Working with Essence

[deci belle]

This was in response to a PM…

I was asked to describe how I carry on from day to day, and note any "techniques" I use.

No techniques… just a sensitivity toward the flow of psychological content day in and day out.

Simply noting the mental contents without continuing along with their flow is all one can do.

It is an ongoing subtlety. Sometimes I'm not so successful for a time.

Whether I'm successful or not isn't as important as just continuing to note the chatter or silence without entertaining thoughts of anticipation— just accepting inherent goodness, as is; and resting in the gracious satisfaction of what is, as the natural course of being, sensing: knowledge without identification.

What is key is not being attached to outcomes; just a dedication to meeting the requirements of subtle (or not) response to everyday ordinary situations.

A buddhist directive is to "see through phenomena without denying its characteristics." In other words, meet creation with potential (I touched on that in my response to your OP); that is, deal with the situation on its terms without getting caught up in the flow of personality identity issues or anticipating and clinging to outcomes.

It is a matter of not positing personalistic thought patterns in the course of responding to phenomena according to the situation's potential. Assessing situational potential is not a matter of speculative (what's in it for me) mental gymnastics, it is actually seeing what is, and directing a sustained course toward a (sometimes distant) point which is dependent on the situation itself. It is the situational potential one responds to, because any situation is a created cyclic event. Taoism is an awareness tradition that espouses elemental distinctions for working with creative (created) cycles as a science. Spiritual adepts master seeing reality in order to follow along with creation's flow of events with a non-psychological perspective void of personalistic selfish views in order to "gather" its unrefined karmic potential.

Simply by not entertaining selfish views nor being attached to outcomes, one's response IS to potential, in terms of the situation itself. It's not a calculated affair. It's spontaneous and non-psychological. And that is spiritual.

That's easy to say but hard to implement sometimes, in that the spirit of the directive is not advocating a prejudicial posture of robotic insularity (in terms of a perceived hostile environment). The key is being aware of the real potential comprising the situation and working with that, over the long term, so as to keep a consistency relative to the situation's karmic evolution.

In terms of warfare, it's best to win without fighting. If one must fight, it's best to conclude hostilities in the shortest time as possible. A long drawn-out contention is not always avoidable. That's why saints, sages, buddhas and spiritual adepts apply themselves by working at the most subtle level of impersonal energy they possibly can. Dealing with situational potential is a subtle affair. Just this is powerfully subtle spiritual practice in and of itself. The entire situation is an organic karmic entity with many smaller karmic cycles comprising the larger. That's why war is the last resort of enlightening leadership. As such, warfare is. There has never been a time in human affairs where it hasn't been exercised. And to that end, it can (and should) be profitable to wage it.

Potential is the "workable" aspect of essence, in that it is unrefined. That's the karmic element spiritual adepts work with in order to refine themselves. They work with essence. Using situations to gratify the self is utter bondage to karmic evolution that never transcends creation. Working with essence directly without intermediary is the means to self-refinement by virtue of using situations to transcend creation while in its midst. Transcendence is not about conjuring a state whereby one floats in the air (not that I don't recommend it highly), it is, in taoist parlance, "planting lotuses in fire, sublimating oneself spiritually and physically in order to enter the Tao in Reality." Essence is not different than karma, but neither is it the same. Potential is the name used to point out the occult functionality.

That's what is driving situations anyway, but not assuming ascendency over the karmic reality by sheer force of will is the only real "technique" I can ascribe to in the course of spiritual alchemy. One does not rely on one's own power, one only uses (gathers) the potential inherent in the situation itself simply by virtue of seeing reality.

Sometimes, the best thing is to withdraw from the situation, either physically or by choosing to vacate that particular psychological space.

Right now I'm not talking to my mother… hahahhaaa!!

 

 

ed note: add "or anticipating and clinging to outcomes" in 8th; expand topic of warfare in 12th;"… is the only real "technique" I can ascribe to…" in next-to-last paragraph

Edited March 23, 2018 by deci belle