Post by stardustpilgrim on Dec 5, 2018 18:04:27 GMT -5
The law of attraction works whether we intend it to work or do not try to use it deliberately. Self-inquiry OTOH is a deliberate process. (For sdp Self-inquiry is/was backing up to a point of honesty/truth, and when you think you have found it, inquiring into that, and then that, repeat). What is your life? Look around, what you do, where you live, the people who are around you, your job/career, your education, your house, neighborhood, clothes, hobbies, car, "toys", how you spend your time, that's your life. We could say that's the life of me, the me. All of that has been chosen by the me, they form me, they reflect me. Me has attracted all that in some manner, attracted like a magnet attracts iron. But what if one deliberately tries to manifest using LOA? The same principle holds, the me which is seeking to manifest, is seeking those things which it thinks will satisfy, comfort, give pleasure to and fulfill, me. So everything is centered on me. Now, consider how much time is chosen/necessarily-allotted, for me. (The body, the needs of the body, food, shelter, clothing and same for family, etc., and how much time is allotted for self-pleasure, movies, TV, reading, sports, etc.). Time shows what one values.
So what is Self-inquiry? Is Self-inquiry different? Yes, Self-inquiry is not centered on the me. Now, most here have ~done~ some form of Self-inquiry. But I put the questions above, first paragraph, to examine a little where Self-inquiry has led. Does Self-inquiry change one's values? OK, here the 1st mountain, 2nd mountain, 3rd mountain Zen truth enters. Your going to say, 3rd mountain takes us back to 1st mountain, with little unchanged between 1st mountain and 3rd mountain, outwardly. I am questioning whether that should be the case, or not. I'm asking in what sense has the me changed, from pre-inquiry to post inquiry. I'm not talking about what one has realized. I'm talking about the "nuts & bolts" of everyday life, the me that makes decisions, (even in the light of non-volition). That is, asking if non-volition isn't merely a convenient concept for me to have? Isn't me having its cake and eating it too? How would one know?
I'm asking if there is not a sense of I, which comes out-of Self-inquiry? I'm asking what Niz really meant/means by stay in the I Am. I'm asking, might not, would not one's whole life be turned around by actual Self-inquiry? That is, might one attract a different exterior life, if one's sense of "self" (from me to I) has changed from Self-inquiry? Would one's values change? Or it might not change exteriorly, but one's attitude to life will certainly change. (?) I'm asking, how clever is the me sometimes? (For any picky people out there, not liking the word I {but then, why did Niz use it?} change from the me to Self, or not-self). But I'm not really merely asking these specific questions, I'm just saying, look at what arises from the thread.
So what is Self-inquiry? Is Self-inquiry different? Yes, Self-inquiry is not centered on the me. Now, most here have ~done~ some form of Self-inquiry. But I put the questions above, first paragraph, to examine a little where Self-inquiry has led. Does Self-inquiry change one's values? OK, here the 1st mountain, 2nd mountain, 3rd mountain Zen truth enters. Your going to say, 3rd mountain takes us back to 1st mountain, with little unchanged between 1st mountain and 3rd mountain, outwardly. I am questioning whether that should be the case, or not. I'm asking in what sense has the me changed, from pre-inquiry to post inquiry. I'm not talking about what one has realized. I'm talking about the "nuts & bolts" of everyday life, the me that makes decisions, (even in the light of non-volition). That is, asking if non-volition isn't merely a convenient concept for me to have? Isn't me having its cake and eating it too? How would one know?
I'm asking if there is not a sense of I, which comes out-of Self-inquiry? I'm asking what Niz really meant/means by stay in the I Am. I'm asking, might not, would not one's whole life be turned around by actual Self-inquiry? That is, might one attract a different exterior life, if one's sense of "self" (from me to I) has changed from Self-inquiry? Would one's values change? Or it might not change exteriorly, but one's attitude to life will certainly change. (?) I'm asking, how clever is the me sometimes? (For any picky people out there, not liking the word I {but then, why did Niz use it?} change from the me to Self, or not-self). But I'm not really merely asking these specific questions, I'm just saying, look at what arises from the thread.