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”

Gradual AND Sudden Awakening

    A few nights ago, shoulder pain woke me around midnight. I got up & meditated on the meaning of the chronic, day & night pain, versions of which has been tugging at me for attention for at least three years. Soon after sitting down to meditate, I became immersed in a very complex, beehive-like buzzing - a manifestation of energy. And the pain & suffering melted away. This insight was a wonderful reminder of how everything is complex, intelligent, loving energy, and that pain is only one, tiny, insignificant, transient manifestation of It. I found this quote the day before, with the same message:
    “The center of every man’s existence is a dream. Death, disease, insanity, are merely material accidents, like a toothache or a twisted ankle. That these brutal forces always besiege & often capture the citadel does not prove that they are the citadel.” G.K. Chesterton
    I understood his word 'dream' to mean Mystery - our actual identity, dreaming up what we assume to be reality when we forget that we are the Dreamer, not the dream.

    “Everything changes once we identify with being the witness to the story, instead of the actor in it.” Ram Dass 

    'Witness' is easier to understand for our personal mind than 'writer-producer' - the One dreaming all of this.

    “It is said that awakening is an accident, and when we keep practicing, we become more accident-prone.” Nikki Mirghafori

    “chance only favours the mind which is prepared…” Louis Pasteur

    Zen teacher Henry Shukman concisely describes how - IF we're INTERESTED - we do evolve / grow / mature:

    "Broadly speaking, there are two approaches in human spirituality: gradualist and 'subitist.'
    The gradualist approach says we need to painstakingly, gradually improve our states of mind & heart, and we need long term training to do this.
    ... you work systematically ... reducing negative mind states, then eliminating negative mind states so they don't arise again, and gradually reducing & eliminating the causes of negative mind states. ...
    The subitist approach ... means 'sudden.' The idea here is that we're already whole, perfect & pristine, but we don't realize it. We actually are, but don't see it.
    Therefore, the logic of the practice here is to realize it, and suddenly see that that is indeed the case. We are already whole and okay, as expressions of a blessed empty boundless unity that all things belong to. Some call this 'pure consciousness,' others 'buddha nature' or awakened nature.
    The reason this kind of practice is known as sudden is that it’s a matter of finding what is already the case. Nothing really changes, except that we have a revelatory moment when we realize that all has been well all along, so to speak.
    This might sound extremely counter-intuitive, when the world is manifestly on fire, with war, oppression, cruelty & suffering. But actually, the logic here is that the world is only this way because we haven't realized how okay things actually already truly are. If we only see that, then our behavior will no longer be guided by our illusory way of seeing things, based on a separate sense of self, but by the reality of a larger wellbeing previously unnoticed, but always right here, which all things share.
    So one question is: are these two views and approaches reconcilable? And is it possible they're both right? The answer is surely, yes. It could be that by temperament some people are more drawn to one or the other, and that we may change our orientation as we change through practice. And it could also be that one without the other is incomplete. ...
    Either way, we are slowly & incrementally becoming more aligned with the underlying order of things, the fundamental wellbeing that is unfolding as this world – and which, paradoxically, we have always been expressions of anyway. But what a world of difference it makes to realize it. Yet, at the same time, on another level, it makes no difference at all.
    So on we go, down the pathless path." Henry Shukman henryshukman.com

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

    It's remarkably effective to remember who we truly are whenever life feels stressful & heavy: http://www.johnlovas.com/search?q=self-inquiry

     LISTEN to Eckhart Tolle clearly & humorously summarize, in 14 minutes, the heart of what I've been trying to say in over a thousand blogs: "The Mind's Limitation in Understanding Awareness" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XrjHWpBQcFw