Adyashanti speaking to the spiritual path, how we fear losing our identity, and how as we reach a point of crisis consciousness has the opportunity to spread. Here is the first stage of the interview. If you find it interesting the full interview can be seen here.
Friday, January 30, 2009
Sunday, January 25, 2009
No Expectations
Expectations. As life trudges along the mind gets a better and better sense of "the way things are." We know what it feels like to eat, what it feels like to get up after "too little rest," what a twelve inch powder is like etc. Sure it is our memory and maybe unavoidable in that sense, but what would it feel like to taste ice cream for the first time again? Or see the sun for the first time? It seems like as soon as we pop out the womb we are getting ideas in our head about the "way things are." And thus a reality forms in which we find pleasure in somethings, and pain in others.
Everyday becomes the same. We do the same things because they give us pleasure (or because "we have to") and they give us more or less the same experience. Have you ever fallen in love with a CD or a song and so you listen to all the time and eventually it stops making it feel the way you used to? You expect it to make you feel like it did the first time you heard it; low and behold when you hear those lines "and all you touch and all you see, is all your life will ever be!" you don't feel the same way. Instead of cherishing that moment for what it is, I compare it to the last time I had that experience. Instead of becoming totally immersed in an experience, we tend to only enjoy it in regards to how much better or worse it was than the last time we experienced it. Another example is when you friend tells how great a movie is, you finally go see it and then it turns out what you thought it was going to be like was eons better than it actually was. With no expectations, no preconceptions, every experience would be new and thus exciting. With no expectations we are sure to be dazzled. And every experience would be taken not as better or worse, but just as an experience with infinite more power than no experience at all.
Everyday becomes the same. We do the same things because they give us pleasure (or because "we have to") and they give us more or less the same experience. Have you ever fallen in love with a CD or a song and so you listen to all the time and eventually it stops making it feel the way you used to? You expect it to make you feel like it did the first time you heard it; low and behold when you hear those lines "and all you touch and all you see, is all your life will ever be!" you don't feel the same way. Instead of cherishing that moment for what it is, I compare it to the last time I had that experience. Instead of becoming totally immersed in an experience, we tend to only enjoy it in regards to how much better or worse it was than the last time we experienced it. Another example is when you friend tells how great a movie is, you finally go see it and then it turns out what you thought it was going to be like was eons better than it actually was. With no expectations, no preconceptions, every experience would be new and thus exciting. With no expectations we are sure to be dazzled. And every experience would be taken not as better or worse, but just as an experience with infinite more power than no experience at all.
Friday, January 23, 2009
Real Talk
Simply put.
You are alive.
Most likely in complete health.
Living in a country where everything you need to survive and more can easily be obtained.
And blessed to have a future.
There are humans on this earth who can only relate to one or even none of these 4 statements. Think about that when you start to wallow in self-pity.
You are alive.
Most likely in complete health.
Living in a country where everything you need to survive and more can easily be obtained.
And blessed to have a future.
There are humans on this earth who can only relate to one or even none of these 4 statements. Think about that when you start to wallow in self-pity.
Comfort and Stagnation
Life these days can be pretty comfortable, never have to walk to far: we have cars, don't have to do much in order to eat: open the fridge, and most of the time we do not feel like our lives are about to get ended. The physical struggle is gone. And now a days we do not even have to worry about mental pain, or spiritual anguish if you will. You get home after a stressful day, you can just turn on the TV and in turn shut down your brain. If you are over 21 you can crack open a beer, mix a drink and the pain slips away. On a side note...
In the 60's the CIA conducted a broad based experiment in the pursuit of mind control known as MK-Ultra. They tested drugs such as LSD and many other common illicit substances but they settled on Television as the best way to control the masses. (this is just according to one source)
The point is, affluent society provides tons of ways to distract ourselves from pain in our lives. From my observation humans tend to operate out of necessity in regard to discomfort. There is no reason to risk your life in the hunt if there is ample food. You are not just going to run on an injured leg, unless you are being chased by a mountain lion.
e.g. Some years ago I experienced a lot of emotional or spiritual angst, at first I was able to just roll a fatty and drift away from my problems. However the pain in my life came to a point when this was no longer a sufficient remedy and I slipped into clinically diagnosed depression. As I have seen happen to a few people, including myself, I began to question the point of my existence; a questioning that did not occur before the pain of life became to much to bear. In a matter of months my mentality on life underwent a shift as I found new purpose.
Books:
Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
The Fire from Within In by Carlos Castaneda
In the 60's the CIA conducted a broad based experiment in the pursuit of mind control known as MK-Ultra. They tested drugs such as LSD and many other common illicit substances but they settled on Television as the best way to control the masses. (this is just according to one source)
The point is, affluent society provides tons of ways to distract ourselves from pain in our lives. From my observation humans tend to operate out of necessity in regard to discomfort. There is no reason to risk your life in the hunt if there is ample food. You are not just going to run on an injured leg, unless you are being chased by a mountain lion.
e.g. Some years ago I experienced a lot of emotional or spiritual angst, at first I was able to just roll a fatty and drift away from my problems. However the pain in my life came to a point when this was no longer a sufficient remedy and I slipped into clinically diagnosed depression. As I have seen happen to a few people, including myself, I began to question the point of my existence; a questioning that did not occur before the pain of life became to much to bear. In a matter of months my mentality on life underwent a shift as I found new purpose.
Books:
Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
The Fire from Within In by Carlos Castaneda
Monday, January 19, 2009
Self Importance, and Why I Want to Lose IT
This is one that has been getting at me lately and for a while I did not even realize it. Hell, I think it is always getting at me and I almost never realize it.
It really is painful, maybe the only reason we feel pain besides, in someway shape or form running our body's into something harder than us. Nearly every person thinks of themselves as important in some way, I guess it is a normal (don't argue the definition, i don't even know what it means...) course of matters, it is easy to become the epicenter of our own little universe and put ourselves up on a pedestal. Sure there is depression when one may feel worthless, but this is just a converse example: we only feel worthless because we picture ourselves on a pedestal, which doesn't exist, so we aren't on it.
It really is painful, maybe the only reason we feel pain besides, in someway shape or form running our body's into something harder than us. Nearly every person thinks of themselves as important in some way, I guess it is a normal (don't argue the definition, i don't even know what it means...) course of matters, it is easy to become the epicenter of our own little universe and put ourselves up on a pedestal. Sure there is depression when one may feel worthless, but this is just a converse example: we only feel worthless because we picture ourselves on a pedestal, which doesn't exist, so we aren't on it.
Where I first heard the importance of losing self-importance
My yoga teacher told me to have no expectations. The feeling of self-importance seems to be an ego driven expectation of how others should treat us and what we should be capable of. Which of course leads to a perpetual let down; The feeling of anger because one does not get the treatement he/she deserves; Sorrow because others don't care for us as they "should." And on and on, I am certain I do not grasp all of the ways my ungodly importance affects my life.
Well I guess I am done talking about things I don't understand, and I am going to resume worrying about how I am going to build my self-image tomorrow, feel bad because no one returns my calls, and mope about the standard of living I wish I had. Why ME? Why ME of all people!!
Sunday, January 11, 2009
Shared Experience
Its a pretty lonely world. Or at least it can be, especially when the goals of your life vier away from the cultural norm. An acquaintance of mine once said, "welcome to the island." And it can sure feel that way, especially when you no longer enjoy things other's pursue and your reason for living everyday is now purely your own. But Shared experience is pivotal to existence! Or at least I would think so because many of the most powerful experiences of my life have taken place with others and after these experiences our relationships are no longer the same. There is nothing more powerful than glimpsing the essence, except I think glimpsing it with other people.
Three of us sharing the experience of jumping a cliff
But its a fine line, or at least it seems so. Other humans can play into my life in strange ways in terms of intention. And I would say most encounters between humans are not as healthy as they could be as the underlying ego plays into all relationships, but there are those moments of blinding brilliance...
Three of us sharing the experience of jumping a cliff
But its a fine line, or at least it seems so. Other humans can play into my life in strange ways in terms of intention. And I would say most encounters between humans are not as healthy as they could be as the underlying ego plays into all relationships, but there are those moments of blinding brilliance...
Thursday, January 8, 2009
First Contact
I remember in talking to my friends in middle school, fantasizing about becoming rich and what our dream house would look like, and driving a Lamborghini etc. It seems silly to me looking back, but why should my dream future have looked any different? It is the American Dream and well I am an American (de los Estados Unidos). Somewhere in my person I doubted this dream, but wasn't "success" the purpose of life? Is it possible happiness didn't look like this?...
Existential strife followed. Luckily for me I made First Contact and talked to someone else who doubted the same dream. And a breath finally came as my life found new purpose. There is more to be found on this man-forsaken planet than being "successful" in the eyes of the social demon. The questions remains, what should I do now? And if not in excess money, where will freedom be found?
Great book that confronts this dilemma: Hope for the Flowers by trina paulus
Existential strife followed. Luckily for me I made First Contact and talked to someone else who doubted the same dream. And a breath finally came as my life found new purpose. There is more to be found on this man-forsaken planet than being "successful" in the eyes of the social demon. The questions remains, what should I do now? And if not in excess money, where will freedom be found?
Great book that confronts this dilemma: Hope for the Flowers by trina paulus
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)