A Simple, Powerful Practice

    “Awareness is the very essence of each of our minds. It is the gravitational pull of our true nature on the apparently separate self or finite mind. That is where the power of meditation comes from – the gravitational force of our true nature attracting itself back to itself.” Rupert Spira, "Self Enquiry vs Mantra Meditation" : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UKGv5qW3lLo

    Below is Helen Hamilton's wonderful self-inquiry practice guiding us to embody our true nature, and thus enjoy profound peace. This occurs as we release our fear-based 'me alone against the world' delusion, and we open up to embrace the 'unitive mystical experience' - a profound felt sense of oneness - a key component of all of the world's mystical traditions.
    To derive the most from Helen's instructions, I suggest turning on & listening to her video (bottom of page) WHILE reading along using this transcript:

    “We are in satsang today for the highest of reasons – the culmination of human evolution is to realize the true essence of our being, what it actually is who we really are.
    And that is something very different to what we might have thought we were. This illusion persists for quite some time, that we are a separate person living in a body that’s separate to everyone else; that there are an infinite number of beings; and that when the body goes, we go.
    So in satsang we’re here to turn that around to the experiential, lived & effortless, constant realization that of who we really are. What does it actually mean to live constantly, effortlessly knowing who we are – when it’s not a mentally remembering anymore? What does this actually entail?
    I can only ever speak from my own experience and for me that was peace – a deep, profound peace. It’s not something up in our head that we’re carrying around – this understanding that I’m not separate to anyone else. It drops deeper than the mind. It drops into the heart, and then even eventually deep down, right into the cells of the body. And this understanding that I’m not separate really, that there’s only one of us here, no matter what our mind may think, results in this deep, deep quietness & peace, and eventually a complete lack of fear. Eventually that manifests as a kind of deep love & intimacy with all of life, all of existence, because underneath our mind’s ideas, we know deep down that it’s all always our Self that we’re meeting. Even if we think we’re meeting someone else, we never really have actually. So we all need reminding of who we really are until we don’t anymore, until it’s become effortless.
    And that’s what satsang is for. And the role of any authentic teacher is really to just keep saying this same thing over & over again, which is all I’m doing here, showing the same thing over & over again. And each time we see it, it cuts through the fog or veil of illusion that we are this someone, and it begins to quieten the mind down, when we realize more & more deeply that: what we’re thinking about; who we’re thinking about; where we’re trying to get to; and who we’re trying to become, might not actually be based on reality. That the actual reality is that there’s only one being here in existence, and it’s manifesting, appearing as all of this universe in fact.
    So all of our thought processes about what to do about this other being; what to do about this other thing that we want, or need, or want to get rid of; become less & less relevant and eventually we’re just not interested anymore. And that takes as long as it takes, but we can fuel & speed that process by coming to satsang like this.
    I wanted to take a different look at self-inquiry and do some self-inquiry live today. For me, self-inquiry was perhaps the thing I was confused about most, for the longest time. I had the sense, when I first came across this phrase ‘self-inquiry,’ that it was something that the mind had to get. In my mind, it was like, ‘Everybody’s tried to make it very complicated,’ as a way of resisting doing it. ‘If it feels too complicated, I don’t want to go there,’ – that kind of feeling. ‘I’m never going to be able to figure it out naturally.’ But I was surprised and delighted to discover that self-inquiry is one of the simplest things we can actually ever do.
    Self-inquiry could be as simple as asking to find out who we really are, what we really are, and then noticing the answers. Most of us have this belief that it’s hard to find out who we are, and we experience that belief. And it’s even harder perhaps, we feel, to live as that. So I want to approach self-inquiry from a different perspective today – in a way that I’ve called, very lightly, the inclusive method.
    We’re perhaps more familiar with the neti neti approach, which just means everything that I perceive, I am not that – in an attempt to get down to the most essential core of my being, I’m not my thoughts; I’m not my emotions; I’m not my experiences; I’m not my desires; I’m not my body; - on & on & on it goes, until I’m left with nothing, literally 'no thingness' – that must be what I am. And that’s the only thing that that’s not going to go. Well this approach has worked for many, many beings, but I never really got to grips with that approach, at least at first.
    I’m sure many teachers have done this – but I stumbled upon this (‘inclusive’) inquiry of including everything. And I had this epiphany one day that maybe the answers to the question, ‘Who am I?’ ‘What am I?’ are so immediately obvious that we can’t accept them; that we don’t accept them.
    So ask this question, that really worked for me, ‘What am I?’ And if you prefer, you can substitute the question, ‘Who am I?’ or ‘Where am I?’ – whichever one you like. I’m going to go with the question, ‘What am I?’ just for the sake of what really worked for me. And we’re going to accept that if we are the only thing in existence, the moment we ask this question, we must receive an answer. So it’s about opening up, and including all the answers we wouldn’t have previously included as answers. So work with this, and perhaps you’ll begin to see self-inquiry in a different light.
    To begin, let’s keep our eyes open, at least at first. Ask this question, ‘What am I?’ Immediately, I can hear a computer fan going, so there’s my first answer, ‘I am the computer fan.’ I can also hear my own breathing – ‘I am my breathing.’ I notice my body sitting here – ‘I am my body too.’ I hear birds singing outside the back of the house – ‘I am the birds singing, the bird-song.’ I can feel the air touching my face – ‘I am the air too.’ A car just drove past outside my house as I was saying that last sentence – ‘I am that car too.’
    So these might be answers that we wouldn’t normally include in a question, and as human beings we tend to fixate only on the answers that appear between our ears or feel inside our body. So this inclusive method is really just a way of opening up to all the answers that are being given right now.
    My body feels quite warm, so I am that heat. What else am I? Well, I am this (scarf I’m wearing), and these (bracelets I’m wearing), there’s another person in the room – Claire – I am Claire too. I see all of you – I am you too. In this way of opening up to who we really are is so immediate, that perhaps we might reject it. I am all the objects in the room that I’m perceiving. Everything my senses are taking in – I am that. And if I am you, I’m also everything that your senses are perceiving. If someone were to knock on the door or a phone were to ring or an ambulance siren went off, I’d be all of those too. If I got an itch or I had to sneeze, I’d be those too.
    This might be a different way of doing self-inquiry than you’re used to, but just feeling that your body can recognize the truth of the immediacy of this way of doing it. In between these words there’s a silent stillness – I am that too. There’s a spaciousness between all the objects. It’s also silence – same, same, I am that. But that is just another answer here in this inquiry. It’s not ‘the’ answer. It’s not even the right answer. There isn’t a right answer. There’s just the question, ‘What am I?’ and all the answers.
    Just looking around your environment, listening to what you’re actually hearing – subtle sounds, what subtle answers are you getting right now? Are there any smells? Are you hot or cold? Can you accept that these are answers to this most important question – ‘What really am I?’
    Self-inquiry for me, became so very immediate or I saw that it had always been. The moment I’d wanted to find out what I was, the very first time I realized that there was something to realize, life was answering that question consistently & continuously. And it took me all that time to learn to receive the actual answers. Wherever my body could go, if it could go to the other side of the universe somehow to a distant galaxy, I would also be everything I was experiencing there, and everything in between. I am these words. I am your experience.
    When we use this inclusive method, our body begins to relax. The more that we open and focus on the question – not trying to focus on the answers because the answers are all just coming – naturally there’s just peace, because we’re not limiting ourselves to any particular definition. We’re not even saying, ‘I am the silence, and not these words, these sounds.’ We’re including everything: phenomena and that which they arise from – all objects and that which is not an object. If some fear were to arise, I am that too – another answer. If I feel confused and not sure if I’m doing this right, I am that confusion too. If I have an epiphany, an aha moment, I am that too.
    But your whole life then, every experience, every moment, can be an answer to this question, ‘What am I?’ I am my boss when he’s angry. I am my friend’s birthday party. I am the airplane. On & on & on with phenomenal answers, and the noticing more & more constantly of the non-phenomenal answer: the Noumenon – the silent, stillness, consciousness, presence – whatever you want to call that. Not even preferring the Noumenon over the phenomena, because they’re really one and the same. So could the answer to this question be not so much of a thought process, or even an epiphany, although those are fine, but a lived, constant receiving of the answers to this question? Life is showing you constantly what you really are. And really moving away from trying to find a final answer, because there isn’t one, there’s one answer that’s always present: the silence, the stillness. And we come to notice it more. But it’s not really the right answer. There isn’t one. It’s just the only constant answer. It doesn’t make it better. It doesn’t make it different to the phenomenal answers which are coming and going. They’re just checking your environment around you noticing the subtle answers you’re receiving, even now. Noticing that your body begins to really resonate with this inclusive method. There’s no work here to do. There’s just an opening up to all the different types of answers that we receive to this powerful question, ‘What really am I?’
    We might even begin to realize that we’ve only really suffered because we valued our mind’s answers more than everything else, and perhaps excluded everything else, that we only value mind’s answers & thoughts – we experience those. We can simply open up at any point and see what other answers we’re missing out on. Maybe self-inquiry then becomes something that we be rather than we do; becomes a way of living, a mode of being, where everything we encounter – internal phenomena, thoughts, experiences, emotions, sense perceptions, everything external, seeming other beings, other things – begin to be recognized as our very own self. The more we practice this inclusive open way of inquiring, the more & more obvious it becomes that all of this is you. If these words aren’t coming from somewhere outside of you, they’re coming from inside, inside your own being, the only being.
    And maybe life can be simply a process of life showing us which answers we have excluded because we don’t like them. Fear, guilt, shame, anger, other beings that we have a challenge with, and being willing to include them. That is also me, this is how I’m showing up right now. I’m also appearing as this shame, this frustration, this irritated person in front of me at the supermarket.
    You can appear in an infinite number of ways. And as you practice like this, you lose the attachment to the particular body that’s here right now. I am all of these bodies. Bodies are coming and going constantly. Yes, we look after and value this body, but we don’t need to be scared when it’s gone. And we recognize we are all of existence. So just feel right now, just for in terms of getting used to self-inquiry, if you like it like this, and this has been easier for you, then this will take you all the way into full realization.
    Just remembering gently to ask the question throughout the day, ‘What am I?’ ‘What else am I?’ Seeing every now and again if we haven’t closed up and begun to exclude things that we think are external – sounds and other people and all of that. Out of habit, we close back up again, and start to only listen to thoughts & emotions, giving them a specialness over everything else that’s in existence. But here in this way of inquiring, a thought is really no more special than a sofa, a human body, or a cloud. They all have the sameness. It’s just another way I am appearing. I’m appearing as this judgmental thought, as this angry thought. I’m appearing as bliss, or peace, or frustration, or sadness, or snow, or sunshine. Appearing as the smallest subatomic particle and the whole universe itself. Anything that I can perceive must be an answer to this question, ‘What really am I?’
    Can we accept that it can be this simple and direct? Do we have to make it more complicated than this? Then just living like this for a while becomes a habit, where you somehow, in the middle of all that, forget how to divide yourself into me and other. The more we include, include, include, the bigger our self-definition gets until it becomes as big as the universe and its source. And that need not take very long at all. What takes the time is our habit of closing back up, excluding again. So for a little while you’ll be opening up, including, then forgetting about that and focusing back on thoughts and beginning to suffer, and then you’ll open up again and feel peaceful, expansive, and then you’ll close down again. After a little while, with consistency, you’ll forget how to focus on only one type of answer - on thoughts. I hope that you’ve had a different experience of self-inquiry than maybe you’ve had before. I hope that it is more accessible, and perhaps more pleasant and peaceful and much more effortless. It really is just about asking the question and being open to see how immediate the answers might be. Being willing to see the different types of answers, things that perhaps you wouldn’t normally guess as answers to a question: a bird singing, the siren wailing, the rain falling – yet they are here. When I ask the question, what I experience must be the answer.” Helen Hamilton "What really am I?" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_b0py5Ae5bA

Helen Hamilton "What really am I?"

Attention & Awareness of Awareness

     “When we are asked the question, ‘Am I aware?’, in order to answer the question from experience, our attention has to go to the experience of being aware. So our attention removes itself from any object – from the door, from the sensation, from the thought – and it looks for the experience of being aware. But it can’t find it. Because attention can only be directed towards an object. So the attention vacillates for a moment between objects, looking for the experience of ‘being aware.’ Whether it goes outwards or inwards, it cannot find the experience of being aware. Anything it focuses itself on is not the experience of being aware, it is what we are aware of. So the attention vacillates for a moment, and then it begins to subside. It sinks back, and it goes back, and back, and back, and back, until it reaches its source, at which point it ceases to be attention. 
     Because attention can only stand by being directed towards an object. Without an object to be directed towards, the attention cannot stand. It falls, or collapses back into its source. And at some point, is revealed as pure consciousness – that is, consciousness without an object. We can define attention as consciousness directed towards an object. 
     In the absence of an object, upon which to focus our attention, attention cannot stand, and it falls back, through lack of support, into its source. It is a non-process, a non-practice. 
     The rising of attention is an activity. The sinking back of attention is the cessation of that activity. It’s often called meditation and it seems to be an effort that we have to make. It’s not an effort that we have to make, it is the cessation of a previous effort which we didn’t realize that we were making. So this non-practice of sinking the attention into its source is in Sanskrit called atma vichara, which for many years has been misleadingly translated as ‘self-inquiry’. Because when people hear ‘self-inquiry’ – what is an inquiry? An inquiry is an activity of the mind, directed towards an object. So when we hear practice self-inquiry, the first thing we all think - and I thought this for many years – is that self-inquiry is an activity of the mind searching for the ‘I’. And then of course the question arises ‘which I’ and ‘where is the I’ and we’re all aware of the confusions that have arisen around which I are we inquiring into, and what is the process of inquiry? Atma vichara is better translated, not as self-inquiry, but self-abidence or self-resting. 
     In Ouspensky’s tradition it is referred to as self-remembering. Again, that was, in most cases misunderstood because it’s only possible to remember something with objective qualities. That was not what was meant in that tradition, but it was misunderstood. So again, the mind went off in search of a self it was supposed to be remembering. No, it’s a non-objective remembrance of our eternal nature - its recognition, its re-knowing of itself.
     Why is it called a recognition? It’s because previously, the attention or awareness or consciousness rises in the form of attention in order to know something other than itself. When consciousness knows something other than itself – such as an object, or person or world, or thought – it, as it were, turns its back on itself. It ceases gazing at itself, rises in the form of the finite mind or attention, and in the form of the finite mind or attention, it can look away from itself and this apparent looking away from itself involves the forgetting or overlooking of itself and this is in the spiritual tradition what is called the primal ignorance – the ignoring of the reality of consciousness. 
      So when attention sinks back into its source, it doesn’t know something new, it recognizes something which it’s always known, but seemed to overlook because of the exclusive focus of its attention on objects."

Rupert Spira

https://batgap.com/rupert-spira-2nd-interview/

From Choppy Waves - To Still, Silent Depths

    From our usual (left-hemisphere-dominant) perspective, Mystics sound strange, unreasonable, even disturbed. One famous mystic's quote - which in light of today's escalating wars in the Ukraine & middle East, and rapidly-worsening environmental crises - comes across as counterintuitive & wildly optimistic:

"All shall be well,
and all shall be well,
and all manner of things shall be well." Julian of Norwich (1342 – 1416) English Christian mystic

    We have many clues to why mystics see things so differently than we typically do:

    “So long as one is merely on the surface of things, they are always imperfect, unsatisfactory, incomplete. Penetrate into the substance and everything is perfect, complete, whole.”
    Philip Kapleau. “The Zen of Living and Dying. A Practical and Spiritual Guide.” Shambhala, 1998.

 "Without the arising and subsiding of thoughts,
there is a naturally limpid, pristine state,
like the unwavering evenness of a limpid ocean.
Free of the occurrence of or involvement in thoughts,
free of hope or fear,
you abide within the state of naturally occurring timeless awareness,
the true nature of which is profoundly lucid."
    Longchenpa

    We usually conflate "thinking" with "reason," our "internal dialogue" ("self-talk") AND EVEN our actual identity - who we are!! But then we can also be poets, musicians, artists, meditators, mystics & saints. It's as if we are two very different people, depending on HOW we attend to our environment, others & ourselves.
    WHEN we assume that we are separate individuals, competing to survive alone in a hostile, chaotic, meaningless dead world, our attention becomes narrowly focused on trying to control our (mostly uncontrollable) material environment. This is left-hemisphere dominance. In this mode of attending, which is almost universal in our present day, stressed-out, materialist society, we lock into quick & dirty black & white thinking for survival & pleasure, dismissing & disregarding anything complex, subtle, or nuanced, like spirituality & mysticism.
    On the other hand, WHEN we're able to use BOTH hemispheres of our brain in a BALANCED way, then we can control what is controllable AND are able to enjoy life in context of the BIG PICTURE, and thus experience Oneness with other human beings, animals, plants & the cosmos (Universal Consciousness or Self) in a kind, loving, collaborative manner.

    "There’s some very nice research which shows, at least implicitly, that our thinking begins ((in the right hemisphere)) at a pre-linguistic level which is a sense of a gestalt, in other words of a shape or form, an analogy, a metaphor of something, that our thinking is embodied in a, if you like, nonverbal, visual, or kinesthetic way, bringing all our senses to bear.
    And the next stage is that we allow the left hemisphere’s language centers to process that in language. But that’s only an intermediate step.
    In order to understand it fully, whatever has been made explicit, then has to be reabsorbed or taken up again by the right hemisphere’s global understanding and made sense of again in context.”
    Iain McGilchrist https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hD7BHJHkufY .

    Most of us are unknowingly completely lost in, hypnotized by, & identified with the internal dialogue (self-talk) - as if in 'arrested development,' at the noisy, most obvious, intermediate phase of the thinking process (mentioned above). Meditation teachers & mystics consistently try to help us release our obsession with mind chatter, COMPLETE OUR THINKING PROCESS, and THUS be able to embody our far wiser, silent, witnessing Universal Intelligence. This is often compared to shifting from the choppy waves on the surface to the deep silent still depths of the ocean.
    More on "self talk": http://www.johnlovas.com/search?q=self-talk and http://www.johnlovas.com/search?q=Weber .

    Self-inquiry is an advanced spiritual practice specifically to dis-identify from all those sticky phenomena which cause unnecessary suffering but are actually transient, and do not represent who we truly are: wise, silent, witnessing Universal Intelligence. More on "self-inquiry": http://www.johnlovas.com/search?q=Self-inquiry
    I HIGHLY recommend the first 23 minutes of Helen Hamilton's : “The Shortest Path to Freedom!” to help you shift from mere intellectual understanding (& flipping back & forth between peace & suffering) to directly experiencing Self (progressively deeper, more stable peace & joy) : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JiyxRc9CMlY

 

Heart - Art by Jean-Pierre Weill from "The Well of Being"

What Are We to Do?

     Yesterday, a long-time meditator friend asked how I was. I answered, "No complaints at all - the timeless aspect is perfect; the temporary part is doing its temporary thing." The answer entirely depends on who answers - the "small self" or the "Self." We all are a mysterious combination of these very different ways of being & experiencing, depending greatly on how, in the moment, narrowly focused we are on ourselves vs how intimately connected we feel with others & the environment. The practice of self-inquiry involves repeatedly checking in by asking ourselves, for example, 'WHO is suffering?'
    The small self is a way of being & experiencing life with a very narrow, self-centered, short-term-goal-oriented, survivalist perspective. Intermittently, for brief periods of time, this approach is entirely appropriate - WHILE performing a specific task, and WHILE one is in danger. Balanced, short, intermittent action of the small self is referred to as the "quiet ego."
    Most of the time, what's more appropriate is a broad, allocentric (others-centered) & ecocentric (environment-centered), timeless, peaceful, spacious, unconditionally-loving perspective, often referred to as (capital s) Self. This is a dimension within each of us - our true nature - that is deeper or higher than the continuous movement of thinking/self-talk. The Self is dominant in highly-evolved individuals, often with a long-time meditation, yoga, tai chi / qi gong or prayer practice. Historically, mystics, saints & monastics, but today increasingly ordinary people are awakening to this evolved level of consciousness.

    The lives of dictators, stridently aggressive politicians, CEOs & other cut-throat movers & shakers are dominated by the 'noisy ego' of small self. Sadly, due in large part to the increasingly toxic nature of our culture, many otherwise decent people see only danger & experience nothing more meaningful & profound than the noise of their own self-talk, which too easily drowns-out awareness of the silent, still, peaceful Self.

    "The most important question a human being needs to answer according to Einstein: 'Is the universe a friendly place or not?' ... If we believe that the universe is unfriendly ... peace will be elusive at best." Joan Borysenko. “Fire in the Soul. A New Psychology of Spiritual Optimism.” Warner Books, 1993.

    “the world we believe in becomes the world we live in. If I see the world as a hostile place where only winners thrive, I may well become aggressive, selfish, and grandiose to survive in such a milieu. Later in life I will gravitate to competitive environments and endeavors that can only confirm that view and reinforce its validity. Our beliefs are not only self-fulfilling; they are world-building.” Gabor Maté, Daniel Maté. “The Myth of Normal. Trauma, Illness & Healing in a Toxic Culture.” Alfred A. Knopf, 2022. IMPORTANT BOOK!

    “Emptiness is two things at once:
the absence of self
and the presence of the Divine.
Thus as self decreases,
the Divine increases.”     Bernadette Roberts

    "There’s only one happiness and it’s who you are. There’s only one place to find lasting happiness, and that is to know who you are and to be who you are.” Francis Lucille

     So what can we do? Perhaps practice & do our best to continuously embody mindfulness, which Caverly Morgan defines as: “Being here and now with kindness.” www.peaceinschools.org

 

Kindness is the Way ... by Mollycules www.BuddhaDoodles.com

Approaching the Mystery of Life

            “Attention is the rarest and purest form of generosity.
             Absolutely unmixed attention is prayer.” Simone Weil

    Can I allow myself to be deeply curious?
    Can I reserve time to sit down, be still, silent, and simply observe what spontaneously arises; only to observe - no judging, pushing away, hanging onto, or otherwise getting entangled with the words, images & sensations that arise?
    My interest is not in what arises - not the content, but the source of all this stuff. This is a radical shift from automatically identifying with the content of 'self talk.' 

    So I gently, patiently keep accepting that the focus of attention keeps getting drawn to content, and refocus by silently wondering who is hearing this? Who is seeing this? Who is feeling this? 

    This 'self-inquiry' process is how meditators have, for a very long time, become acquainted, and gradually intimate with authentic self. This is the basis for shifting from our common mistaken identity of a fearful powerless child, abandoned in a hostile meaningless universe, to authentic self: wise, still, silent, peaceful, joyous, kind, nurturing powerful elder. Ramana Maharshi. "How to Practice Self Inquiry." 2014.

    After a lifetime of studying & practicing Buddhism, Sandy Huntington wrote as he was dying of pancreatic cancer: “I am learning the hardest of lessons: to no longer want more than what I am given, and to allow what I have been given to guide me through the purifying flames of love and grief into the brilliant darkness of unknowing.” C.W. Huntington Jr. “What I Don’t Know About Death. Reflections on Buddhism and Mortality.” Wisdom Publications, 2021. Deep & Excellent

    Investigate how everything changes when you shift from fear to love, embodying your authentic self, intimately engaging with & nurturing all you deal with, in each present moment.

            “To not be stingy with my life, with myself,
             is to fully express myself at every moment —
             fully express everything that I am.” Nancy Mujo Baker  


            "There is but one cause of failure
             and that is man's lack of faith
             in his true Self." William James

 

Small separate self and Big Mind

     There are many ways of expressing "separate self": small self, narrative-self, ordinary mind, personal mind, pain body, egocentricity, noisy ego, fearful hurt child, etc. All of these reveal aspects of the common, and for many, the default self-concept / worldview. This worldview is fear-based; conflates survival of the ego with survival of the body; assumes we're all "alone in a competitive, hostile world" where one's external circumstances rigidly, mechanically determine quality of life; where perfect control of one's external environment means everything to the left-hemisphere-dominant mind. But since perfect control is never achievable, "ordinary unhappiness" is as good as it gets. Nevertheless, when anxiety, fear & unhappiness dominate, this ordinary mind rules - much like how during emergencies, the fight, flight, freeze instinct kicks in; and also like how during times of war, right-wing dictators find it easiest to cling to power.

    “No one can tell you what awakening is. I could use a lot of words to describe what it’s like. I could say it’s kind of like wakening from a dream. Suddenly you’re not who you think you are. You are not the dream character, the person or personality that you’ve been playing all your life.” Dan Schmidt

    Nevertheless, "Big Mind" has been experienced & pointed towards in many ways & words, such as: Awakening, Awareness, true self, Self, Universal Consciousness, Source, Buddha nature, the Divine, high-plateau experience, enlightenment, Christ consciousness, God, Fundamental Wellbeing, Ongoing Non-Symbolic Experience, Juingong, etc. One of the better books describing how people - whom Martin calls "Finders"- from around the world have experienced this is: Dr. Jeffery A. Martin. “The Finders.” Integration Press, 2019. 

    “Every word, every image used for God is a distortion more than a description.” Anthony de Mello SJ

    "Another name for God is Surprise!" Brother David Steindl-Rast

    “As soon as you look at the world through an ideology you are finished. No reality fits an ideology. Life is beyond that. … That is why people are always searching for a meaning to life… Meaning is only found when you go beyond meaning. Life only makes sense when you perceive it as mystery and it makes no sense to the conceptualizing mind.” Anthony de Mello SJ

    Those who experience higher states of consciousness for sustained periods report extraordinary levels of wellbeing. Regardless of geographic location, ethnicity, spirituality / religiosity, education etc, there is remarkable similarity in "Finders'" descriptions. More & more such people are sharing their experiences in serious, in-depth interviews: https://batgap.com/ and http://conscious.tv/ and https://cac.org/podcast/turning-to-the-mystics/ and https://www.guruviking.com/ etc. 

     Finders “have moved past their moments of doubt & frustration. They have found exactly what everyone else has been seeking their entire life. For them, each moment feels perfectly okay at a deep & fundamental level, regardless of actual life circumstances. There individuals do not dwell on past regrets or glories, nor worries about future hopes & dreams. They live peacefully in the present, while everyone else around them seems intent on trying to escape it. They’ve not only found fulfillment but a deep & fundamental sense of wellbeing.” Dr. Jeffery A. Martin. “The Finders.” Integration Press, 2019.

    As soon as we notice that we're confused & suffering, as if we were alone, struggling to survive in a hostile world, Zen advises that we "take the backward step" and ask ourselves, "Who is confused? Who is suffering? Who is struggling?" This "self-inquiry" practice will increasingly serve to snap us out of the illusion of being this small "separate self" - the pawn in some cruel cosmic game, and back to our true self, ONE with everyone & everything, the Source, Universal Consciousness. 

    Gradually, as wellbeing becomes stabilized, Finders can opt to shift into a "quiet ego" ("doing mode") to perform certain practical tasks, then effortlessly return to Awareness ("being mode") again. As an aside, Iain McGilchrist's right-hemisphere dominance accommodates both of these (while left-hemisphere dominance is equivalent to "noisy ego" - much higher levels of self-centeredness). Martin's book is quite detailed, providing insight into Finders' profound qualitative change in perspective, self-concept & worldview after which they (other serious meditators, mystics & saints) say / write seemingly opaque, confusing & even paradoxical statements, such as this well-known unequivocal declaration:

    "All shall be well,
     and all shall be well,
     and all manner of things shall be well." Julian of Norwich (1342 – 1416) English Christian mystic

    Just as Bessel Van Der Kolk's excellent book, “The Body Keeps the Score. Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma” helps us look back and understand self-compassionately, the effects of past traumas on our lives, Jeffery Martin's valuable book, "The Finders" helps us roughly locate where we are now on our spiritual journey and provides an important map for the joyful trails awaiting us.

        “But by my love and hope I beseech thee:
         cast not away the hero in thy soul!
         Keep sacred thy highest hope!”            Friedrich Nietzsche “Thus spoke Zarathustra”

 

Molly Hahn buddhadoodles.com

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”