Pluto
Meowing to go out
- Dec 27, 2020
- 3,852
I've had lots of enquiries on this topic so am making a thread about it for anyone who may be interested.
Disclaimer: this approach is not appropriate for all situations and may be triggering or destabilising. Discard it immediately and go elsewhere if this is happening. A prerequisite is a complete sense of openness, which unfortunately may not accompany the pathologically intense states of mind that most of us here are familiar with. Only you can decide.
Thought and Reality
Quite simply, a spiritual approach draws a distinction between thoughts (mental activity) and reality (your present-moment awareness). Your entire past history is a thought (memory), as is the future (anticipation). Even in the immediate present, all commentary, storylines and judgements are also thoughts. Emotions without thought-labels are merely energies, pressures and sensations in the body, happening right now.
All thoughts can be traced to your sense of "me"; the very root of your identity including opinions, stories, ambitions and hardships of this lifetime. Alarmingly, the "me" is also a thought - we could say the mother-thought or root-thought; the struggling protagonist of your psychological world. Seeing this can be destabilising since it leads straight to the most fundamental question of all: "Who am I?" And yet, any verbal answer to this question is itself just another thought.
Pure Consciousness
Observing this me-thought, what remains is your conscious presence - the same thing in the waking state, dream or deep sleep, and even prior to this birth, all stages of life and after death - and its nature is eternal peace. All things are merely clouds passing before you. Hence, the familiar sense of suffering comes from identifying with thoughts and believing that the body-mind's tales of woe belong to "you". It's like being so engrossed in watching a cliffhanger movie that you forget you are actually seated in the audience the whole time.
The Mind's Trickery
Watch the mind now as it immediately manipulates, protests or co-opts this message. "I don't get it," "I don't feel any better," or "I tried that but it doesn't work," or "This just sounds like a clever angle to evade my problems," or "Wow, this sounds really interesting," or "OK, so what should I do next?" These are all thoughts, no matter how subtle, and should be left alone without identifying or believing them.
Return to your present-moment awareness of being aware of your bodily sensations and the sights and sounds around you, minus any sort of labels or commentary. Paradoxically, this is not an activity since you are not trying to do something, but just hopping off the wild bull of mind identification. Because there's such a strong habit of identifying with our thoughts, repeated effort is needed to keep returning to the state of pure awareness. Watch as the mind skillfully seduces you back into identifying with it over and over, generally using manipulative FUD tactics.
True Nature Insights
If practiced ruthlessly, the awareness starts to deepen and the earlier claims about your nature being eternal formless awareness start to be confirmed in your direct experience - but even this should not be the goal, as having the intention to do something is itself thought, giving rise to a person-on-a-mission. The dense web of thoughts has given us an insecure, struggling sense of human identity, along with endless suffering and it will gladly co-opt this message to make you a 'spiritual seeker'.
Disentangling ourselves from this thought-stream may bring a sense of relief. At some point, the insight of seeing the whole situation as it really is will trigger a dramatic shift in identity known as spiritual awakening. But again, it cannot be made into a goal without feeding the mind's sense of time and me on a journey. In the ultimate paradox, the true destination of life is a place where you already are.
Disclaimer: this approach is not appropriate for all situations and may be triggering or destabilising. Discard it immediately and go elsewhere if this is happening. A prerequisite is a complete sense of openness, which unfortunately may not accompany the pathologically intense states of mind that most of us here are familiar with. Only you can decide.
Thought and Reality
Quite simply, a spiritual approach draws a distinction between thoughts (mental activity) and reality (your present-moment awareness). Your entire past history is a thought (memory), as is the future (anticipation). Even in the immediate present, all commentary, storylines and judgements are also thoughts. Emotions without thought-labels are merely energies, pressures and sensations in the body, happening right now.
All thoughts can be traced to your sense of "me"; the very root of your identity including opinions, stories, ambitions and hardships of this lifetime. Alarmingly, the "me" is also a thought - we could say the mother-thought or root-thought; the struggling protagonist of your psychological world. Seeing this can be destabilising since it leads straight to the most fundamental question of all: "Who am I?" And yet, any verbal answer to this question is itself just another thought.
Pure Consciousness
Observing this me-thought, what remains is your conscious presence - the same thing in the waking state, dream or deep sleep, and even prior to this birth, all stages of life and after death - and its nature is eternal peace. All things are merely clouds passing before you. Hence, the familiar sense of suffering comes from identifying with thoughts and believing that the body-mind's tales of woe belong to "you". It's like being so engrossed in watching a cliffhanger movie that you forget you are actually seated in the audience the whole time.
The Mind's Trickery
Watch the mind now as it immediately manipulates, protests or co-opts this message. "I don't get it," "I don't feel any better," or "I tried that but it doesn't work," or "This just sounds like a clever angle to evade my problems," or "Wow, this sounds really interesting," or "OK, so what should I do next?" These are all thoughts, no matter how subtle, and should be left alone without identifying or believing them.
Return to your present-moment awareness of being aware of your bodily sensations and the sights and sounds around you, minus any sort of labels or commentary. Paradoxically, this is not an activity since you are not trying to do something, but just hopping off the wild bull of mind identification. Because there's such a strong habit of identifying with our thoughts, repeated effort is needed to keep returning to the state of pure awareness. Watch as the mind skillfully seduces you back into identifying with it over and over, generally using manipulative FUD tactics.
True Nature Insights
If practiced ruthlessly, the awareness starts to deepen and the earlier claims about your nature being eternal formless awareness start to be confirmed in your direct experience - but even this should not be the goal, as having the intention to do something is itself thought, giving rise to a person-on-a-mission. The dense web of thoughts has given us an insecure, struggling sense of human identity, along with endless suffering and it will gladly co-opt this message to make you a 'spiritual seeker'.
Disentangling ourselves from this thought-stream may bring a sense of relief. At some point, the insight of seeing the whole situation as it really is will trigger a dramatic shift in identity known as spiritual awakening. But again, it cannot be made into a goal without feeding the mind's sense of time and me on a journey. In the ultimate paradox, the true destination of life is a place where you already are.
