the emotional attachment continues to be there, but is not as important as before. The deeper recognition of the other as yourself, really becomes the foundation for your relationship. And that is spiritual.
    So in any relationship, if the relationship is to last & be satisfying, then you need to actually become Present in that relationship. This means get out of the judgments of your mind and the conditioning of your mind, become Present in the relationship. Becoming Present with the other person for example, is being able to interact and look at the other human being, without any kind of mental labeling, just in this clear space of Presence of Awareness. Then this true love arises. And that means the spiritual dimension becomes the foundation for that relationship where you transcend. Something arises that transcends both your personalities.
    The personalities still operate. There may occasionally still be disagreements and so on, on the purely human level, but something else is present in the relationship that transcends all that. And that can only arise through being Present. So Presence is actually a prerequisite for a deep relationship and a deeply satisfying relationship with another human being.
    And until that happens, relationships are very frustrating. And as you might have noticed, for many people, one of their main sources of suffering are their relationships. The very thing that they look to for fulfillment and happiness, so often turns into their main source of suffering. And that is sad. It doesn’t have to be like that. But for it not to be like that, you need to learn to be Present.”
    Eckhart Tolle Video #2 – Love and Presence https://teachings.eckharttolle.com/love-and-presence-power-of-presence-2021/

"To be enlightened is to be intimate with all things." Zen Master Dogen 

Love + Presence = Intimacy, Oneness, Co-creation

As we learn to fully inhabit the just now, the just this, over & over again,
until it becomes effortless, we begin to sense that
all of this is somehow just emanating out of us.
Millisecond by millisecond, thrillingly, lovingly,
we are dreaming everything into being.
Our universe appearing & disappearing -
'refreshing' - every fraction of a second,
is the subtle tingly sensation, Ezra Bayda's 'anxious quiver of being,'
we feel throughout our body
whenever we simply relax & stop to notice.
Recognizing this central creative role is
vibrantly energizing & empowering.

We recognize how fleeting life is (anicca), how up & down it is (dukkha), and
how radically our body of flesh (anatta) differs from our authentic Self.

“Wisdom tells me I am nothing.
Love tells me I am everything.
And between the two my life flows.”
Nisargadatta Maharaj

   The ancient traditional greeting, "Namaste" encapsulates much of the above : http://www.johnlovas.com/search?q=Namaste

 Namaste

What is Presence or Awareness?

     Here, Eckhart Tolle skillfully introduces the central concern of psychotherapy, meditation & other positively transformative practices that facilitate the shift to a higher level of consciousness - the prerequisite for wiser living. This in turn ushers in greater & greater peace & joy, and less & less unnecessary suffering for ourselves & others :

     “What I call Presence (or Awareness) is a state of consciousness that transcends thinking. You may have noticed that most of the time, you have a voice in your head that never stops speaking. What I call the voice in the head are your habitual thought processes. For many people, the voice in the head (or self-talk) is predominantly unpleasant, because for many people, the self-talk tends to be, to a large extent, negative. In fact there are millions of people in this world who are tortured by their own minds, by the self-talk in the head, which of course is the conditioning of their minds. But they don’t even know that because they are so identified with the voice in the head that there is no space beyond from where they can realize that there is a voice in their head, because when they identify with it, they are the voice in their head.

    Presence is the arising of a dimension of consciousness from where you can become Aware that there is this voice in the head. That Awareness is above thinking. It’s a space of consciousness where you can be the observer of your own mind, the Awareness behind the thought processes.
    For human beings to discover that dimension within themselves is extraordinarily important. It is, in fact, as I see it, the next step in the evolution of humanity, to discover that unconditioned dimension of consciousness within themselves. That’s an amazing shift.

    All the ancient spiritual teachers have already pointed to this possibility from the Buddha, to Jesus and so on. But until now, only very few people have been able to actually experience that state of consciousness and embody that state of consciousness. One could say that until fairly recently, it’s been a luxury for human beings to attain that new consciousness. But the world situation that we are at now is so critical. We are faced with so many problems collectively that the transformation of human consciousness, which is what the arising of Presence is, is no longer a luxury, it’s now a necessity for the survival of humanity.
    Most, if not all of the problems we are facing as a species, are actually generated by our own minds. So all these problems are not natural disasters, but disasters created by humans. So there is a strong element of, one could almost say, insanity or dysfunction in the old consciousness – the ‘normal human consciousness.’ It has produced an enormous amount of suffering quite unnecessarily. And already, the ancient teachers have pointed to that. The Buddha said the human condition is one of suffering. And Jesus said, what we need is to find the kingdom of heaven within, we need salvation. And only now are many, many humans on the planet - still a minority, but far more than ever before – ready to enter that new state of consciousness, and make Presence part of their lives, so that there is a shift – for most people, a gradual shift; for a few people, a radical sudden shift – from the state of consciousness of being identified with a continuous stream of thinking, a lot of it is dysfunctional, as I had said, the shift from that, to discovering the possibility and the reality of another dimension of consciousness within you, that is the space of Presence or Awareness. And from there, you can observe your own thought processes, and you’re no longer trapped, completely identified in the conditioned mind.

    That’s about the most important thing in your life, to undergo that shift. And it’s not extraordinarily difficult. Unfortunately, it’s not yet general knowledge in the mainstream culture that such a thing is even possible. So the arising of Presence is something that needs to happen now. Humans are ready for it. You are ready for it.

    And as this new state of consciousness gradually arises in you, you will begin to notice changes in the way in which you react to events in your life, changes in the way in which you relate to other people, and they’re all changes for the better. You will find, for example, that situations that before cause you a considerable amount of pain or suffering no longer have the power to cause you that pain or suffering.
    You’ll also discover the amazing truth experientially within yourself. You can verify what I’m saying now by becoming aware of situations in your life, and observe how, when you become unhappy in situations, unhappy in whatever form, unhappiness takes on many forms, even irritation is a small form of unhappiness, anger, resentment, self-pity – many, many kinds of unhappiness. You become aware that the unhappiness in your life, to a large extent, is actually due to the thought processes in your mind rather than the actual situation. So in the majority of cases, you feel unhappy not about the situation you find yourself in, but about what your mind is telling you about the situation.

    I often give the example of being in a lineup, either at the airport or in a supermarket, and it’s not moving. And there’s some kind of delay, because people are too slow, not efficient enough. And people easily get irritated, angry, upset in a situation like that. This is just a minor example. And they believe that they are being upset because of the situation. However, if they looked more closely into the origin of unhappiness, they would find that they are not unhappy because they are standing there in line. They are unhappy because their mind is (negatively judging) saying that it is a bad situation to be standing there in line. It says all kinds of things. The voice in the head comments.
    If you were Present in that situation, you would become aware of what your mind is saying. And if your were Present in that situation, and many, many other situations, even so-called serious situations, if you were really Present, you would see that the unhappiness that you experience actually arises in your mind, and is not ultimately caused by the situation you find yourself in. And when you discover that, the possibility of freedom comes in, the possibility of choice, because now you have a choice.

    Do I want to continue thinking these thoughts and feeling unhappy, or would I rather be free of that unhappiness in this situation? And then Presence arises more strongly, and suddenly, you accept this moment as it is, because there’s nothing much you can do. And there’s a complete shift in the way in which you experience that moment. You’ll be free of the burden of unhappiness.

    This is just one small example of how Presence can actually transform your life. And of course, talking about relationships, when you no longer judge people continuously, through the conditioned mind, you experience many positive changes in the way in which you relate to other human beings.

    So I would suggest to you that the most important thing that can happen to you in this lifetime is to undergo this shift in your life, so that you’re no longer at the mercy of the conditioning of your mind, which has been conditioned through your whole upbringing, your childhood, many, many influences. So instead of being at the mercy of the conditioning of your mind, and there’s no freedom in that, suddenly, the possibility arises of transcending the conditioning of your mind and actually becoming free. That’s why the term ‘liberation’ is sometimes used in various spiritual traditions – becoming free, becoming liberated. Liberated, ultimately from your own mind. And then you’re able to use your mind and your thinking ability in a much more effective way.
    What changes is that you are no longer used by your mind, but you are using your mind. And that’s a vast difference. When you’re identified with that continuous stream of thinking, that ultimately you are not thinking – the thinking happens to you. You don’t even know it. You identify with it, and you think it’s you thinking, but it’s just the conditioned mind thinking in you, and you give it a sense of self. But there is really no self in it, as the Buddha already pointed out a long time ago.
    So there is a shift from being self-identified with a stream of thinking, then discovering that there is a stream of thinking in you. Very often it interprets reality in a certain way that actually produces suffering, for yourself and others. And then discovering that you can be free of it, and coming back to the simple example I gave just now, you’re standing in line at the airport or supermarket, getting very upset, and you discover that you can actually be free of unhappiness in that moment by not adding a dysfunctional mental commentary to the situation. And suddenly, the situation is (simply just) the way it is. And you actually feel quite good. And this is a small example, but Presence affects all areas of your life, as you will discover.

    So if you get a sense of what I’m talking about, and it sounds interesting, that means you’re probably ready for this shift in consciousness.
    If however, you have not the slightest idea of what I’m talking about, and it sounds like a load of nonsense, that probably means you’re not quite ready yet, and I’m not trying to convince you that you should be ready. And it also means that you just need a little bit more suffering before you’re ready, so we will meet again in a few years’ time.”
    Eckhart Tolle's recent free “Video #1 – Why Presence?” https://teachings.eckharttolle.com/why-presence-power-of-presence-2021/

 

davidwhyte.com

All Paths to One Mountain Top

    Basic meditation instructions usually guide us to de-armor mentally, emotionally & physically, to allow us to open up to ultimate reality. We do this by: Relaxing (letting go of efforting); Simply "being" (letting go of "doing mode" - trying to control everything) - allowing the belly to soften, allowing the heart area to soften, allowing the mind to open (transcending habitual thought loops, must haves & must avoids). Part of us (our heart / right hemisphere) clearly wants to open up to ultimate reality.
    But another part of us (ego mind / left hemisphere) resists because we fear losing control & being overwhelmed by our shadow. This resistance is the main obstacle to peace & joy. Asking us to let go of our fearful avoidances, defensiveness & distractions is like asking a drowning person to let go of the scraps of wood they're hanging onto for dear life. We resist letting go as if our life depended on it. Our shadows are the scary-looking gargoyles "guarding" the entrance to holy places of transformation. Our usual "ordinary unhappiness" level of life does indeed depend on maintaining protective armoring; while our awakened life waits for us beyond this.
    One way or another, awakening out of universal human suffering involves learning to approach (rather than avoid), accept (rather than reject), and actually befriend & become intimate with our own personal "darkness" or shadow. And the result is transformational.

    “The process of unlocking your higher purpose is one of turning the authority of your mind over to your heart. This alone will transform your life.”
    Richard Rudd “The Gene Keys. Embracing Your Higher Purpose.” Watkins, 2009.

    Below, Richard Rudd's brief summary of his Gene Keys path towards Awakening :

    "Through the Gene Keys ... I’ve looked at DNA through a poet’s eyes, because I’m essentially a poet (which) means I attempt to live a poetic life and I see things poetically. And to see things poetically is to see beauty basically, in as many places as you can, especially in ugly places.
    And so we have to start by looking at the ugly places inside us, which in Gene Keys we call the shadow state. Everyone kind of knows these places. If you just close your eyes for a moment and think, ‘Where is the ugliest place inside me right now? Where’s the big challenge? What is it?’ And you know what it is, where it is, instantly. Somewhere something that you’re grappling with that is a grain in the oyster - that shadow pattern, which you are attempting to resolve, or trying to distract yourself from. 

    IF you give it space inside your being, IF you give it time, IF you allow it some compassion, IF you treat yourself gently, IF you watch it, IF you bring mindfulness & awareness to it, you will see it begin to transform. That’s the case with any shadow pattern, any victim pattern that we are playing out, going round-and-round in circles in the samsara loop.
    You have to recognize that this is the point of meditation, the point of contemplation. Contemplation is the word / technique I use, because it doesn’t necessarily involve closing our eyes – you can create the contemplative state, while doing absolutely anything in your daily life, and so through the art of contemplation, I teach how to bring that state, that interior awareness, into everything in your life, beginning by taking little pauses throughout your day so that you can begin to create that space. Lots of little pauses, interconnected, starts to create quite a lot of space, and it also creates more time throughout your day, which is an irony really, because you’re pausing, so you might think that you’re losing time, but actually you’re pumping time into your day. It’s a strange paradox, because you’re stopping, pausing. When I say pause, you can still be in motion. You’re pausing in your mind loops, in your struggles, your old patterns, so that you can see them clearly. And you’re creating space, compassion & gentleness around them.

    That begins to create this ... kind of flower which begins to open out of the shadow, out of the very thing that you’ve been avoiding, ends up being this great gift. 

    So in the Gene Keys are all 3 levels: the seed is the shadow; the flower is the gift that’s hidden in the seed & the shadow – every shadow, every difficulty in life is really asking us to do some alchemy. There’s something powerful in that. The most difficult thing in your life has the most potential if you have the courage to give it some space, and really look at it. You have to be authentic, so honest with yourself. That’s a process, and you might need support as well.
    And then the final aspect is the siddhi – a Sanskrit word, you could say Divine Essence, Divine Treasure. It’s the genetic enlightened expression of a specific part of your nature. So everyone, when they become fully awake, has a completely different expression. So when you look at the Gene Keys, there are 64 of them, and you look down the line of the language for the siddhis, you see all these words for compassion, rapture, ecstasy, perfection, beauty, humility … they’re all describing the same state, but through a slightly different lens. So understanding that every shadow contains one of those siddhis inside it, it’s hidden in there, it’s the fruit, in the seed. And you might think it's a long way away – the seed is tiny, and it’s going to grow into a tree, and it’s going to have to go through all this, and then you get this beautiful fruit, and the fruit of course contains another seed, which is a beautiful metaphor in itself. But that is in there, and that metaphor is life. 

    All you have to do, is create that contemplative space inside you, those pauses, so you can begin to look at these difficult patterns. That’s all the ancients actually ever taught. Now we can go off into quantum realities and describe it all ((as Robert Grant does in the earlier part of this interview)), but actually, it comes down to just that, just that mindfulness, just that spaciousness, so that the pattern has space to transform, and then it can transform really quickly as well. You can go from a seed to a tree really fast because awareness is the water, the nutrition & the nourishment that allows that whole process to happen, and then you’re left with this fruit, the juicy ecstasy of biting into this mango, or whatever your favourite fruit is.
    And it was there all along, that golden thread, that golden awareness, that awakening. It was there all along. It was in the numbers, it was just hidden in the thread, in the stream, and we just had to unlock it. And that’s what the Gene Keys are. And that’s what the Keys of Enoch were. And that’s what all these ancient teachings are about – the I Ching, Shakras, and the Vedic systems, the Kerala system, all the systems. You get to see the same golden thread in every single one, but just in a totally different way. Look at the Sufis in the Middle-Eastern deserts, they had more words for love than any other tradition. Like the Eskimos have different words for snow, the Sufis had different words for love – just layers and layers of different words to describe different aspects of love, because that’s all they wanted to see was love. There’s love that’s full of angst, desire & misery, but it’s still love. And then there’s love that’s at the highest level of divine annihilation and oneness with the cosmos – that’s also love. So it’s all about love ultimately. It begins with self-love.
    So creating space in your life through a contemplative practice, and I would say ultimately learning to be gentle with yourself is the greatest secret I’ve ever learned.
    And I learned one day ... what awakening is ... It’s a series of softenings. That went into me so deep. Wow. You just have to go on softening your heart, and then the mind opens, and everything begins to just kind of transform. And then those higher states are just there, are revealed, they’re underneath.” Richard Rudd
    “A Meeting of Brilliant Minds - Richard Rudd & Robert Grant on a Collective Awakening” - DejaBlu Ep109 https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/a-meeting-of-brilliant-minds-richard-rudd-robert/id1480169551?i=1000617036026

    An excellent free app to help practice the Gene Keys is: "Tripple Flame"