Nahm

Ya. The “dark workers” are really light workers.

@PlayOnWords That sounds like a great combo to me. How’s it coming along?

@PlayOnWords Sweet. What are you aiming to do in music? Record, perform, teach?

@Shanmugam Congrats! ??

Awareness is what is in awareness. Awareness is what is aware. Thoughts arise from awareness, as awareness, in awareness. Awareness is the desk, and you, and you are the desk, and awareness. Awareness... party for One. Without believing thoughts, they pass...and there’s just awareness. Try to see some humor in using the very thoughts arising as awareness to form questions about awareness. Thinking rooted in separation, need, lack, etc, all veils, each a filter on experience. Meditation slows the attachment to thinking down, creates the space to experience the space. Filters are realized and released. The direct experience of that ‘space’ is often referred to as experiencing awareness, and the ‘switch’ as you mentioned, and knowing awareness as yourself, a beginning of remembering in a way. When you realize there’s no ‘out of aware’. (Yes, and also it is awareness. So there’s no “it, in, & awareness’“...not-two. “Dream substance” might be a helpful word relatively) Realizing the subject/object illusion requires a calm mind. The thinking is what veils. Counting the nouns in a sentence can be helpful in looking for the ‘deeper’ unified perspective... “How to switch from what is in awareness, to what is aware?” << There’s 1: What is in, 2: What is. (Not-two) It’s easier to realize the subject/object illusion when there is less thinking from that perspective going on, thus ‘realizing’ the unity of awareness. Awareness “becoming” more aware. ..“Self Discovery”.. ”Self Actualization”.

Yes, you are quite literally being pulled back, & back to the ‘inner child’, the very source of you, right now. At the same time, you never left, you’ve never actually moved. Dial into that feeling for sure. Letting go is an art, a ‘way back’. You might think of reality as the Everything, which is half the story. The other “half” being Nothing, which can be discovered through calming the mind and detaching in meditation. Then, there is the whole. There are as many ways to arrive at enlightenment as needed.

I’d recommend at least doing 1 & 2. The really wild stuff was in 2. Excited for ya man!

If there is joy, there is not something in any need of “fixing”. Joy is dialed into inner being, presence, mindfulness, now, truth, unity-love. There is no suffering with a ‘totally silent mind’. Suffering is of the mind, it is a mental activity. There might be pain - if not, there is not a ‘totally silent mind’, rather, there is awareness of how sneaky we are in terms of thoughts being believable (they are not true). Possibly, the thoughts at play, are of the nature of fear of potential future suffering, which would then, only in and of itself, be present suffering. This suffering would be attributable to thinking (the worrying about the future). It is not possible to find the one who suffers. This is the beauty of self discovery and consciousness work. When it is realized there is not one who suffers, there is simultaneously no longer the suffering. Suffering (mental activity) can become so habitual, chronic, common to one, that one struggles to notice the thinking involved. (I hear you that this is an ‘experiment, and that is the key factor....) If you like it, there’s no suffering present. If you don’t like it, but choose to continue for a deeper benefit, such as ‘waking up’, building tolerance to cold or to discomfort, there’s no suffering present. If you don’t like it, and you stop choosing to do it, then there’s no problem, no suffering present. If you don’t like it - but continue to choose to do it - this is suffering. You would then contemplate why you’re choosing to do it. However, as you are doing this as an experiment, you are choosing to experience the cold shower. Because what you want (to do the experiment), and what you are choosing (to experience the coldness) are aligned, there is no suffering. It might get so cold that there is some discomfort and or pain, but still, as you are wanting to do this, choosing to do this, and doing this - there is no suffering. So in this particular experiment, you will not be able to find suffering. I believe this is leading to the assumption suffering “must then be” the same as sensation. Just because some thing is indistinguishable, does not necessarily mean that thing is present. What would be the desired outcome? What specifically are you wanting relief from? Physical pain, a reoccurring thought? Worry?

@MrBlue Both. Definitely take advantage of all resources available to you. This is your life we’re talking about. Quality of service in therapy varies greatly of course, but it can be a great experience. You’ll likely learn many new and great ways to look at things, as well as lots of very helpful aspects of self discovery. Add daily morning meditation to that, and you’ll experience a sort of 1 +1 = 5. The more you learn and self discover, the better. Twoness wise... consider the usefulness of character development, skill building, etc, in a video game...having nothing to do with the real you holding the controller.

??

I like it. ??

@mandyjw Ok, my bad. Went too masculine on that one.

@mandyjw That bitch!

@Natasha ♥️ The most beautiful girl at the dance, is the only one who doesn’t get to experience the most beautiful girl at the dance. Sorry about your luck. ?

@TheAvatarState Very nice!

I think this is why you thought I was a woman. Lol ??♥️

So true. So beautiful! I find there’s a feminine wisdom accessible ‘behind’ the masculine love, and a masculine wisdom discovered in expressing the feminine love - you relate to that at all? Just wondering. @Natasha Sorry to hear about your dog ?. There is a bit deeper sorrow in mourning & oneness, oddly, no? Seems to me loss is felt much more deeply. What was sadness and confusion, now a deep sorrow / joy / knowing, which can invoke a little more in us than the situation alone ordinarily would call for.

@Jordan Welsh Are you around (or where around) chronic tension & stress? And or, consider the question, on a scale of 1 - 10, what is the amount of expectation you put on yourself? Then consider, what’s the actual answer if you’re being completely honest? Just a hunch, but, maybe you think it’s a 1, but you actually put a lot of pressure on yourself, and have gotten used to it, so you don’t think you do. Maybe you always have for some reason(s) related to how you learned to view reality in general growing up. If that rings true at all...consider taking a little time each morning to think of things you’ve accomplished, things you made it through, learned more of who you are from. Seeing that it is indeed all ‘adding up’ nicely, and leading to what you are wanting, is just a good feeling and a good perspective. Relative, but, maybe there’s a sort of ‘healthy ceiling’ of engagement, and I wonder if you’re flirting with over-engaging a bit. Like, excitement to cook a meal that’s the best meal you’ve ever made tonight, compared to wanting to eat every great dinner you’ll ever eat for the rest of your life, tonight. If we aren’t at the slower tempo of joy in the moment, joy in the journey, living from feeling - then something is out of whack there, and can not be hammered into place.

https://hridaya-yoga.com/hridaya-yoga-articles/the-self-inquiry-method-of-ramana-maharshi/ https://www.stillnessspeaks.com/ramana-maharshi-self-enquiry/

@AlphaAbundance You are missing the only point of self inquiry, because you are stopping and asking about the arising thoughts. Let them go and continue the self inquiry. If you are making it a practice, set an amount of time. If you are self inquiring 24/7, great, but that means you’re letting every single arising thought go - because you are not a thought that comes and goes.

‘Buy it’. ?

That would be pain. Like @Serotoninluv said...can you describe some more, the sensation, the pain... where is it, what’s it feel like? Also, try to describe it abstractly by feeling- if it were a painting, what color would it be, how dense, how new or old, what scenery, what shapes, texture, etc, anything that comes up image wise can be most helpful to start to feel the relief. Doesn’t need to make sense how that works right now, just give it a try. Hang in there, the purification is coming from the inside out - you gotta let this be purified outward, ??. Can’t keep it in.

You are the One, the enlightened know this, they know they are you. Meditate; into the Self. Allow the mind to acquiesce; allow thought to secede. Allow control resignation. See about this nothingness, meet yourself again. Below the thinking, within the sensations, prior to ideas of you - know thy self. Vulgar? Obscene? Pushy? Irate? Hurried? Important? Demanding? What is the true nature? It is powerful beyond measure; innocent, subtle and kind. It waits eternally for you; to return, to remember - to meet again. It allows all things; it never asks for precedence. It supports you in every endeavor; while assembling the next. It waits while you eat what it did not yield. It waits while your foot is in your mouth. It waits until your show is done; judging you not. It waits for words to run their course. It waits through your ‘problem’; it waits while you ‘solve’. It waits. It has nowhere more important to go. It has nothing more important to do. It has no one more interesting to be. It is for you; it gifts you freedom. It is for you; selfless, it is your love. It is for you; and for you alone, it waits. There is no other; it is you.

There is only now. A one at a time, linear stream of thoughts, of which to pick; this, or that, only and ever, now. There is sensation, not in a past nor future, but now, so you can pick the thought which feels good to you - which creates. There is perception, of the reality, you are creating, in the picking of, all your this’s, which feel good, and are aligned, with you, now. You are creating your reality - Now.

Also consider the awareness you’re searching for is what thoughts are arising within. So a thought will never be an answer to self inquiry, even the “ I “ thought. That is “the first thought”, of every thought. Notice the “ I “ thought, and just stop and relax, and be aware of the “ I “ thought. The thought, “ I “...that you’d be surrendering....the thought. And consider the unconditional nature of being, and do some things (“doing self inquiry every moment in my daily life.”) you enjoy. Be as unconditional about feeling good as you can, and also do things that feel good. One big ol feeling good is a recipe for ‘connection’.