Awaken Now

A couple of years ago I was listening to a nice talk given by Adyashanti as part of his Spntaneous Awakening CD. He was discussing the difference between what is real and what is not real. He illustrated the difference beautifully when he said:

"If you want to know what's not real stop thinking right now....(pause for 5 seconds)...okay everything that disappeared in those five seconds is what's not real."

I saw that the point is to allow us to feel what remains when all thoughts cease. The awareness, which is timeless and forever now, is what remains. Awakening begins with seeing clearly that this is what we actually are, and that this is what everyone and everything actaully is.

If you want to try it yourself do this:

Imagine that none of your thoughts were true, and that no thought you could ever think could be true. Now see what remains.

Next, investigate what remains...and follow that.



[edit on 3-8-2010 by Silenceisall]

Imagine that none of your thoughts were true, and that no thought you could ever think could be true. Now see what remains.

If none of my thoughts are true then thinking that they are untrue makes the untrue, untrue; which is a double negative which makes a positive so all of my thoughts are true. Yeah, the whole awakening thing and new age crap is just really mind numbingly useless.

[edit on 3-8-2010 by KILL_DOGG]

I get it!

And en cue comes a ego telling us as it is :p

There could be no other way

reply to post by KILL_DOGG


Playing semantic games is not a help--this is purely a tool to help you to see reality. Yes you can criss-cross logic lines until the cows come home, and yes the thought "no thought is true" is a thought, but I am not asking you to write a paper about it, only to try it and see...just see

reply to post by KILL_DOGG


Oh, please, what the OP asked or suggested wasn't even that far out, but you seem to be unable to grasp such concepts at all, by default.

Why are you even responding to and reading this forum if everything outside your little box is "crap" anyway, go find a debunker forum you troll.



[edit on 3-8-2010 by Point of No Return]

reply to post by Point of No Return


I watch the side bar that shows the latest threads....sorry if your narrow mind has trouble with opposing opinions or thoughts. Not very enlightened of you really.

reply to post by KILL_DOGG


Oh, and you didn't see it was in the Philosophy and Metaphysics section?

sorry if your narrow mind has trouble with opposing opinions or thoughts. Not very enlightened of you really.

My trouble is the fact that you come into this thread, and start to slam the OP, and ridicule a whole subject, while you are not even remotely capable of grasping the actual concept of the OP.

I never claimed to be enlightened, I claimed that you are a troll, and you obviously are.

If you think it's all stupid and crap, please refrain from posting here, so that others may discuss it.

reply to post by Silenceisall


I agree, imo, nothing exists but pure consciousness.

Everything else is a manifestation of that consciousness.

There is a fine line between doubt and denial. One keeps you progressing, the other stops you dead in your tracks. Its fine to play the mind game, but when you play with fire, you could get burned.

reply to post by Point of No Return


Hi...I posted this because my wife and I were talking about this subject last night. I've been investigating for a few years, whereas she is just starting out. I gave her that example to help her, since it was so helpful to me. Her reaction convinced me that I should post something here.

Kill Dog's reaction was more standard. The sceptics like our friend only demonstrate how the truth is so simple and obvious that the mind can find it repellent. There is no self analysis in his answer, although I am glad he contributed since it illustrates what lies in the other direction beautifully.

[edit on 3-8-2010 by Silenceisall]

reply to post by The Endtime Warrior


beautifully put, and yes, you will get burned, and yes the fire will liberate you.

I love that everything is pure consciousness, to be separate from our egos and to awaken to a higher level of being.

I hope that people will one day take a moment to go within and meditate to accept that we can all tap into this energy - after all we are all part of it.

We should all take time out and realise who we all are, spiritual beings, with amazing potential, we have the ability to choose love, to choose and shape our realities for the very best of humankind, and how we must accept our duties to look after Mother Earth, after all we are only guests upon her.

I've gotten into this a little, and the funny thing is I actually prefer the non-thought state. But maintaining it seems really hard. It's like reality just seems too raw or something and must be diluted by thoughts. So I just keep trying to be more persistent.

I'm wondering if there are any tricks to maintaining such a state or if the answer is just constant application of willpower?

Interesting that this teacher suggested that thoughts are not real, but that the corporeal structure that exists only to produce those thoughts is real.

Seems as if this teacher has it 180 degrees reversed.

What you create of yourself is the collected whole of what you've thought from your first instant of consciousness. In the end, this mass of associated information is all that you contribute to reality. Everything else that you call yourself existed in its moment to serve that one effort.

This idea that mindlessness is godliness seems to be the big buzz lately, but if you really pick it apart and examine it, the whole notion collapses into gibberish.

reply to post by Merle8


Hi Merle,

Constant application of willpower is not the answer. It won't work, and as soon as your application of willpower stops your thoughts will begin anew. Really, the thing is to investigate the thoughtless state. See what's there, how deep it runs, and then see what comes of that....don't force it. By investigating the thoughtless state through meditation, you can become aware of the fuller and deeper reality of what you are. That fuller reality will pick up the thread and start pulling you the rest of the way...definately, do not fight your thoughts, you only make them stronger.

best to you.

reply to post by NorEaster


No one is advocating mindlessness and other such nonesense. The only thing that is being suggested is that we are not our thoughts, and that identification with our thoughts is equal to living in a state of illusion. Thoughts are what our brain makes, so to get rid of thoughts would require us to remove our brains--this is not what I'm saying.

Originally posted by Silenceisall
reply to post by NorEaster

 

No one is advocating mindlessness and other such nonesense. The only thing that is being suggested is that we are not our thoughts, and that identification with our thoughts is equal to living in a state of illusion. Thoughts are what our brain makes, so to get rid of thoughts would require us to remove our brains--this is not what I'm saying.

The truth is that we are only our thoughts. Our thoughts define us and are the only surviving parts of us. Seriously. What else do we actively produce besides our thoughts? Our bodies are 99.99999% space between spinning bits that are also 99.9999% space. Open up a person with a scalpel or a chainsaw and you'll find the same thing - nothing but meat, blood and bones. There's no one inside there, and yet, when we think, we become more than the sum total of what we are as red and gray fixin's with peach (or chocolate) colored wrapping.

Meditation seeks to "quiet the mind", and that's great if you're planning to then allow the mind to open back up freed from the distractions of incoming stimuli. I look at the pupils of my eyes as if they are a membrane that divides the universe inside of me from the universe that sits outside. Both universes are exceedingly vast, and both contain their share of amazing things. If I can reduce the outside universe's pressure on my pupils to the point where the inside universe's pressure is greater, then what's inside can pour to the outside. I can create and express myself, as opposed to simply responding to what other people are imposing upon me. This - to me - is the only value of meditation, but it is a brilliant value.

What I read on this board is that a person must achieve a mental state of no thoughts whatsoever, and that the goal is a mind that can sustain a void of intellectual context - thereby ascending to the ranks of the static and unknowable. To me, this vacates the premise of what it means to be a corporeal human being, and if that's the goal, then intelligent corporeal existence is nothing more than a challenge to overcome - which places competition to the forefront of necessary attributes that a saint must possess. Of course, that clashes with any notion of compassion and selflessness, since overcoming one's belligerent essence forces one to be focused relentlessly on oneself to the exclusion of all other concerns.

Just like Christianity depends on embracing the catastrophic ineptitude of an omniscient god, Hinduism (which is what this notion you embrace basically is) depends on the aggressive disinterest in anything other than oneself, and in crippling the expression of one's own inimitable identity. Both disciplines fail by contradicting their own foundational core premises with the nature of their core tenets. Kind of like getting their track spikes caught in the starting blocks.

Oh, and yes, I know, I simply don't "get it". I get that a lot.

reply to post by NorEaster


A well written reply, and interesting. But again, I'm not advocating a mindless state. There is nothing wrong with thoughts. They are a natural part of what this existance is.

Where we differ is here: you feel that we are only our thoughts, but why then do we not disappear when our thoughts cease? And if we are our thoughts, who or what is it that is aware that we have thoughts? Rather, I would say that our thoughts appear like images on the screen of our awareness. And through thoughtless meditation, we can come to realize that we are that screen, and not just the thoughts thar rise and fall, appear and disappear, upon it. We are timeless and constant nowness, whereas our thoughts are transitory and time bound. Breaking the illusion that we are only our thoughts is liberating and...well you'll just have to see for yourself....it certainly does not make one selfish or egotistical...quite the opposite.

But again, thoughts are fine and natural...and yes they are a part of what we are here.





[edit on 4-8-2010 by Silenceisall]