Playing with Perspectives

[UnbornTao]

The purpose of this journal is to share questions, humor, miscellaneous creative content, and raw reflections on personal empowerment and consciousness. My goals are to deepen my experiential understanding of these topics, improve my communication skills, have fun, and help others see things in a new light.

Edited June 2 by UnbornTao

[UnbornTao]

The pursuit of pleasure is itself a form of suffering. It is based on the ideation that your experience is not okay as it is now and that it should be a different one. 

Pleasure and pain are two sides of the same coin.

Edited May 30 by UnbornTao

[UnbornTao]

When perceiving things in relation to yourself, you may well infer that meaning is found in them or is produced by them. But consider anything (an object, a feeling, a thought) as something that is itself. What is actually there for itself - independent of my relationship to it?

Meaning is generated and applied rather than inherent. It isn't found in the beingness of something but shows up as a relationship and an activity. That something is invented doesn’t undermine its function, value nor influence. It just means that it isn’t existential - it's ultimately untrue. Contemplate, for example: What's the meaning of a tree? For itself, what does the tree mean?

What something is transcends value, worth, and meaning. To put it differently: The truth doesn't mean anything; it just is. And being is prior to meaning.

Edited June 4 by UnbornTao

[UnbornTao]

On evaluating “spiritual” teachers.

Are they:

• honest, clear, straightforward?
• coming from direct experience?
• communicating something real?
• facilitating the students' growth? 

Edited May 23 by UnbornTao

[UnbornTao]

Either do something to change it, or stop complaining.

Edited May 27 by UnbornTao

[UnbornTao]

You need to strike a balance between these two principles:

1. Being open without groundedness — you become airy-fairy, pretentious, superficial, unreliable, unable to commit.
2. Being grounded without openness — you become closed-minded, resistant to change, fearful of questioning, unwilling to entertain new possibilities.

To counteract the tendency to be open without keeping your feet on the ground, breathe, relax, feel your body. Exercise or do mechanical, physical work. And rest. What am I perceiving right now?

Edited June 2 by UnbornTao

[UnbornTao]

Quote

Why are you unhappy?

Because 99% of what you think, and of what you do

is for yourself—and there isn’t one.

— Wei Wu Wei.

 

Edited May 23 by UnbornTao

[UnbornTao]

Once beliefs are recognized to be conceptual fabrications, you may be tempted to take them as invalid and useless. Although untrue by nature, one's mind and self are still heavily influenced by them. Instead of trying to get rid of all of them immediately (which wouldn't be a terribly bad idea), you can change how you relate to them.

They can be kept while one is aware of their invented nature; see them as tools. Notice they are ideations about something. Keep positive, empowering ones and toss out the negative, dysfunctional ones. Lastly, watch out for the possibility of falling into beliefs as if they were true, filtering reality though them and falling into a self-validating dynamic.

Edited June 2 by UnbornTao

[UnbornTao]

Ramblings on honesty

Honesty serves the truth, not yourself. As a practice, it demands continuously moving towards whatever is estimated to be truest experience you have at the moment. Of course, this means that what you want is going to be, for the most part, inconsistent with the principle's demands. That's where the power of the principle resides. Honesty will point towards a direction that you might resist at first. Committing to following through it transforms you.

As opposed to adopting a doctrine or belief system, use honesty as your spiritual practice. It kicks ass. 

———

If the truth is unknown, how sincere can you be? Self-honesty is primary. Before you can be honest with others, you must recognize and tell the truth to yourself.

Given that survival is a self's main mission, the truth is a very low priority, if it is even considered as worthy. Generally, it seems to be relegated to a philosophical diversion, and conveniently distorted so that it meets one's self-agenda. At that point, the goal is no longer about noticing what is but becomes a self-serving manipulation--a phenomenon also known as corruption.

———

Honesty is like a fire that extinguishes lies, inauthenticity, phoniness, confusion, manipulations, and pretension. As your practice deepens, it can begin to get scary. Your attachment to various kinds of falsehoods will be threatened, and the principle demands letting those go, whatever they are, provided they are not authentic. Remember, it is an incredibly profound principle. 

———

Besides, honesty simplifies your expression--it generally tends to become straightforward and clear, as real communication comes from your actual, present experience. You are tasked with having to carefully observe your experience as it is, and then get that across with no distortion added on your part. The challenge lies in finding out what's true and expressing it as it is. 

Edited May 22 by UnbornTao

[UnbornTao]

Quote

Our life-transformation is in exact proportion to the amount of truth we can take without running away.

— Vernon Howard.

To the degree honesty rules your life and decisions is the degree to which it will transform you.

Edited May 25 by UnbornTao

[UnbornTao]

Openness demands identifying assumptions and beliefs - and then setting them aside so that the truth can be sought for yourself.

Assuming you already know something undermines openness. Despite our cultural arrogance, we may eventually discover that even our most fundamental and cherished beliefs were inaccurate - or just plain wrong.

It’s like being on a road trip: whatever landscape is visible through the window at any given moment is mistaken for a true reflection of reality.

And the landscape is always changing.

Edited May 30 by UnbornTao

[UnbornTao]

Since we deeply do not know what anything is, we adopt spurious notions - such as a philosophy or religion - in order to cover up this raw state. This may temporarily make us feel better, yet the nagging sense that all this effort might be artificial still persists in the background of our experience.

Despite our best attempts to the contrary, we remain unaware of some of the most fundamental aspects of existence - including the nature of ourselves - no matter how fervently we cling to belief systems.

Edited June 8 by UnbornTao

[UnbornTao]

What you assume shows up as your current "reality." An existential presumption is held in such a way that it isn't recognized as something assumed. As with your eyes, the function of the assumption is to observe from it, not to look at it.

Edited May 30 by UnbornTao

[UnbornTao]

Learning something new is useful but so is unlearning what is untrue or ineffective. Balance the subtle dynamic between addition and subtraction. Clarify an obscure matter so that its essence is pristine, left to be seen, with no interference on your part. 

Edited June 4 by UnbornTao

[UnbornTao]

What's instantly and easily achievable is usually temporary. The longer the time horizon, the harder it often is to achieve:

• Gratification vs satisfaction
• Pleasure vs happiness
• Distraction vs focus
• Indulgence vs patience

Edited May 23 by UnbornTao

[UnbornTao]

Some addictions are unconscious behavior patterns that tend to meet an emotional need. They obviously aren't "logical." That's why you can't think your way out of them no matter how illogical or dysfunctional the behavior is. It seems that placing conscious awareness on one's experience helps in that.

Edited June 2 by UnbornTao

[UnbornTao]

Direct experience is self-validating. If it is in fact an authentic insight (not a small if), it reveals what's already true as a conscious experience. Otherwise, it is something else, like a conclusion or opinion. 

Edited Wednesday at 03:59 PM by UnbornTao

[UnbornTao]

We confuse what we are as a conscious entity with our selves. We think that we are a person, the particular one we've crafted throughout our lives. This might not be true. Who are you for real?

Edited May 30 by UnbornTao

[UnbornTao]

Without fear, do you think you'd jump in front of a moving train? Of course not. You haven’t suddenly become oblivious--you’ve simply stopped generating the activity of fear. The emotion isn’t what keeps you from doing dangerous things; it’s the understanding that you’d hurt yourself that does.

Fear isn’t actually necessary for taking sensible action. Knowing the potential consequences of a given action is enough to stop you from doing it. Fear is just an unnecessary add-on to that process. Then again, we tend not to be very sensitive to what we do, so the fear might be useful in those cases. Also, you could contemplate: What would it take for me to enjoy the fear?

Edited May 30 by UnbornTao

[UnbornTao]

What is experiential listening?

How often do you feel truly heard--as in, having someone actually get your experience? How well do you truly listen to others? It doesn't always have to be a profound or life-altering exchange. Still, it's rare, isn't it? 

I've been paying close attention to this dynamic lately. Someone tells me something, but it's as if there's a wall between us. You hear their words and understand them but that's not the whole story, is it?

Listening requires grasping another's experience as it is, without filtering it through your own agenda. It's about their experience, not yours. This point bears repeating. Moreover, this act prioritizes the experience being conveyed rather than the persona behind the expression. 

So ask yourself: Am I interacting with my own interpretations, beliefs, desires, and opinions in response to what someone said, or am I truly listening to them?

Edited June 10 by UnbornTao