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Post by laughter on Feb 11, 2014 20:45:38 GMT -5
The adult mind tends to take things in, compare its perceptions to the litany of things that have happened in the past, and basically hold the attitude, "Been there, done that." It is rather arid, dry, and boring. The innocent mind arises when the comparison is no longer happening. This innocence could also be called humility. But I personally like the word innocence because I think it stays closer to the actual experience.
chap 4 para 3
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Post by laughter on Feb 12, 2014 10:26:51 GMT -5
Nobody can explain what the personal self is; we just feel it. It's a visceral thing. It's not just how we act and what we say; it's our central fixation of self. As we see through it, we realize that the personal self is not who we are and that it was not ever anything substantial to begin with. Ad as we really see into our true nature, there is a paradox that arises; the more we realize that there isn't a self, the more intimately present we actually are.
chap 4 para 6
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Post by laughter on Feb 15, 2014 12:22:17 GMT -5
The other quality that I found in awakening was a love for the mere fact of existence itself. It wasn't a love that was caused by anything. It wasn't based on a good day, or a good person, or a good encounter, or a good feeling. In fact, it could be not such a good day, not such a good encounter, not such a good person, or not such a good feeling, and there was still just as much love for it. This is a love that loves to live this life because in life it is actually meeting itself moment to moment.
Awakening reveals that there is no personal self, and that everything is myself. It appears to be a paradox. We find we are nothing and absolutely everything simultaneously. When we see this, we realize there is nothing more happening other than love meeting itself -- or we could say you are meeting yourself, or the Truth is meeting itself, or God is meeting itself. Love meets itself each moment, even if it's a rotten moment. This will never happen through the egoic state of consciousness, filtered through the mind. But from innocence, love is simply meeting itself. If you love me, it meets that. If you hate me, fine, it meets that, too. And it loves meeting that. I am talking about the One meeting itself, realizing itself, experiencing itself.
chap 4 para's 13 and 14
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Post by laughter on Feb 19, 2014 9:53:09 GMT -5
Matter is anything that can be touched, seen, felt, perceived or thought. A feeling is matter and emotion is matter
chap 5 para 2
Part of realization is moving from identification with matter (which manifests as personality, or "me") to identification with spirit. True enlightenment is when matter and spirit are in harmony. We could call this harmony nondifferentiation or oneness.
When we realize that we are spirit, there may be a much deeper harmony than there was before that realization, but there can still be some disharmony. So it is helpful to understand the value of exposing ourselves to the teaching, which is the same as exposing ourselves to what is, each and every moment. We need to expose ourselves as we would to the sun if ewe want to get a tan. Instead of putting on clothes, we take them off. If we want to be free, then we don't clothe ourselves with our concepts, ideas, and opinions; we take them off. Then something happens quite by itself. In order to deepen this harmony, we cannot hold on to concepts just like we cannot stay partially dressed and get a full tan. We will not get transformed. But once we are really naked and completely exposed, we can become transformed or awakened in a very natural way.
chap 5 para's 4 and 5
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Post by laughter on Feb 22, 2014 16:04:31 GMT -5
When we realize what we are through this harmonization, then what do we do? We keep baking forever. If we stop baking and say, "I got it!" all of a sudden the harmonization of spirit and matter goes out of kilter. It is felt very quickly. As Suzuki Roshi often said, "If you are suffering, you get a little greedy." You need to surrender continually so that harmonization maintains itself.
chap 5 para 13
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Post by laughter on Feb 23, 2014 15:21:18 GMT -5
When you start to see the light that you really are, the light waking up in you, the radiance, you realize it has no intention to change you. The Truth is the only thing you'll ever run into that has no agenda. Everything else will have an agenda. Everything. That is why the Truth is so powerful. Give up your agendas and continue to expose yourself, and harmonization will naturally occur.
chap 5, para 19
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Post by laughter on Feb 24, 2014 12:18:51 GMT -5
Freedom is the realization that this deep, deep peace and this unknown are what you are. Everything else is just an extension of that unknown. Bodies are just an extension of that unknown. The trees outside are just an extension of the unknown in time, in form. Thought and feeling are also extensions of the unknown in time. The whole visible universe, in fact, is just an extension in time of this unknown, this mountain of quiet.
So it's really important to get to the point of maturity where you are willing to look at what is fundamental. There is a difference between pulling the weeds of confusion out and getting to the root of Truth.
chap 6 para's 2 and 3.
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Post by laughter on Feb 24, 2014 21:45:06 GMT -5
Looking at personal issues is like pulling just the top of the weeds out of your lawn: they pop right back up. You may have some relief from the trouble of the day, but the root is still there, totally untouched. But having experiences, even if they clear up problems or offer beautiful insights, is very different from finding the root of what you are. If you don't get to the root, you just get another weed.
chap 6 para 4
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Post by laughter on Feb 26, 2014 12:52:13 GMT -5
The mystery always takes care of itself -- as long as we are not addicted to following concepts. This addiction cuts off your access to the mystery. It's like having a jewel in your pocket but you can't get your hand into the pocket to pull it out.
chap 6 para 7
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Post by laughter on Feb 27, 2014 0:32:05 GMT -5
The body-mind cannot dissolve the agenda just because it thinks it's a good idea, but it can happen naturally as beingness sees more and more thoroughly that the only thing that actually exists is itself. It's a visceral thing. Can you start to get the feel of it? There is nothing to hold on to. No viewpoints to hold. No separation.
This is why it has always been said that the truth sets you free. But the whole being has to realize the truth. It has to be the truth, knowingly. That's what I mean about the limitation of picking the weeds and the fruit, replacing one thought or illusionary belief with another one, a "better" one. If you put in one self-oriented thought, the mechanism is going to get contradicted.
chap 6 para's 12 and 13
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Post by laughter on Mar 2, 2014 14:59:21 GMT -5
This habit of framing experience by telling yourself a story about it goes very deep, as if putting experience into a better context will help you. It may help in small ways at times, but ultimately it's only when we totally deframe and deconstruct our false views that we wake up from the dream state of separateness.
The unknown, our own true nature, has the capacity to wake itself up when you start to fall in love with letting go of all the mental structures you hold onto. Contemplate this: there is no such thing as a true belief.
chap 6 para's 15 and 16.
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Post by laughter on Mar 4, 2014 10:23:55 GMT -5
There is nothing like the quiet after a storm. If you have had the privilege of being in the mountains right after a snowfall when there's no wind, nothing is moving, the snow is sucking up every sound, and you hear a deep silence everywhere, you know how potent this silence is.
In a real sense, self-inquiry is a spiritually induced form of winter-time. It's not about looking for a right answer so much as stripping away and letting you see what is not necessary, what you can do without, what you are without your leaves.
chap 7, para's 3 and 4
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Post by laughter on Mar 4, 2014 23:35:55 GMT -5
The winter is actually begging you to just let go, and then let go of letting go. Let this natural and spontaneous returning to the root of your own existence happen. Return to that which is not definable.
chap 7, para 9
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Post by Deleted on Mar 5, 2014 6:28:22 GMT -5
"Charisma can be very beautiful. But if a teacher is too charismatic, students tend to grasp. They tend to only look at the body and think, "What a wonderful person!". He or she might be a wonderful person, but it's not about a wonderful person. I see it as the greatest gift for me that neither of my teachers were charismatic personalities. As soon as we move into the worship of the charisma or anything else, we start to unconsciously look past the presence that really is, the presence that can function through strong personalities and also through meek and mild personalities. It can function through great charisma and through almost no charisma. None of us has any choice about that part of it. It can function through the grandmother just as much as it can function through the Divine Mother guru."
Page 30.
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Post by laughter on Mar 6, 2014 13:50:56 GMT -5
When you reach the core that comes after allowing everything to drop, you are naturally cracked open. There is a spiritual heart in that core. You uncover not only the emptiness of the radiant mind, but the radiance and warmth of the spiritual heart as well. When you're really resting, you can actually feel the radiant, empty mind -- not as a thought, but as the radiant emptiness of yourself, the nothingness of yourself and of all selves. You also experience the radiant heart fullness and realize that the emptiness isn't just a bland emptiness -- it is heart-full. When the emptiness awakens, you know that it is also the compassionate heart. The warmth of your own spiritual heart comes alive.
chap 7 para 12
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