Slarty’s Wisdom

One of the funniest lines in the Movie version of Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy is this little bit of philosophy. It speaks nicely to the failings of many belief systems. While an idea may support our Story, it often doesn’t actually serve us. I was surprised to discover I hadn’t posted this here yet…

“Perhaps I’m old and tired, but I think the chances of finding out whats really going on are so absurdly remote that the only thing to do is to say hang the sense of it and keep yourself busy. I’d much rather be happy than right any day.”

“And are you?” asks Arthur

“Ahhhh, no (snorts). That’s where it all falls down of course.”
–Slarty Bartfast

More great quotes from the flick:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0371724/quotes

Note: Don’t Panic is not Marvin’s line. It’s from the back cover of the Hitchhiker’s Guide.

Seeing Death

In a discussion over on Takuin’s blog on Oneness, the subject of death came up. As an example, it was suggested death was unknowable. I suggested otherwise, which lead to this:

On Death after Awakening:
What I mean is that because Takuin is no longer an individual self, the dynamic of death will shift. One cannot look to prior deaths before this shift as an example.

On the knowability of Death:
Really, this more comes back to how can one know? Consciousness itself is embedded with what we might call senses. What becomes physical senses. From what I have understood, in the evolutionary journey of awakening, everyone gets the gift of “inner sight”. There are many names for this. It shows up much like awakening – it just happens. Sometimes with awakening, sometimes before or after.

This ‘sight’ usually evolves, like awakening. Deepens, broadens, etc. It can become a trap as it’s thought to be “truth” in some way. And it can get in the way of awakening. We like to think experiences tell us what awakening is but awakening is beyond experiences.

Do I actually know that everyone gets this? No. But clearly some do or there would not be stories of it. The teaching tells me it happens due to refinement of the nervous system. While that is certainly related in terms of clarity and depth, it does not point to why one person and not another. Nor why one person sees certain aspects while another sees others. I can suggest explanations, but that is just concepts.

I have not thought about it this way before. Interesting.

But I can say it is possible for some to see ones history, before the apparent boundary of birth or death. It is possible to remember a prior death. Or not forget it. It is also possible to see that the physical universe is but a coating on a much larger, richer place. It is possible to literally see life and consciousness on the surface of things, lighting up the world. That under the “veil” our world is place of astonishing beauty, something many open a bit to here and there. It is possible to see the universe from the outside. To see the vast reaches of being beyond the universe. Consciousness, That Thou Art, is bigger than all these things. They are contained in That, thus it is looking within.

The life must still be lived. But the context changes considerably. Death is no longer feared when the continuity of life is experienced. We can be humbled by the vast richness and diversity of life. We can be awed by presence, right on the surface of mundane objects, trilling to our attention and touch.

Is it important to see all these things? No. Just something else to let go of. Something we may not even want to see. What is important is waking to who you are, underlying all of that. That which is without death. That which is everywhere present.

If these things are not seen, perhaps it is to avoid distraction from what needs to be seen. When it is seen, then perhaps the breadth of what is can arise. But I’m guessing. (laughs)
Davidya

The Story

Today I was called to explain the Story briefly to someone without background in this.

The essential idea is that in our evolutionary journey, there is a cycle of stepping away and a cycle of stepping in. One of the effects of a cycle of stepping away is the drive to independence. One example would be the terrible twos, when a child pulls away from absorption in mother. Teens would be another, pulling away from family.

In the cycle of independence, there can be a kind of separation, a loosing touch with source. The idea of a “me” arises, something commonly called the ego. Because the ego is a concept, it gathers other concepts around it to “prove” and justify itself. It seeks ideas that support it’s being and rejects ideas that don’t. Much of this process is sub-conscious but can be made conscious if we understand the dynamics. For example, the ego is very reactionary. It always judges, decides right and wrong. It’s also strongly driven by fear-based emotions (like worry) because the core identity is essentially a grip of fear. (thats a whole ‘nother explanation)

This cumulative conceptual framework we identify with as “me” is often called ‘the story’. Eckhart Tolle calls it the pain body. It’s also called the personal maya.

The core story is something carried forward through multiple lifetimes until it is seen and resolved. It’s origins are rooted in the cycles of awareness through time. This is one of the amazing things about the current time. Awareness has cycled up to a point parallel with when the story was first created for many of us, allowing it to be seen and resolved.

This seeing through the story/ego/pain body/maya you may recognize by words like awakening and self realization.

You may consider this a philosophy or belief system but in fact it can be experientially verified. Using a variety of terms, it has been described and discussed for eons though much of history. It takes many voices to be heard by many ears…

Davidya

PS – this evening I heard a talk by Eckhart on the process of awakening. (yes, he called it that) Rather than defining the terms like I’ve often done, he told some stories from our experience to relate to the difference between being in the mind and being in the spaciousness. Speaking verbally like this is less mind engaging and a great way to teach.

Follow the Love

Muse recently wrote an article on the song “Don’t Go With Your Song Inside You“. It’s evidently the song that closes Wayne Dyer’s new flick The Shift.

Joseph Campbell famously said “follow your bliss“. Let happiness lead you forward. Chase what makes you happy. Look for what enlivens.

Essentially what we’re doing when we follow bliss is moving with the flow. The movement of life. We’re acting to intention and purpose. The more it brings happiness to ourselves and others, the more in the flow we are.

This is not to say we won’t run into resistance. Most of us are like sacks of resistance. When we start paying attention to how we really feel, some of that will come to the surface, be seen. And with practice, be released, emptying the sack a little more. In other words, we’ll have some stuff to work through.

Time is a factor not to be discounted in the unfolding. While the flow is timeless, we experience it expressed in time. We may get the signal but not much in the way of results. Sometimes it’s not yet time. Perhaps some preparation or clearing is needed first. But it still shows up so we know where this is going. It will cycle back with a strong signal when the time comes, and now we’ll be ready to move.

People in Law of Attraction circles talk of watching for coincidences and syncronicities. We may also notice stuff shows up in sets when the signal is strong. 3 people will tell you about the same thing, for example, in a short time. Or give you the same nudge or suggestion. You may respond – “yeah, I already heard about/know that“. But you may also ask why the cluster? It may be the time to act, however unapparent otherwise. That’s when intuition or sitting with it can be useful. A time for listening. How does it feel?

The trick though comes back to Campbell. Is there bliss? Does it feel good? Right? Negative feelings are usually a sign of resistance rather than a No. Fear, as Adyashanti suggested, can be an invitation. A No will also feel good. We may feel yes, we may feel no, but the right answer always feels good.

Sometimes, we can smack ourselves upside the head because we’re being dense. We’re  caught by a problem, so we fail to see the solution when it’s presented to us. Then, far more resources are required to “push” us onto the right path. But if we’re not seeing, we struggle and wonder why it’s not working. Where’s da bliss??

Tuning into how it ‘feels’ – not the reactive emotions so much – touching the movement through our body and our lives. The more we clear the sack, the easier this becomes. The flow can be felt, seen and heard when the senses become refined enough. Everything comes alive.

As the heart opens it will bring another value, love. Follow the love. Act on what inspires the heart. This can be quite profound when we act from love, when we do love, when we give only to love. This draws the flow of love out into our world.

Our life is literally filled with the love we’re giving. The Heaven that was always there dawns…
Davidya

Surrendering Enlightenment

I’ve often spoken of the surrender or allowing of the spiritual journey. It shows up in many ways, at many stages.

There is the acceptance of ourselves and feelings while we clear our emotional dramas.

There is the moment of surrender that leads to the end of the ego idea. The death of individual me.

There is the surrender of the spiritual ego that may arise after the ego shrapnel that remains tries to regain control. In a way, this is the first surrender of the sense of being enlightened, of having reached something.

There is the surrender of held emotions that leads to the opening of the divine heart.

And there is the roasting of the identity that divides us, leading to the end of “inside” and “outside”. One surrenders everything, all one “knows” up until now. The ground is prepared for the realization of Unity. Our total Oneness.

But even this is just the beginning of the unfoldment of infinity. Totality is so vast that the completion of every cycle of deepening and opening requires yet another surrender. A surrender for it to begin, a surrender for it to complete. A surrender of whatever vastness and bliss and love and peace that may have moved in. A surrender of any sense of Enlightenment that may have been reached.

Enlightenment is a surrender that must itself be surrendered.

It is a gradual movement into perpetual surrender of Self flowing into Itself. That Thou Art.
Davidya

Layers of the Soul

The challenge with using Sanskrit terms is that, though the meaning is often more precise, English doesn’t always have an equivalent concept.

For example, I’ve avoided the term Atman as it’s understood poorly and it’s broad application has lead to sloppy English use. We could say Self Realization is Realization of oneself as Atman. But one might also say the same about the discovery of the inner Self, the jiva wakening. Both are forms of Atman discovery, much as Oneness also is. The awakening journey can be said to be the journey of the deepening unfolding of Atman awareness.

Add in how people will use terms in different philosophical outlooks plus how Self is perceived in different states of consciousness and you get a sense of the diversity of possible definitions.

Most typically, you’ll not see a staged series of terms like we might define in English. Rather you see word pairs, where one word is understood in relationship to another. For example, Atman/Paramatma or jiva/atman.

Here is a larger list with relative context.

Ego – sense of doership, idea of me. Ahamkara is sometimes used, a term for  individuation as a separateness. This leads to the perception of individual mind.

Jiva - living being, sense of “dweller in the body”, individuality

Jiva-atma – individual living soul, much the same as Jiva

Atman – soul, Self, spirit, the wave of the ocean. The presence of the Self-soul draws the body to life, to breath. But it’s clear this is more a spectrum, from the individual to universal, depending on how Self is perceived at different points on the path. Atman may be used to denote Self, intellect, mind, breath and body as these are all expressions of that and not separate from it. Atman we could say is Jiva without limitations, our unbounded nature. Atman and Brahman are one and the same, just as waves remain one with the ocean.

Paramatma – oversoul or ultimate soul, an aspect of Brahman, in the heart of Jiva. In this context it is the observer where Atman is in the experience.

We find all values of soul in the light in the center of the chest. Jiva is like the lively life-giving golden surface, Atman is white within, Paramatma is the infinite point at center.

But there are no real layers to the soul or to anything else. Rather just a spectrum of expression and experience.
Davidya

Mostly Eternal

An interesting bit of Sanskrit showed up recently. “Pripad Asyamritam Divi”. This basically means 3/4′s is Amrit. Amrit is typically thought to mean nectar or ambrosia, specifically the nectar of immortality. It’s literal meaning is that which is immortal.

The association with nectar is due to a subtle gland in the body that assists in the refinement of the physiology though awakening and thus the experience of immortality. It also relates to the lively aspect of the changeless, flowing within Itself.

Thus, 3/4′s is Amrit means 3/4′s is immortal or eternal. The silent unmanifest flowing within itself is the majority of what is. Although this is not a linear flow like time or a direction in space. It is more like a simultaneous movement in all directions at once, yet not moving anywhere. Fluctuating in place.

This is similar to the ocean. A wave can seem to move across the surface of an ocean until it crashes onto the shore. But the ocean itself does not move forward. The surface simply rises up and down again with the flow of the current through it. On any expanse of ocean, waves are found in many directions all at once.

The other implication of the phrase is that the world of change and experience is the minor aspect. Indeed, one might suggest it is like a crust on the surface. Curiously, we hold on to this crust as ‘real’ even when it crumbles in our grip repeatedly.

What is real remains. It’s that simple.
Davidya

PS – this is why they ask who is having the experience. The observer remains, whatever the content of an experience. Thus, it is a key to stepping into the real.

Adyashanti comes to town

This week, Adyashanti was in town for 2 evening satsangs. Although I talk about him fairly often on this blog, he is one of the few such teachers that I’ve not actually met.

At one time, I used to joke that all of my mentors were dead. (laughs) Yet curiously I’ve had the unexpected opportunity to meet teachers that have not always been very accessible. Adya is a more recent influence, largely because he was one of the few voices speaking to the part of the journey I was on.

For both evenings, he spoke for about an hour, then took questions for about an hour. There was no prepared talk, so the content was different on the 2 days, catering to the presence of the group.

Adya is quite honest and direct about the process. The straight talker. Rather than talking about the benefits of awakening, he speaks more to the challenges of stepping out of the me.

His core message on the first night was to always bring it back to awareness of one’s personal existence. He spoke of the illusions of being spiritual and jokingly apologized to anyone who was new on the path there. (I didn’t take notes)

On the second night, he spoke of how we all want to have more “spiritual experiences” but it’s good they are usually rare. Otherwise you can fall into the illusion you’re getting somewhere. (laughs) That there is a goal being reached. Indeed, I’ve seen people with one really good experience get stuck on the memory of it.

He spoke of the natural drive to acquire things and how this shows up in spiritual circles as well. We seek to gain understanding and experiences. This is the same game as acquiring cars and houses, applied to the spiritual journey. The energy of seeking is simply turned within. Even meditation has a dead end like materialism.

This is not to say seeking and a practice are bad, just not to confuse them with reaching a goal. More, a practice is a strategy. (more shortly) Sometimes, when we see the impermanence of experiences and seeking, there can be a spontaneous stopping. There is nowhere to go. We give up. We let go.

Adya said that in waking, the only thing important is how much self (me) we let go of. If we still carry some sense of attaining something, we are set up for a fall. And this is normal. We are seeking to fill what is deficient. But what would life be like without your wants and don’t wants?

He asked how many had the experience of the seeking stopping but the seeker remaining. A few had. This is not unlike the idea of the self awakening to Self yet not being lost or what has been called soul awakening. Sometimes, the self can be resilient and take some time to implode. But once it is seen through, it will. Perhaps when we see the me can’t do it and it reaches defeat.

He called monasteries institutionalized seeking and monks professional seekers. He said they had value but this must be seen. Waking comes from the end of seeking. He used the analogy of a cat trying to cough up a fur ball to the letting go of seeking.

Freedom is defined not by what is attained but by what is lost. All that is lost is an idea, an idea of a me.

He said there may be states as existence becomes aware of itself. All kinds of byproducts of awakening but all byproducts will disappear. We’re not an experience. We are something that is already there, that which is not an experience.

During questions, a few more points arose.

Every practice and concept is a strategy. All strategies stop working.
The seeker is the controller. Same thing.
The only illusion is believing our thoughts.

When we surrender, the flow of existence is much smoother.

Don’t resist seeking. Trying to not seek is just more seeking. It’s out of your control. Instead ask who is trying to surrender?

Fear is a good thing. Different than fear in the world. It means you are close to the truth. Just don’t run away. See fear as an invitation.

What to do with all the energy when there’s no concepts? Ask why you’re here. What’s this about? This gives the energy a direction and focus. When we see things as they are, there is an influx of energy. Then it’s not about seeking, just acknowledging.

Bring the inside out, want to love? Give everyone all the freedom to be exactly as they are.

Anything we’ve not been conscious of is stored in the body. When we see it consciously, it can release.

Indifference? 2 kinds.
Disconnected = don’t care, ego denial.
Simple = what Meryl Wolfe describes as “high indifference” is radical non-attachment. Ironically, this is the place from which true love can arise. Ego cannot understand this.

I enjoyed finally seeing him.
Davidya

Natural Music

Last week when I heard Rupert Sheldrakes talk, I also heard a talk by his wife, Jill Purce. While the theme of the evening was Resonance, Jill comes from a very different place than Rupert. She speaks of herself as bringing sound healing to the west and of using sound in an uncommon way.

Right off the top, she’s the first woman I’ve ever heard doing overtone chanting. Some others in the room had learned as well, making for a very different sound from your typical Kirtan. Deep, throaty resonant sounds you can feel physically. As Jill observed, overtone chanting has an audible geometry – you can hear the overtones.

She spoke of how we have gone silent. In times past, we would sing songs and tell stories while we worked and played. She spoke of how singing makes you happy, even in singing a sad song.

Jill spoke of the evolution of music in the 17th century. The introduction of pianos caused problems with the predominant “Just intonation” of the day. Just Intonation (tuning) uses pure 5th’s and 3rd’s, improving on the earlier Pythagorean scale. But this didn’t hold up for multi-chordal instruments as each scale is relative to it’s base note. Change the scale (base note) and the ratios can break down. (although modern digital instruments could be built to shift tunings for each scale movement)

The result was “equal temperament”, slightly out of tune so the notes were chromatically evenly spaced to be played on the newer pianos. While it dramatically increased the number of scales and chords possible on a single instrument, Jill suggests it detuned from nature. That the chords we know so well from popular music are really all a little discordant.

If you listen to a natural scale, you would probably think it sounds a bit “Asian”. This apparent dissonance is our unfamiliarity with natural overtone sounds, not their naturalness. You may also notice that natural chords resonate more – you can feel them physically even without cranking the bass. (laughs)

Here’s a site that lets you “play” on-line versions of Partch’s instruments, tuned to the Just scale. Some in these examples are more complicated than a simple 12 tone octave though.

Jill also touched on mantra. By taking a standard mantra, you are tuning into the integrity and coherence of the field of all who have used it before you, unbounded by meaning. This connects with what Rupert was describing. She also spoke of the importance of the mantra being taught as it was then imparted by breath and sound. A little like the way transference and shaktipat are described.

An interesting evening all around.
Davidya

Sheldrakes Habits

Last week I got a chance to hear Rupert Sheldrake speak again. He spoke of 2 competing paradigms of science in recent history – the model of fixed laws and the evolutionary model, giving examples of how these ideas impact common thinking but also conflict.

He suggests that his own models predict that laws of nature are not fixed but are rather habits. What he calls morphic resonance. Long repeated actions become so habituated that they appear fixed, much as our personal habits and attitudes can seem unchangeable. If this is true, one should be able to demonstrate it in many ways.

One example he used was crystal formation. Chemical compounds that have a crystalline state are seen to crystallize in very specific ways and have a fixed melting point. However, if this is habit, new forms of crystals should have slower, variable initial formation. As the structure becomes standardized (habituated), it would become more stable and the melting point would rise over time. Rupert showed various examples demonstrating this, also noting that occasional variations can accidentally “spoil” a compounds use when it habituates to a new form. He also showed other examples such as  fruit fly morphology.

This ties into a couple of recent articles here where I’ve discussed how Habit functions from a deeper level of perception.

Matter is energy in fields. The fields keep it together. This matches models of consciousness I’ve described where intelligence is structured in the intention of any objects becoming. (fields are in turn structured in awareness and geometry)

How do the fields keep it together? Memory, stored in the fields. Sheldrake calls these morphic fields, describing them as a nested hierarchy. For example, there is an organisms field. Within that, a limb field, a bone field, a cellular field, an atomic field (by this point it’s just fields), particle field, and so forth. But these fields are intrinsically holistic. They don’t behave as separate items but rather an interacting resonant whole.

He also observes that a habit model eliminates the need for such ideas as a Multiverse. (multiple parallel universes) It also enters the ‘nature nurture’ debate – is it genes or upbringing that determines our destiny? Morphic resonance is a third option although it has characteristics of both the others. Another word for family and social resonance is conditioning. Rupert also mentioned how someone who breaks away from the family can leave a resonance that is repeated by future generations until it’s resolved.

What we perceive as individual mind is thus an aspect of universal mind rather than something personal. Memory stored in the mind field is stored globally, not personally. We have both personal and group memories. We tune into our own and the groups through resonance, like tuning into a radio station. The brain is not the storage medium but rather the receiver.

Our family has the closest resonance but every layer of the groups we reside in – peers, school, city, country, race – have a collective unconscious memory or resonance. Rituals reinforce group resonance and connect us to our origins. This includes things like holidays, the usual style of serving a meal, how we greet someone, and so forth.

This also ties into the idea that life is a remembering, that it’s all structured in subtle memory. Time does not really exist but is rather a progression of ‘resonance symmetry’. Focused attention on a progression of perception.

The interplay of habit and creativity he describes as evolution. What we experience personally as subconscious and conscious mind.

Sheldrake is also courageous. He has recently taken a wager with Lewis Wolpert through the Royal Society that, in essence, the genome project will fail. Bruce Lipton would concur.
Davidya