#26 (22e) What truth in the mind?

#26(22e) What truth in the mind?

Here's what I find is true ...but it's not The Truth - it's only the translation of it into thought via language.

Everything is You
Everything is Me.

That's it..hehe

To expand on this I could say:-
Imagine the whole world and everything and everybody in it is your Dream.

A yacht sails on the Mediterranean with a couple on it gazing toward a beautiful sunrise. You can imagine that -right?
Then the TV goes click and turns off and the woman who is sitting nearby asks you if you liked their holiday video if you want another cup of tea!
Imagine that as well !
All of the reality you see is in your Dream, in your mind: the yacht, the Mediterranean,the couple,the TV,the tea-- The house,the houses,the carpet ,the children, the people, the dog and the goldfish called 'Bubbles'.

So  - If this is my experience, my reality of what the world is, I think it's pretty clear how I regard "The Truth".
All the Laws of Physics and so forth are all your creation...and so is Socrates...and so is Bertrand Russell.

By the way : If your argument is that this is not so you may find yourself saying:
"What a load of rubbish- How can I have created the whole world it's ridiculous-
"The world is out there and does exist - Reality just IS !!! "
Which sounds an awful lot like "Let there be light" doesn't it..hehe
It's all a creation.

.How can you and I both be the Creator?
I got no idea how to answer that!
I have an answer but it's not really something I can communicate in writing or even thinking.
I think it could be because any answer I come up with is 'true' inasmuch as I just thought of it and created it!


.It gets worse !
All there is, is Now, this moment  - 'This'.
The past and the future are not here right now - where are they?
Both can exist as images or ideas in the mind -but they are not here.
You must concede all that is available to view is here now even if it includes convincing evidence of the past.
"I lost my slippers yesterday -oh -here they are under the bed where I left them" -etc.


.The Truth.
.Lila (or Leela).
"Brahman is full of all perfections. And to say that Brahman has some purpose in creating the world will mean that it wants to attain through the process of creation something which it has not. And that is impossible. Hence, there can be no purpose of Brahman in creating the world. The world is a mere spontaneous creation of Brahman. It is a Lila, or sport, of Brahman. It is created out of Bliss, by Bliss and for Bliss. Lila indicates a spontaneous sportive activity of Brahman as distinguished from a self-conscious volitional effort. The concept of Lila signifies freedom as distinguished from necessity."
—Ram Shanker Misra,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lila_%28Hinduism%29
I would like to add that the 'Bliss' (above) isn't really an emotion - it's not in the mind -sometimes we feel great and are happy - 'Bliss'(above) is not just feeling very,very,very good!


I would say , imagine God decided to make a world of stars and planets and oceans and beaches and mountains, and populate it with plants,and animals and people.
Then there was the idea  -'why not BE all those things and see what that's like'.

I don't think Ram Shanker Misra is trying to define life - we are just pointing at the concept.
I have cup of coffee in my hand...I can write about it, photograph it, video it, but without putting it in your hands you would not experience the truth of it - -  unless you simply perceived it for yourself by being the Divinity that you are.!!!

Dolano (see youtube) talks of the 'play of Leela'.
I cannot go much further than this -to say Life has no meaning isn't really my experience either !

When you find you cannot think about it and your mind starts to go POP -then just look without thought -all the answers are there.

I am still going to be a spiritual being though - and I am going to reincarnate!
Why not -it's my world isn't it?
But I don't want to fix the world anymore -worlds of paradise or suffering all seem the same to me -simply wonderful (most of the time ..lol)



.Finding Peace
Never mind all this stuff -what about being happier ? Right? hehe.

Dr. Pincus, at some point in your life,
you're gonna have to stop,
and ask yourself the ultimate question.
 "This business of
 "being such a fucking prick,
 "what is it really getting me?"
                              Movie: Ghost Town(2008) Aasif Mandvi as Dr. Prashar.

My point is at some point I had to stop and ask myself a similar question:-
"This business of listening to the mental messages that occur in my mind - what is it really getting me?"
All those moments of angst and trauma and judgement and beliefs and guilt and blame and shame and regret - what good is it all?
Well it's good for depression and upset mostly -and occasionally moments of joy - but overall it's not a very good deal to 'sign up' for.

I know it's all made up -don't I?
Be honest with yourself!

I feel traumatised by my childhood and drama in my adult life because I thought I should be traumatised by my childhood and drama in my adult life. The only trauma in it is all my own fabrication.
My whole mini-me self is all made up - all a creation within a bigger me that's totally chilled and happy.

I decide not to mess around any more with little bits of unhappiness in the mind.
I've been trying that for years and years -maybe you have too?
I went for all of it at once -  all of the mind- the whole lot-- - It's all a complete construct to play out a game of separation.
The mind here is currently upset about a family scenario and the fact that my money has run again. So what?
I see the judgements and I feel the emotion and the adrenaline -but it's all a big joke.
I just go kind of 'neutral' and look at all this mental activity - I meet it. And it all just fades away.

It's all smoke and mirrors , an illusion and no matter what happens I can feel grateful for everything.



Love,
'The Mind Popping'
Paloma Porta
26th May 2012

#25 (22d) Mind Wars -dissolving the Mind

#25 (22d) Mind Wars -dissolving the Mind


Mind Wars.
Perhaps 'Mind Wars' isnt the best title - there's not a lot of love and compassion in it.. But it works for me at the moment!





Hopefully you have seen the "Real You" or at least glimpsed it as I have.If you've not experienced this then all that I've written in #22,22a,22b,22c,22d is just another belief system. ie something I say is true that you have not personally experienced
Find your own truth -please :))


As far as thoughts and mental anguish go -there is nothing here in the real you -in the you -the you who you really are.

But deductive reasoning and perhaps mere habit often brings us back to the mind -a mind who's central message is
"You are separate from the world"

So 'teachings' on enlightenment, and certainly all the self-help stuff everywhere !  focus their attention here..encouraging us to think differently.

Let me offer a simpler approach !(?)

If I dwell in the mind,my mini-me persona:-
I could imagine the "real me" to be a blank screen or empty bowl -there's a whole lot of Nothing in there.
There's Nothing - especially no thoughts.
It's an empty bowl

The Empty Bowl --This is a mental construct, wildly inaccurate and doesn't  encompass our infinity ...hehe...BUT but I hope it serves us here.

Thus you can easily ask
Why do I need to have no attachment -when the 'Empty Bowl' -by definition isn't attached to anything??

Why do I have to eliminate desire? I've been told and can experience that separation goes hand in hand with desire -and this causes suffering.
But ..where is the desire in the empty bowl of Nothing??

The Real me has no desire -it doesn't have these things -no thoughts -right?
I do not have Desire! -
I am ...er....just....Me.

Thus to seek to detach or have 'no attachment' or 'not get involved' or 'be outside of things' or 'simply witness stuff 'or 'merely observe' and 'to not have desire' is what??
Well, it's just another mental construct -even MORE mind games.
It's what I call:-
Mind Wars


To try to not have desire in something that doesn't have desire anyway -seems a bit  -er..logically unsound at best!
In fact , to seek not to have desire - may even solidify or create the unwanted desire in the first place!!!
"I mustn't think about pink elephants" -as they say!

It's Mind Wars in the Empty Bowl!
Mind Wars in the mini-me self that occur in the Real Me
Mind wars within Me

And it's Okay
Totally Okay
It's Life


.How to fix this--hahahaha.

Remember(?) and see who you Really Are.
This is Key.
Perhaps introduce your mind to helpful mental constructs  - "I am really just an Empty Bowl without thought and yet this is just a helpful thought and doesn't approach a definition"
or "I am a thing without thought"
It's all badly inaccurate -but may be useful

Recall that WHO YOU ARE is not understandable with the mind only WHO YOU ARE NOT !
So I am giving the mind a thought "I am an Empty Bowl that has no thoughts"

Thus when I find myself - wishing I didn't have judgement I sort of 'catch myself in the act'.
The Real Me doesn't have judgement  -thus to set up another counter-thought - "I mustn't have judgement(whatever)" is just Mind Wars.



What to do then with desires and judgements then?.
Firstly. Go Home to the Real You or if that's not happening employ my mental (in the mind) construct ..."I really am an empty bowl with any thoughts whatsoever"
Then when desires etc enter the attention or pass through ones consciousness:-
Just meet them
Be with them
Sit with them
Experience them
Look at them

The real you offers no resistance or disagrees with them or is frustrated by them or ANYTHING
right?

Just 'meet' the mental activity.

To label any content of the mind as unwanted or this or that is just more mental activity
Mind Wars.

I have found if I just meet the mental activity -all is well.



.Witnessing and Observing.
To witness or observe is sort of a separation isn't it?
But I have found there is no separation. Non-Duality.

This may not be your experience.

But you should be aware that to witness something could be done in a non-inclusive way.
"I am here -my desire is there"
Better might be:-
"I see my desire within me"
What do you think?


.To conclude.
You might have experienced the Real You that sort of sits behind the personality you have.
The Nothing yet Vast thing.

But we can use the mind to our advantage and you can think my argument through ,namely
--If there is no thought in the Real me -then why try to "have no desire" or "not judge" or "maintain non-attachment! or "non-involvment"???
When these things are not within You in the first place.!! no matter how complicated they appear.

In one moment You may find yourself meeting all of these:- a desire,the resistance to the desire, the wish to not have desire in the future, and frustration (emotion) concerning all of these !
Just sit with the whole thing and 'meet' it.
Mental activity may grow during this meeting such as "How can I get anywhere with all this stuff constantly occurring" and other seductive thoughts that look like they need be addressed!
Just meet the whole lot!!!


Pretty soon these things seems to go away or dissolve or calm down.
But if they don't - just remember the Empty Bowl or better sit will ALL MENTAL CONSTRUCTS as best you can :))


This all becomes much more easy the more you live in the Real me.
This is my experience.
I begin to wonder if the personality or the Mini-Me is a habit as much as anything else. The habit being for the attention to turn towards the mind for living itself and the path and answers here now seem to have a general 'colour' or direction to them -namely experiencing with separation.



.Mind Wars -there are no enemies.
Finally . The mind isn't an enemy or anything...this idea now should leap off the page here as just more thought...or leap into view when they occur as...more mental activity !!!

I can tell you what is in the Real me -for definite -plenty of Love.
This is my experience.
A love of Everything.
A love of Me.


.Personal Experience (blog type stuff).
I've been in the middle of a family crisis. One family member is in distress needs help and everybody is arguing about it. It's all very complicated and I will not pull it apart here.
But I've found I've been watching my judgements and emotions and very bloody strong emotions ! with the whole thing.
I also noticed mentally I sort of enjoyed the challenge of seeing the truth in the various difficulties and being able to judge the various participants....er....correctly !

So now that I am home after a week of stress and  I thought I would try the methodology that I've been advocating - namely -just sitting with it all -meeting it....and see what happens.

Well there's a funny thing!

All the issues are all just mental constructs - this first became apparent.
Then I just looked at the thing and all the factors and interlaced complicated components.
And then it all just seemed to ...er...poof! Vanish.
They just went.
I cannot really describe it - to say these problems in my mind are 'silly' or 'unimportant' or 'just the play of Leela (Sankrit:playfulness in life)...is sort of true but these are just more mental labels!!!

The truth is the 'resolution' to this week of trauma doesn't exist in my little pea sized brain at all. The Peace is centred in the Real Me.
So that's that!
Sorry, no explanation seems to fit.

Also my little mind -the mind in the mini-me -seems to have learnt something also!
I now can think(!) that all worries and problems seem only to be of my own creation...the mental construct thingie that I've been waffling on about for ages.
It's all become more real -the fabrications in the mind.

I feel I could get all excited,guilty,worried,concerned,about anything really.
But it seems a bit -er - stupid. -but that's a mental computation and itself seems ..er....not wrong...but...er......there you go...the words fail again!
It's a viewpoint (?) from the Real Me.
There's no thought with it..maybe just a feeling of Peace and a little sigh from the lungs or maybe the heart.

Being the Real Me for increasingly larger an larger percentages of time is really fun thing!
When people ask me "How are you" - I just want to laugh!
I feel like saying " The weather is too hot, my back has started aching again and the family is giving me nothing but stress - Isn't it so wonderful and so much fun?

I don't have to see the world differently to free myself of suffering. I don't need a more relaxing mental construct or another fabrication in the mind placed on top of this mental fabrication.
I just have to be who I really am!!!
I am Me. What's the problem?


 .Finding the Real You. It's sooooooo simple.
 I employed a technique in #22c posting called "Stop" -have a look at that again if you wish.

Most importantly the spanish word for shark is tiberon.
.....did you feel your mind just stop with this irrelevant sentence ? That's who you are!!!

You are You. It's that simple. Everytime you want to mentally add anything to that just realise that it's a creation like a table or a chair - are you a table or a chair?
In fact have a look at how you define yourself with the mind and flip it all over.
I am not a spirtual being or helpful or loving or a great dresser or with problems  or stressed out at the moment or nervous in front of Grandad or reincarnating or a person or anything...these things may be part of me or within me and may be very complicated -but , but
They do not define me !!!






Love
'The Undefinable'
Paloma Porta
24th May 2012

#24 (22c) Who is the Real You?

#24 (22c) Who is the Real You?
So 22c follows 22b and 22a and 22 ! So if this doesn't make sense as it stands -kindly review those.!







Have you glimpsed the Real You ?
If you haven't seen the Real You -here's how -you're in for a treat!

STOP! Stop doing everything you are doing right now. Imagine your body has just died and all this lifetime's concerns are no longer relevant. What's left of you? If you imagine you are a spiritual being stop thinking that. STOP everything you believe. Now look inside yourself and see what's there -who are you? You may not have an answer. But this is the Real You -you may find there's 'nothing' there -yet it's Huge or even infinite. Just STOP doing and being something or anything, stop believing anything and thinking anything -what remains?
Once you 'come home' to the Real You you may see things differently. Returning to thinking only consider what was not the Real You - no thought? no emotions? no time? no distance? no male or female?......no worries ?!!! he he.
Do not trouble the mind with what the Real You is -you will find no answer in the mind -and try to get the mind comfortable with that!
It's an amazing thing discovering who you are is not who you thought you were!
I feel the Real me is sort of the blank page upon which my personality and life is written. The space in which I make the 'myself'. But there's much more to it than that -and this you may see all in one go :)) You may find that the Real You - is Everything. Everything ! :))


If you did this stopping thing and saw the Real You  -congratulations - you just 'awakened' :))
It's sooo simple people miss it.

You don't have to attain anything like enlightenment to be You do you? -It's who you are !!! 
(all 'enlightenment' means is the mini-self-person-John or Jane-thing - has fully realised the 'Real me'......Kind of - it's not something one can define with a thought as I hope you begin to see.) 

There is no reason you cannot get this and be Enlightened right now.
What I have written above is the entire method  ! There's nothing else to it.
This is all Ramana Maharshi did, when he was just 16 !!!
He rarely spoke but when he did he called the real me , "The Self" and thus you can see how the mind or the written or spoken word can only merely point to It, but cannot actually describe or define It.
Anything you hear or read about it is just more words, words that are lovingly offered by a few to break through to the tough cases such as myself (!) who think too much.....lol





.My 'journey' -following on from #22,#22a,#22b.

I sort of got stuck with the latest thing of not labelling thoughts as 'thoughts'.
The thoughts seem to flood in and it became a fog.
So I returned to Gangaji on youtube!
And somewhere in the many things she said  -the clarity returned.


I have looked without thought and I have glimpsed the Real Me. More than this I have had moments of wonder looking at the most ordinary objects almost like seeing them for the first time.

The Real Me I discover more and more.
Today it seems Vast and yet Nothing -but most importantly for seeking Peace it seems Empty. Empty of thought or emotion or anything I thought I was- a definition of me that is in the mind as thought.

I can look at desires and resistances -which I mention first as I've found these have a lot of mental suffering associated with them.
Where is the desire or resistance in the Real Me?
It is not there!

Any thought, desire, resistance, belief, worry, doubt, question, emotion that arises can be observed and felt or greeted.
But these are not Me- I can see them but there is no thought, desire, resistance, belief, worry, doubt, question or emotion in the Real Me that sees these things.
These things may be within Me -but they do not define Me.

Thus the Real Me can sit with suffering, even be steeped in it and yet be unaltered - perhaps in the same manner in which one can enter a blue room flooded with blue light and yet ones skin cannot turn blue!
 
I can watch 'wars' in the mind. Some of these look like "I am this or that and I should not be this or that" -which is false, I am Nothing.
The witness to these mental phenomena, the Real Me is without the labels.

I am Me.
The mind seems to have the habit of defining 'me'.
But there is no mental definition because the Real Me is bigger than the mind.

After long moments sitting without thought , I often emerge to a barrage of questions in the mind.
"Am I everything?" 'What are other people really" etc, etc.
But there are no answers here in the mind. Only questions, questions without answers except for more thought and mental activity.

There are no questions in the Real Me.


The Real Me and the Real You is right here -look no further than yourself!
We are the poor beggar that spent a lifetime sitting on an old wooden box who at the final moment of death thought it might be opened -only to discover it was full of gold!
How the Great Philosophers missed this beggars (!) belief.
I begin to feel that I have been 'touched by Grace' -that I too might ascend - a wish perhaps only previously granted to the truly Great.


.Finding a Guru.
All the Gurus, and your guru - are within you - you only have to look :)
 
It has been said that a Guru will appear when the student needs one.
I have found Ramana Maharshi. Ramana became self realisized at 16 years of age and spent the rest of his life at first in caves at the top of Arunachala a holy hill in Southern India and later on it's slopes which grew into an Ashram. He rarely spoke and those that sat with him described questions arising in the mind and then being answered by his silence. Others talk of a 'spiritual cleansing'. Ramana died in 1950. One of his follows Papaji can be found on youtube -yet he too fell silent in 1997 when he also passed.  Papaji's student, Gangaji  survives today and she give talks and writes and through her perhaps we can learn of Ramana's Silence.  (Gangaji is ..er.. a Texan grandmother!... and so talks 'our language'.)

But Ramana is within me and I sit with him in meditation still!
I feel like the children of that time who would climb the hill and quietly sit in front of him without thought of play or mischief.
Sitting with Ramana in The Silence is the most wonderful thing -the mind settles down the colours deepen, the shapes sharpen and sometimes I have a tear of joy.
It is His Silence I feel so appealing -I have studied enough and written here an elsewhere to excess! Enough of words!!!

Here in front of Ramana my worries melt away and all is well with the world.
I can see Ramana and his amazing eyes.
We sit all together, him and his followers past and present, and we know who we are!!!


The Presence of Ramana Maharshi enriches the present and will touch many peoples lives for eons to come. To imagine him dead is indeed a great folly.



I will continue to work, to research.

There is the looking
There is the asking  "Who are you?" ,  "What are you?"
There is the discovery of who I really am


Your Researches:-
Have a look on youtube and the jolly old www. - there's hundreds of hours of low stress 'enlightenment' videos to watch!
and books like this:
http://www.maharajnisargadatta.com/I_Am_That.pdf


"You can't always get what you want
But if you try sometimes you just might find
You just might find
You get what you need"
                               Mick Jagger and Keith Richards  (hooray!!)


Love
'The Lightened' (an expression stolen from an Second Life friend)
Paloma Porta
17th May 2012

#22b Not labelling thoughts!

#22b  Not labelling thoughts

This follows on from #22 and #22a ! 

There is the looking.
There isn't the labelling of anything perceived in the world. Not even the naming or describing of objects
eg a bag, a big yellow bag. A bag that is near me.

There is just the looking.
And I suppose this has engendered non duality, non separation.

But !!!
I have been labelling thoughts !!! Doh!
-is this a thought?... (from above and earlier)... Is just applying the label "thought" to thoughts !
And I suppose this has engendered a duality, separation
 - "I , over here, am not my mind, over there !"


Soooo...

I need to follow this up with some quiet 'Practice'

But here I am just pointing out  -what could be seen as an oversight on my part, namely
To consider thoughts as 'thoughts' is to label them.
'Better' is just to look at thoughts without the label.

I must say to label thoughts as 'merely thoughts' has served me well. It has helped separate the Real Me from the mini-me self. It has taken the meaning out of thoughts, a meaning that consistently says that 'I am a little self in a separate world'.
But of course, now this is done the Real Me has been seen as all inclusive ! and thus the self needs to be seen as entirely within Me.



And thus we have the whole process -my mini technology! :-

Just Look
Occasionally ask:-
Who am I?
What am I ?


Love
'Simply Looking'
Paloma Porta
12 May 2012

#22a Additions:- Getting into the Now

#22a  Doing the enlightenment thing - getting into the Now

Additional notes 12 May 2012

 

 FIRST DRAFT

 Have a look at #22 first -obviously !
This carries on from there and is the recent stuff I've found.


As ever I've tried to be careful not to push my beleif system off on you.
Indeed:
Find your own truth ! 




1. Watch the emotions too


I think this is worth repeating .my emotions can feel very 'close' and hard to separate out sometimes.


It's my experience that we in emotions and not that we have emotions.
Like a fish is in water - the fish isn't the water.
I've not found any emotion in the Real Me.




2. 'Good' thoughts and bad' thoughts, And The 'feeling good' emotions




Watching negative thoughts is not only what we are going for.
From thinking and trying thus to write about it  I would say we are watching from a sterile place where no thought occurs -this is my experience of an aspect of the Real Me.


Watching great wonderful thoughts is a great and wonderful thing too!
eg " Look at the world - what a fantastic miracle!"


Watch these types of thought also but without getting involved or drawn in.
They are just thoughts...see 2a.


2a. Watching the 'feeling good' and nicer emotions


Suddenly the day brightens up and you feel good.
Ahaaa !!!
Watch these emotions also.
Feeling good is not the goal here -it's nice but from my experience having no emotion at all and 'residing' in the Real Me is much much more groovy!


I could hypothesise that feeling good can only exist if feeling bad exists and thus to feel good is to create times of feeling bad.
And similarly for judgement on the goodness and badness of thoughts .
Positive needs negative to exist ?
To experience a positive thing is to create a negative thing.(?). Whatever...


My experiment is 'stop thinking and just look - see what happens'.
Thus any one of these hypotheses is  'just another thought' and it's content is to be seen as invalid as thoughts like "I have no self confidence".


3.
Constant vigilance to seductive thoughts and their content is required and I've found some thoughts are begging to be entertained. Don't mess with them!
Seductive thoughts may include:
Thoughts about the Meaning of Life
Thoughts about who I am
Thoughts about whether this meditation business and the whole 'practice' here is valid or working.
And the usual stuff concerning the 'important' aspects of ones life.
And the thoughts that arise after an upset or during times of stress.


4. Looking at the 'me-ness'
A friend showed me this website:-


http://www.riverganga.org/Community/Board/content.php?137-How-to-rid-yourself-once-and-for-all-of-the-fear-of-life-that-spoils-life-and-find-satisfaction-using-a-simple-act-of-inward-looking&s=3fa0bcfa249b6b4b8f539cb3b2be2b3a


..have a look at it -it does do something!
But I see 'the me-ness' as a label, as a thought -but I tried this 'looking at the me-ness thing' and it is kinda groovy :)


5. Considering  "I am"


I've seen this in a few places -thinking or considering:
I am
..but for me it's just another thought and goes in the trash !
There isn't the activity of being ,from the verb to be in 'I am' .....there isn't the activity of being  in my real me.!
There's no 'I' either
There's no Being (entity) being anything or even 'just being'  in my Real Me
But
Some apparently have become enlightened using this in their Practise.


Maybe try it ?




6. Watching a thought or emotion is being in the Now


This is my experience....
Things come and go through ones perception...a book, a car, a person.
Thoughts and emotions arise also


I have found thoughts and emotions are 'things' or objects inasmuch as they are not me.
So watching a thought as an observer without attachment is being in the Now - in my humble opinion.


I would say -don't beat yourself up if you get a lot of thoughts !
My experience is thoughts 'met' and observed go away and the mind settles down , mostly.
I found sometimes I just watched a constant parade of thought.


Again to have a thought about that is a seductive thought ..haha...just press on and observe them all :))










7. The Viewpoint Shift
The viewpoint shift is an old trick for dealing with the unwanted trauma that sits in the mind.
One sees the bigger picture or imagines that one is looking ones life from the viewpoint of a friend..or sees images in black and white or as a comedy show etc etc.
Then the fact that you lost your mobile phone doesn't seem so catastrophic!
It's a mind trick and works to reduce suffering.


When I discovered the Real Me  -or at least had a few quicks looks at my awsomeness (lol) I was gobschmacked..amazed.
I had always thought I was an 'infinite spiritual being' and didn't stop to consider what infinite fully meant. It was a bit like thinking I was an infinite small thing!
I had a viewpoint shift.


If you have one stay with it !
Don't imagine you are 'the dirty car trying to clean itself' [improving yourself] stay with the new viewpoint that you are a sparklingly new car  [The Real Huge Vast Me] and always will be, and are just messing around here wiping some mud off the bumpers!!!
If you have the viewpoint shift as I did then you are not really the mini-me self that you thought you were anymore!
There is no enlightenment as such -we already are this Huge Vast Nothingness Of Everything!


Remembering this (if you like), has made thought watching and the whole 'Practice' I describe simpler.










8.The groovy stuff that happened to me with this
But:-
Please, pretty please with a cherry on the top - Find your own truth! :)




Copied across from #22 Doing The Enlightenment Thing
[  22. Spooky spooky spooky  -hehe


I have said all the way through that thoughts and things are not me.
However :-


...and this is my truth:-
After thoughts subside and Looking there seems to be no "Me" !
And I am not sure where the me-I-cannot-find is either!
All there is is The Looking, The Perception.
There's no distance between anything.
And no time.
I begin to feel like what I am is the centre of a dream of my own manufacture - but that fails to describe it.
Shapes and colours that need the mind to rationalise it into a Reality -but that's not quite it either!
There is no separation between what is perceived and the ..er...me-that-I-cannot-find !
So suddenly I am everything seen, everything perceived. I am the thoughts also... (damn ...lol).
So I am everything which includes the 'old self' which now seems composed only of thoughts - a summation of thoughts that I had decided was me!


More and more it's just all me - which pops my little mind as you can imagine.
A thousand questions in the mind -all simply observed with  -is this a thought?
The more unthinkable it is the better  - hehehe.  ]






9. Conclusion -what is being done here




Just looking
Looking without labelling
Just looking


When thoughts just arise just observing them
Not considering their content or significance at all .
Just asking  -is that a thought?


Occasionally asking
Who am I?
What am I?




.....meanwhile there is much more joy in my world -it's very extremely groovy to do this !






Love
'Still looking'
Paloma Porta
12th May 2012.

#23 Who we are

#23 Who we are

Who I am - is probably a better title -it has no assumption that this is your truth!


Plenty has been written about this.
And most of it here:

Dialogues of Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
http://www.maharajnisargadatta.com/I_Am_That.pdf

but though wonderful the written word is just more thinking I suppose unless one actually looks.


I've have been watching thoughts,watching the mind.
And occasionally asking
Who am I?
What am I?

Ive experienced that the mind can only tell me what I am not
And looking without thought tells me who I am

There is knowledge here and answers -but they cannot be written -as this is the world of thought and the mind!

Things to practise

So rather than more words from me try these things  -in addition to the #22 post "Getting into the Now"

1.
Watch all thoughts with ..er suspicion..lol
Do not get into them -just see them as 'mere thoughts -without meaning'
"Oh a thought"
...especially the ones that try to explain or query the 'Meaning of Life' and who you are!
Watch thoughts when they arise.
Don't worry if you follow them -just realise what happened when the thought stream stops!

Occasionally ask "Who am I? or what am I? as I've said


Distrust the mind.

2.
Look around and just see the shapes and colours.
Look around without a thought at all .
eg It's a cup, a chair. a table
..and don't 'label' things at all
eg yellow , smooth
Just look around and just see the shapes and colours.

See what happens!


3.
then there's this I wrote earlier!

Who we are

Look at a tree
See the pretty shapes and colours
But don't label it with a thought... 'a tree'
or anything
just look
Thats who you are
That which is looking is who you are
But it's not a "That" is it?
..and it's not really 'looking' is it?
It's nothing yet vast

 Look at yr *whole life*....everything you ever were,did or had (be do have) ,everything you ever thought,every emotion you ever felt..
The whole thing..all the John-ness or Jane-ness
Can you see all your life?
all the running around doing stuff and experiencing?
Just look at it all
don't label it as 'has happened'
It just is.....but even that's a label -a thought
Don't label it as anything -

Take a moment -see all of your life...with no labels.
It's not a sucess or a failure or a journey or what I needed or something I attracted or something i created or good or bad or a manifestation of the Divine or a one of a  multiplicity or a consciousness experiencing itself or anything that is a thought.
You may  know what Life is all about  -but I promise you it cannot be ever written!
Don't  label anything!
Look at your life

Just look at it
Just look at it
Just look at it
There is only the perception
but less than that!
just look
Now ask yourself:
Who am I?
What am I?
There is no thought that can answer this question, so don't bother to try to find one-just smile :)
That's who you are!


It's so simple people miss it


5....
Er...

Keep doing the above - I wouldn't read about it - you've done that -you've probably read enough!

Stop the thoughts as best you can by simply looking -and when thoughts do arise just watch them without becoming involved, without following inside them perhaps and taking them seriously.

Once you've see the 'place' where there is no thought you can watch them more easily as the 'observer'

6.
See what happens!
It's very very groovy stuff !


Love
'Just looking'
Paloma Porta.
11th May 2012