A young friend made fun of me recently by saying that it took me way too long to see through the illusion of selfhood. I agreed with him, but explained that there were good reasons for that.
First, the body/mind wasted (not really, but you know what I mean) twenty years trying to answer its questions by thinking. At that time there were no books by people like Tolle in bookstores, so there was no one recommending anything like ATA or even breath awareness meditation.
Second, by the time a path to truth was found (Zen meditation methodologies) thinking habits and intense intellectuality was well established. I think it is much easier for young people to wake up because they aren't yet experiencing what Tolle calls "the compulsion of incessant thought."
Third, I didn't understand, at first, the importance of becoming INSANELY focused on what is here and now. I never had the interest in doing sitting meditation for days on end (because of the leg pain and also because of my work schedule), and I had not yet realized that ATA throughout the day could function in the same way as breath awareness but without the pain and formality of specific time periods.
I've heard about a fellow in prison who woke up because of his alert state 24/7 (being surrounded by dangerous inmates), and I think that the same sort of attentiveness would have the same sort of effect in any life situation. Without being placed in a situation that causes automatic alertness the usual person has to be strongly motivated and also realize the importance of sustained attentiveness. IOW, THIS must have a strong desire to find the truth of its being, and this desire does not come from the imagined person; it comes from THIS. This is what I call "the fundamental mystery." Some body/minds feel compelled to "get to the bottom of things," so to speak, and others don't.
In my case, the body/mind was motivated by curiosity and intuition. Neither the religious nor scientific explanation of reality seemed correct, and I intuited that some other explanation or understanding was being overlooked. other people are more motivated by a need to find happiness or a way to end psychological suffering. Tolle, for example, found the truth as a result of extreme despair.
In any event, an intense desire to find the truth is most important, and if that is present, then one only needs to be told in a clear way HOW to find the truth. When one first begins shifting attention away from the imaginary to the real, it is hard to see progress, but as time goes by, and attention becomes more and more often focused upon the real, one sees how one's interaction with the world is gradually changing. Of course, after the illusion of selfhood collapses, then it is realized that the entire journey was like an undulation in THIS and that no separate person was ever involved. Ha ha. That's the cosmic joke.
The journey from imagination to reality is definitely the most interesting journey that THIS can take in the form of a particular human being!
First, the body/mind wasted (not really, but you know what I mean) twenty years trying to answer its questions by thinking. At that time there were no books by people like Tolle in bookstores, so there was no one recommending anything like ATA or even breath awareness meditation.
Second, by the time a path to truth was found (Zen meditation methodologies) thinking habits and intense intellectuality was well established. I think it is much easier for young people to wake up because they aren't yet experiencing what Tolle calls "the compulsion of incessant thought."
Third, I didn't understand, at first, the importance of becoming INSANELY focused on what is here and now. I never had the interest in doing sitting meditation for days on end (because of the leg pain and also because of my work schedule), and I had not yet realized that ATA throughout the day could function in the same way as breath awareness but without the pain and formality of specific time periods.
I've heard about a fellow in prison who woke up because of his alert state 24/7 (being surrounded by dangerous inmates), and I think that the same sort of attentiveness would have the same sort of effect in any life situation. Without being placed in a situation that causes automatic alertness the usual person has to be strongly motivated and also realize the importance of sustained attentiveness. IOW, THIS must have a strong desire to find the truth of its being, and this desire does not come from the imagined person; it comes from THIS. This is what I call "the fundamental mystery." Some body/minds feel compelled to "get to the bottom of things," so to speak, and others don't.
In my case, the body/mind was motivated by curiosity and intuition. Neither the religious nor scientific explanation of reality seemed correct, and I intuited that some other explanation or understanding was being overlooked. other people are more motivated by a need to find happiness or a way to end psychological suffering. Tolle, for example, found the truth as a result of extreme despair.
In any event, an intense desire to find the truth is most important, and if that is present, then one only needs to be told in a clear way HOW to find the truth. When one first begins shifting attention away from the imaginary to the real, it is hard to see progress, but as time goes by, and attention becomes more and more often focused upon the real, one sees how one's interaction with the world is gradually changing. Of course, after the illusion of selfhood collapses, then it is realized that the entire journey was like an undulation in THIS and that no separate person was ever involved. Ha ha. That's the cosmic joke.
The journey from imagination to reality is definitely the most interesting journey that THIS can take in the form of a particular human being!
