Nonduality Community on LiveJournal

Choices

The illusionary self, which is the feeling of “I am a person”, imagines itself to have the ability of free will.

Even if you adapt the belief or a certain philosophy, that there is no free will, the self will still not quite be able to get it.

This is because, like the sense of separation, the illusion of free will is a fundamental characteristic of the self.

“I decide!”

You might try to challenge this statement with examples of when you clearly made a choice in your past.

"It was ME who decided to do that!"

The truth is, that everything just is as it is.

The process of making an apparent choice, the experience of “I could have done something else instead” also is what arises in awareness.

The self imagines parallel realities in which another decision would have lead to other events and so on.

It is able to dream up the story of different possible choices in the past and future and constantly evaluates if it could have done something differently or what its next choice will be.

The famous “What if?”.

The truth is that everything that arises is what it is and can not or could not have been any different.

Purposely spilling your drink to prove me wrong here would also just be as it is ;)

Something that arises.

No choice made, nobody there to make a choice.

“So does enlightenment provide free will then?”

No, sorry.

What is difficult (better say impossible) for the self to grasp is, that enlightenment has nothing to do with whatever person seemingly is the enlightened one.

The person sitting here writing this and thinking about this stuff, how to express it in a good way etc. is also just an experience arising in awareness.

There is nobody here doing anything.

Of course, in practical language, I decide what to eat for dinner etc.

What enlightenment “does” is that the illusion of the self is dropped.

That which remains is just pure awareness. “Oneness” if you will.

The content of awareness, “made of” awareness is still the same visually etc.

This knowing, of course also permeates the body/mind-structure because the self was such a strong factor in behaviour. But it doesn’t even mean there has to be anything different about practical matters of everyday life. Conditioning of the body/mind, reactions of apparent separation and so on still arise. Thoughts that “pull you in”, it can all arise in awareness.

There seems to be the belief in some people, that the enlightened “person” wouldn’t want to eat, sleep, breath, earn money or enjoy a good movie anymore. This is of course just a nice fiction for the mind of enlightenment as something exotic or a personal experience that makes you resistant to cold weather.

It changes nothing and everything.

To make sense of this paradox you have to go there. This is where the mind (itself arising in awareness) can not go.

Luntrus
Minimal Spirituality

The fear of death is a fundamental characteristic of the seemingly seperate person.

Sure, the body/mind is born, ages and dies.

But it doesn’t touch or concern your real essence at all.

It doesn’t make the slightest difference.

But let’s start a bit more basic here.

You are obviously aware, aren’t you?

Even the most thought-identified person on the planet wouldn’t deny his or her own existence, even if they just refer to their illusionary self.

I have had some “discussions” with people who are very much identified with memories and thoughts and they still admitted to a sense of awareness.

Birth

Now.

Go to your memories and pinpoint the day when you started being aware.

Look deeply.

When did you become aware? Name a date, or find a memory.

If you have been born, obviously there is a starting point of your awareness right?

How could the most extraordinary event in your life, the appearance of awareness, be forgotten?

Why on earth would you not be able to remember your first aware moment?

The reason you can’t find it is because birth is merely a concept for the illusionary self.

Awareness didn’t develop over the years as a growing-process.

From newborn to kid, to adult…only the mind and body changes.

Thoughts change, emotions change.

The knowing that you are aware doesn’t have different stages of development.

Pure Awareness is timeless.

It does not have a beginning.

Only the experience of this particular body and mind, developing and progressing in time, start with birth and end with death.

It has no substance. No reality.

It all arises in You-Awareness.

The essence of your being has not changed a bit when the apparent ‘you’ was born.

It will be there before and after the person.

Death

The fear of death is a consequence of the belief you were born into existence out of nothing

and will at some point end up at that unpleasent nothingness again.

Nothing that is not real can suddenly come into existence.

Nothing that is real can suddenly disappear into nothingness.

Awareness is real.

Most people seem to believe, that they will die at some point

and dissolve into nothingness. Into non-existence.

Non-existence as the opposite of existence is, like birth and death, a concept of the mind.

Reality is neither nothing, nor something.

Only the dualisticly-thinking mind needs opposites like that to make sense of itself.

Fear of death is a symptom of the sense of being a person believing in its seperation.

With waking up, the fear of death disappears.

No concepts of birth and death apply then.

The knowing remains, that you are eternally aware.

Luntrus
Minimal Spirituality

The content of experience

Look at what you are experiencing right now.

Objects in the room, the words on the page, a computer screen.

All the material things you see.

You are obviously here and they are there. Not necessarily as a formulated thought like that, but more of an underlying conviction.

Then there is sitting or standing, walking or (hopefully not right now) driving.

Movements of your hands. breathing.

All the physical actions of the body.

There are thoughts, maybe an emotion, you feel tired or rested?

Also there can be the witnessing of all these things.

Like a step back - observing it all mindfully.

Maybe in meditation?


The apparent continuity of the body and mind

The illusion of an ‘outside world’ and an ‘inside me’ is pretty convincing, right?

A very reinforcing factor of this illusion is the apparent continuity of the body and mind (thoughts and memories).

Continuity in the sense of:”When I physically move and go outside right now, the content of my experience changes.”

"When I go to sleep, I am still there in the morning."

Sure, relatively speaking the body and mind are certainly a more constant factor in your experience than a bird you saw 10 years ago and never again.

In relation to the bird, the body/mind is always there.

Thoughts and feelings of identity arise and cling to other thoughts and memories like links and relinks on a website.

Also the feeling of my body, that appears to always be there.

This is a pretty good foundation for the illusion of two:

Inside and outside


Non Duality

Every”thing”, including the sense of seperation is nothing more than a temporary occurance in pure awareness, which is what “you” really are, or better said: Awareness is that which remains when there is no you.

The sense of self is not something that takes place outside of awareness.

It is just as much content “created” by You (the awareness-you, not the person) as a glass of water.


"Does everybody has their own awareness then?"

No. What I talk about here is as unpersonal as it gets.

Nobody profits from being enlightened and there is nobody that experiences non-duality then. There is just what is.

Awareness might experience (excuse my dualistic language) different content through all the life forms, including self-identified humans, including humans looking for enlightenment,

but awareness itself is one - with and without the content.

There is only awareness as one.

Each and everyone of you, reading this, looking for enlightenment whether for decades, years or since yesterday is not doing anything.

You are not moving towards enlightenment, but awareness is pulling you back home.

Luntrus
Minimal Spirituality

Here's the latest Nonduality Network Talk Radio show, aired earlier today. We talk about these topics:

Francis Lucille retreat. Pacific Ocean beaches vs Atlantic Ocean beaches. Air travel and airports. Dustin LindenSmith. James Traverse. Nonduality Satsang meetup in Nova Scotia. Audio of Francis Lucille speaking. Nonsanto Corporation. Nutrition and diet. And other things:

http://nonduality.net/11september2…

Further information about NNTR and the archive of shows are at http://nonduality.net

NONDUALITY NETWORK TALK RADIO - Real, live, FM radio!
Wednesday, September 11, from 12:30 to 1:30PM EST.

Listen at http://ckdu.ca
Call-in number: 1-902-494-2487
Or use Skype to call us. Our id is nondualitynetwork.

Join us for spontaneous, unedited conversation on real FM radio. No need to "Imagine there's no countries," when you could live it via this global broadcast about a topic that knows no boundaries and transcends local religions, politics, current events, customs, tastes, rituals, and affiliations of all kinds.

Past shows may be heard at http://nonduality.net/

Please leave a comment if you're still checking on this community. Thanks. I'm just curious. The main news I want to mention is that we have a new radio show, Nonduality Network Talk Radio. All the info regarding it may be found at http://nonduality.net. Thanks.

Jerry

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jung

The Advaita Vedanta doctrine of monism advocated by Shankara contends that the phenomenal world and the apparent individual selves are ultimately an illusion(Mâyâ)and only the impersonal absolute(Brahman)is real.Mâyâ is a superimposition on Brahman.Brahman transcends time,space and causation yet pervades everything and is immanent in all beings as Âtman.If,through yoga,we can penetrate the ego to this ultimate reality we reach Samâdhi(cosmic consciousness).When permanently established,this leads to Moksha,liberation from the cycle of rebirths(Samsâra),caused by the actions and reactions of Karma,and eternal spiritual union with the absolute-the identity of Âtman and Brahman.The four main ways to union with Brahman are:Jnâna Yoga(self-knowledge),Bhakti Yoga(devotion),Karma Yoga(selfless service)and Râjâ Yoga(meditation).Shankara only accepts as "real" that which neither changes nor ceases to exist.When he says that the world of thought and matter is not real,he does not mean that it is non-existent.
Although Hinduism is very diverse, one of the possible things that unites all Hindus is the quest for enlightenment and to free oneself from the cycle of rebirth. Another major concept is the concept of Ahimsa, which means "non-violence." Through this concept, strict movements of vegetarianism and tolerance grew. Hindus believe that everything in the world is part of the universal spirit, and therefore everything needs to be respected,
.http://creative.sulekha.com/schrod…
.(Advaita and science)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gopi_…a_(yogi)