It's a shift from mind-knowing to a more direct kind of knowing. Intellectual understanding is useless here, even understanding about qualia, and no amount of thinking will help.
Yes, one or more realizations occur first, and the mind's narrative follows. This doesn't mean, however, that the mind's narrative and various teaching methodologies are necessarily useless. Having read hundreds of spiritual biographies, it seems obvious that many teachers have successfully awakened students by saying things that triggered realizations. How that happens is quite mysterious, but that it happens is undeniable.
I have theorized that repetitive ideation creates structures of thought. I picture the generation of the conventional consensus trance as a repetitive reinforcement of particular neuronal pathways. If this is true, then a realization is a shift in perspective caused by the collapse of various thought structures or freedom from the way that neuronal processing occured in the past. Teachers try different approaches in an effort to trigger realization and freedom from existing thought structures.
Consider the approach that Tony Parsons uses. He refuses to meet the dreamer in the dream, and tells people that there is nothing a person can do to wake up. People find these words extremely frustrating because they totally paralyze the mind. Amazingly, many people hear these words, which is like running into a brick wall, psychologically, and huge realizations occur.
Other teachers use different approaches to precipitate the same kind of shifts. Is it retarded to do whatever seems most likely to precipitate such shifts? Do you think teachers have any choice in the matter? Look into the matter deeply, and you will find that every human being is doing exactly what s/he has to be doing. I have to write these words, and you have to respond or not respond to them. All of this seeming activity is a unified whole.
It may look as if non-dual teachers are teaching widely disparate approaches, but if look at what is being said more broadly, everything being said is pointing in the same direction, to wit:
1. Look without knowing
2. Be here now
3. Stop and be still
4. Become like a little child (in its interaction with and perception of the world)
5. Question thoughts and beliefs
6. Become an actor rather than a reflector
7. Contemplate what you want to know (contemplation is not thought)
You may already understand that this moment is complete and that there is only what you perceive in this moment. This is as far as the mind can go, and there is no "you" who can do anything about it.
Yes, one or more realizations occur first, and the mind's narrative follows. This doesn't mean, however, that the mind's narrative and various teaching methodologies are necessarily useless. Having read hundreds of spiritual biographies, it seems obvious that many teachers have successfully awakened students by saying things that triggered realizations. How that happens is quite mysterious, but that it happens is undeniable.
I have theorized that repetitive ideation creates structures of thought. I picture the generation of the conventional consensus trance as a repetitive reinforcement of particular neuronal pathways. If this is true, then a realization is a shift in perspective caused by the collapse of various thought structures or freedom from the way that neuronal processing occured in the past. Teachers try different approaches in an effort to trigger realization and freedom from existing thought structures.
Consider the approach that Tony Parsons uses. He refuses to meet the dreamer in the dream, and tells people that there is nothing a person can do to wake up. People find these words extremely frustrating because they totally paralyze the mind. Amazingly, many people hear these words, which is like running into a brick wall, psychologically, and huge realizations occur.
Other teachers use different approaches to precipitate the same kind of shifts. Is it retarded to do whatever seems most likely to precipitate such shifts? Do you think teachers have any choice in the matter? Look into the matter deeply, and you will find that every human being is doing exactly what s/he has to be doing. I have to write these words, and you have to respond or not respond to them. All of this seeming activity is a unified whole.
It may look as if non-dual teachers are teaching widely disparate approaches, but if look at what is being said more broadly, everything being said is pointing in the same direction, to wit:
1. Look without knowing
2. Be here now
3. Stop and be still
4. Become like a little child (in its interaction with and perception of the world)
5. Question thoughts and beliefs
6. Become an actor rather than a reflector
7. Contemplate what you want to know (contemplation is not thought)
You may already understand that this moment is complete and that there is only what you perceive in this moment. This is as far as the mind can go, and there is no "you" who can do anything about it.
