Informal Practice Works!

     Many times each day, we all feel discomfort, not enough, yearning, hunger or void. This unpleasant feeling motivates most of us to seek physical / material relief - by doing things: eating, exercising, reading, blogging, working smarter, harder & longer, taking a nap, watching TV, playing NYT Games. But NONE of these satisfy!
    And at a level deeper than 'personal mind' ('separate self,' 'ego,' 'small self') - we know that these 'doings' merely distract but do not cure. But our 'personal mind' is only capable of urging us to keep doing more & more of these activities - that don't work. And this, we might recall, defines insanity.

    We usually take our physical / material existence far, far too seriously. Our default mode is 'doing' - to act, move, do something, do anything even if we realize that we're just spinning our wheels, getting nowhere: http://www.johnlovas.com/2020/11/the-mature-human-being.html There's a great reminder:

    "Don't Sweat the Small Stuff … and it's ALL Small Stuff!"

    Sometimes we go to the other extreme & take nothing seriously. Clearly there is a happy medium. But "the middle way" recognizes the limitations of the physical / material plane of existence AND the personal mind which works at this relatively low level. As long as we remain confined to this plane of existence & mindset, we suffer BECAUSE our deeper intelligence knows there's MUCH MORE to life than what we can see, hear & touch, AND that we are MUCH MORE than our body.

    “We are not human beings having a spiritual experience.
     We are spiritual beings having a human experience.” Pierre Teilhard de Chardin

    This may lead us to informal spiritual practices! As soon as we feel the annoying discomfort, not enough, hunger, void, INSTEAD OF MINDLESS DOING, we can CHOOSE Self-inquiry - asking ourself 'Who feels this dys-ease?' 'Who is suffering?' 'What is this?' 

    Self-inquiry practice ultimately leads us to our true Self, which, although is beyond understanding by our 'personal mind' & thus can't be adequately put into words, can nevertheless be directly experienced as Silence, Stillness, Awareness, Equanimity, Love, Joy, Freedom, Presence, Ultimate Reality, Vastness, Emptiness. 

    It's too easy to spend an entire lifetime chasing one's tail. Our precious life can be so much more pleasant & meaningful IF we experience & learn to act from our true Self. 

    A short, concise, powerful introduction to timeless non-dual understanding can be found in the short, ($3) book : Tim Freke. “Lucid Living. Experience Your Life Like a Lucid Dream.” Watkins, 2016.
    For more in-depth look at non-duality, I recommend Helen Hamilton's and Rupert Spira's books, eg Helen Hamilton. “Dissolving the Ego.” Balboa, 2021 and Rupert Spira “Being Myself.” NewHarbinger, 2021; & interviews online.

 WATCH Helen Hamilton: “You are the Sought and not the seeker”

Going With the Flow

     "Going with the flow" has a far more profound and surprisingly more practical meaning than might be assumed. It involves cultivating continuous respectful mindful curiosity about present-moment reality, moment-by-moment, as it unfolds.
    We block this wondrous capacity as soon as we prioritize "self-concern." The primitive, survivalist part of our brain is meant to take over when our life is in danger. BUT today, our life is rarely if ever in danger. Today, it kicks in many, many times per day, for the most minimal of threats to our ego, and when there's even a chance that our preferences will not be met (Michael Singer). This constant chronic over-reaction has the same negative effect on us as if our lives were actually continuously threatened! This is how most of us live - trapped in the survivalist perspective of "personal mind" (Michael Singer) "separate, small self".

    “It’s our erroneous belief in a separate selfhood, with its insistent refrain of 'I, me, mine,' that keeps us from hearing & seeing directly.” Shinge Sherry Chayat Roshi

    "Taking the backward step," a well-known Zen phrase, is the act of shifting from the usual, "personal mind" (Michael Singer) or "separate, small self" perspective with its "noisy ego," to the transpersonal, Unitive Consciousness perspective. Advanced beings of all traditions are well-known to be able to shift seamlessly, as needed, between the "quiet ego" of optimally-functioning "regular folk" and transpersonal, Unitive Consciousness.
    EVERYONE dearly wish to be happy YET most of us are ignorant of the fact that advanced beings are consistently the happiest of all people.

    The excellent 39 minute podcast (below) delves deeply into this & closely related matters.
    I include a bit of information to hopefully provide a bit of context & perspective. The "noisy ego" of our "separate, small self" is activated very easily, as mentioned above. One of the many triggers for this activation is perceiving anything that makes us feel uncomfortable: something different from our usual experience, something "foreign," something we don't understand, can't be bothered to delve into & investigate, and are apt to immediately label "crap" etc.
    In this category, "spirituality" is right up there among topics that shut us down & make us move on to 'lighter,' more entertaining distractions.

    Spirituality, broadly defined, is “the basic desire to find ultimate meaning & purpose in one’s life.”
    Spirituality I take to be concerned with those qualities of the human spirit – such as love & compassion, patience tolerance, forgiveness, contentment, a sense of responsibility, a sense of harmony – which brings happiness to both self & others.” Dalai Lama
    “The beginning of freedom is the realization that you are not the possessing entity – the thinker. Knowing this enables you to observe the entity. The moment you start watching the thinker, a higher level of consciousness becomes activated. You then begin to realize that there is a vast realm of intelligence beyond thought, that thought is only a tiny aspect of intelligence. You also realize that all the things that really matter – beauty, love, creativity, joy, inner peace – arise from beyond the mind.” Eckhart Tolle .
    "Spirituality is the innate human need to connect with something larger than ourselves, something that is considered sacred or divine. Inherent in this definition is the assumption that the need to transcend the limited self is just part of who we are as a species – it is ‘innate.’
    Not everyone ‘wakes up’ to this self-transcending facet of human nature & acts on it. But we tend to be miserably unhappy when we do not address this need. We need an active process – a relationship – with whatever we call the Divine.
    Spiritual intelligence is the ability to behave with altruistic love through wisdom & compassion while maintaining inner & outer peace (equanimity) regardless of the circumstances – coupled with the skill, competence, or ability to comprehend or make sense of things or situations & then bring adaptive, creative approaches to solve problems that humans face.”
    L.W.Fry & C.G Wigglesworth. “Toward a Theory of Spiritual Intelligence and Spiritual Leader Development.” International Journal on Spirituality and Organizational Leadership Vol 1, No 1, 2013, pp47-79. https://www.iispiritualleadership.com/wp-content/uploads/SLTISOL_SI.pdf#page=47

    I HIGHLY RECOMMEND LISTENING TO THIS excellent 39 minute podcast :