...is a way of life rather than a teaching--a way of life that is very simple and down to earth. This way of life arises as a result of following certain admonitions that lead to an assortment of realizations, the most important of which is the realization that personal selfhood is an illusion.
Over the last few weeks I've realized that the phrase "attend the actual" upsets some people and leads to arguments about what the word "actual" means. I therefore think it might be more helpful and appropriate to use the phrase "attend what is" (AWI?). At least this phrase includes thoughts as part of "what is," and that seemed to be the primary stumbling block for some people.
I've already explained why I think it is much easier for beginners to start attending what they can see or hear rather than thoughts, so I won't repeat that explanation here.
Attending "what is," without knowing, is a path to wholeness and understanding. When we attend without knowing, we stop reinforcing our conventional mind-dominated perception of the world. We spend more time looking, listening, and feeling what is happening than thinking, fantasizing, judging, or reflecting. We spend less time "in our heads" speculating about the world and more time directly interacting with the world. Eventually, this kind of attending leads to the realization that who/what we are IS "what is" rather than separate observers "in here" looking at a world "out there."
The idea being presented, when looked at from mind's perspective, is for people to become so deeply immersed in the isness of life that their conditioned perspective as separate observers in an objectified universe falls away as a result. All of us do this on a daily basis already, but we aren't aware of it. The worker fully engaged in his work; the student fully absorbed in her studies, the driver concentrated on weaving through intense traffic, or the dancer lost in her dancing are all in a state of flow. For anyone fully engaged in life, non-reflectively, there is no time, space, or selfhood. There is no one doing anything, and no one having any kind of experiences, because there is nothing separate from the action.
Most of the time the moments of flow in our lives are not recognized for what they are because to do so the mind would have to stand outside of the action, look at it, cognize it, and comment on it. It is the very act of being lost in the isness of the moment that is precisely what defines flow.
As mentioned before, some athletes, and quite a few mountain climbers, periodically experience flow so strongly that after they leave that state and return to "normal", they know something unusual happened, and they often write about their experiences in mystical terms. They realize, in retrospect, that for a while at least, they, as separate entities, were not there, and that there was no time or space in the usual sense. There was no sense of duality because there was no observer psychologically separate from the action. In fact, during flow there is no world and there is no experience because what's happening is beyond mind and therefore beyond time, space, separateness, causality, etc.
Who/what we are, in essence, is a living mystery about which nothing can be said that is not inherently paradoxical or self-contradictory. The good news is that we are always what we are whether we realize it or not, so realization is simply the discovery of what is already and always the case.
Here are some of the basic non-duality pointers that are often mentioned on this forum:
Psychologically be here now.
Attend what is.
Leave useless or worrisome fantasy and reflection behind.
Do whatever you are doing 100%.
Take time to smell the roses.
Interact with the world through the senses.
Watch thoughts without becoming attached to them.
Keep a don't-know mind.
These admonitions do not mean that we should go live in a cave and never use the mind, because the mind/imagination is a wonderful and useful tool. These admonitions mean use the mind when it is appropriate to do so, and when it is not necessary or appropriate, give it a rest.
For most people mind is dominant, and thoughts jerk them around from one extreme to another. They spend their time worrying, fretting, hoping, fearing, having expectations, and imagining what other people should or should not be doing. Learning to live free of the mind consigns mind to its proper function, and makes it a servant rather than a master.
In a later post on this thread I'll describe the path of someone who starts off lost in the usual trance-like state of consensual reality, but who wakes up as a result of gradually but persistently shifting her attention away from thoughts to "what is." Hopefully, it will be seen that attending without knowing, naturally leads to a way of life that is simple, ordinary, joyful, kind, generous, wise, peaceful, and full of heart.
Over the last few weeks I've realized that the phrase "attend the actual" upsets some people and leads to arguments about what the word "actual" means. I therefore think it might be more helpful and appropriate to use the phrase "attend what is" (AWI?). At least this phrase includes thoughts as part of "what is," and that seemed to be the primary stumbling block for some people.
I've already explained why I think it is much easier for beginners to start attending what they can see or hear rather than thoughts, so I won't repeat that explanation here.
Attending "what is," without knowing, is a path to wholeness and understanding. When we attend without knowing, we stop reinforcing our conventional mind-dominated perception of the world. We spend more time looking, listening, and feeling what is happening than thinking, fantasizing, judging, or reflecting. We spend less time "in our heads" speculating about the world and more time directly interacting with the world. Eventually, this kind of attending leads to the realization that who/what we are IS "what is" rather than separate observers "in here" looking at a world "out there."
The idea being presented, when looked at from mind's perspective, is for people to become so deeply immersed in the isness of life that their conditioned perspective as separate observers in an objectified universe falls away as a result. All of us do this on a daily basis already, but we aren't aware of it. The worker fully engaged in his work; the student fully absorbed in her studies, the driver concentrated on weaving through intense traffic, or the dancer lost in her dancing are all in a state of flow. For anyone fully engaged in life, non-reflectively, there is no time, space, or selfhood. There is no one doing anything, and no one having any kind of experiences, because there is nothing separate from the action.
Most of the time the moments of flow in our lives are not recognized for what they are because to do so the mind would have to stand outside of the action, look at it, cognize it, and comment on it. It is the very act of being lost in the isness of the moment that is precisely what defines flow.
As mentioned before, some athletes, and quite a few mountain climbers, periodically experience flow so strongly that after they leave that state and return to "normal", they know something unusual happened, and they often write about their experiences in mystical terms. They realize, in retrospect, that for a while at least, they, as separate entities, were not there, and that there was no time or space in the usual sense. There was no sense of duality because there was no observer psychologically separate from the action. In fact, during flow there is no world and there is no experience because what's happening is beyond mind and therefore beyond time, space, separateness, causality, etc.
Who/what we are, in essence, is a living mystery about which nothing can be said that is not inherently paradoxical or self-contradictory. The good news is that we are always what we are whether we realize it or not, so realization is simply the discovery of what is already and always the case.
Here are some of the basic non-duality pointers that are often mentioned on this forum:
Psychologically be here now.
Attend what is.
Leave useless or worrisome fantasy and reflection behind.
Do whatever you are doing 100%.
Take time to smell the roses.
Interact with the world through the senses.
Watch thoughts without becoming attached to them.
Keep a don't-know mind.
These admonitions do not mean that we should go live in a cave and never use the mind, because the mind/imagination is a wonderful and useful tool. These admonitions mean use the mind when it is appropriate to do so, and when it is not necessary or appropriate, give it a rest.
For most people mind is dominant, and thoughts jerk them around from one extreme to another. They spend their time worrying, fretting, hoping, fearing, having expectations, and imagining what other people should or should not be doing. Learning to live free of the mind consigns mind to its proper function, and makes it a servant rather than a master.
In a later post on this thread I'll describe the path of someone who starts off lost in the usual trance-like state of consensual reality, but who wakes up as a result of gradually but persistently shifting her attention away from thoughts to "what is." Hopefully, it will be seen that attending without knowing, naturally leads to a way of life that is simple, ordinary, joyful, kind, generous, wise, peaceful, and full of heart.
