sharing

[karen]

I can tell you guys I've started a new thread here about 8 times or so, but by the time I get to preview, I often wonder the point...

Sometimes I wonder I don't share because I'm doing things right. After all, when I say "What's the point" it's not out of frustration. The idea/experience seems so d**n vapid. After all, it is.

Then sometimes I think that maybe my idea or experience is so great, someone will steal it and become rich!!!!! And I'll be the chump getting over it... (it's kind of an inventor's paranoia/mind). I'm pretty sure, nothing new can be said, but that whole train of thought plays out in split second timing.

Or the idea comes about that the idea/experience sucks and the experience perhaps not genuine. I think of this, but then I always think my experiences aren't genuine. If I'm always thinking that, then I'm thinking my thinking is in error.

Anyway, by the time these three thoughts hit me, I click the "X".

Any thoughts?

[lightmystic]

Thanks for you post Karen.

Spiritual experience always starts subtle. At that level it can almost be questioned as to whether it's valid or real or not. By putting attention on it, it becomes more and more concrete by degrees until it is blatently obvious. Eventually, through that same process, it becomes clearer and way more predominant than what was previously considered the most concrete experience in the world. So I would urge you to trust yourself. Talking about it will make it clear what is real and what is not. If you can just be as innocent as possible about the experience, just describing as best you can what it feels like, then something good is sure to come out.

It's true that there is nothing that can be said that hasn't already been said, but each personality has their own flavor of it, and so their own unique expression of an experience to offer. And it's wonderful to hear that, no matter how many times I've heard the same experience. So please share whatever excites you. If you like, we can poke it, and that will force you to put even more attention on it, and then it has an opportunity to very quickly get increasingly clearer....

[zendancer]

Booyah: That's a lot of thinking! LOL. It makes me tired just thinking about second-guessing the second-guesser. My advice is to just watch what your mind is doing when it starts generating those kinds of thoughts. Rather than jumping on board and riding the thought trains, stay in the station and watch the trains go by.

[karen]

Yes. This is the M.O. of an avoidant personality type. It happens so fast. Right now, I've been at the stage of catching it after the fact and during. But seeing it enter, knowing of its mischief and just watching it is just now happening more and more.

I do think that perhaps it's all a matter of brain training and building as many connections in the brain to letting go (or whatever one calls that self-disappearing thing), so that maybe it's just always there foremost. At least that's what the probability calculators are screaming.

[zendancer]

Booyah: You've got it! Reading your post makes me want to jump and shout and start cheering. Catching the thoughts when they're happening, recognizing the old habits of mind, shifting attention, and thereby breaking the habit is key. As for the M.O., I'm sure you know to throw that thought in the trash basket, too. Who you are is beyond all categorization. Thinking, "I'm a ___________(fill in the blank) is just another fantasy and strengthens the illusion of personal selfhood. Many cheers.

[divinity]

Everyone's perception is different for many reasons. No two of us on the planet see the same tree in exactly the same way... and all are correct. Your reality is just as valid as anyone else's. I wonder if some childhood experience caused you to hold back for fear of being judged for your thoughts or ideas? In my work, I find that is the case with many seekers.
The discussion is valuable for us all, including, and perhaps especially for those who read the posts but do not post themselves.
Sometimes our internal guidance system gives us little signals in our gut when something is better not shared.

[karen]

Here's something to share:

Several years ago it dawned on me the similarities with math and inquiry, and this analog came:

(where "N" is any whole number for example)

-N(-N)=N
N(N)=N

N(-N)=-N
-N(N)=-N

My math is rusty.

But essentially I'm trying to say that a negative number times a negative number equals a positive number. And a positive number times a positive number equals a positive number.

And a positive number times a negative number equals a negative number as well as a negative times a positive number will also equal a negative number.

Pretty basic.

-N(-N)=N
N(N)=N

N(-N)=-N
-N(N)=-N

Now:

false represented as false is true
true represented as true is true

truth represented as false is false
false represented as truth is false

See the connection?

Of course math isn't "out there". And this trivia observation above really had little value in and of itself.

But then I saw another analog.

I was pondering why it is I could have all the best intentions in the world to treat other people with total patients and respect, but when I'm there I seem to blow it often.

For example, my mom. I live with her, and while I'm an introvert, she likes to talk a mile a minute with compound questions whiles I'm doing my morning chores including making her breakfast. Typically, I would get all dramatic and act like her talking to me will be the straw that broke my multitasking back.

But after getting serious, in a flash I thought about the fulcrum.



So in this analogy the earth and the stone are the people. The lever/man is the mind. But if you remove the fulcrum, the mind has no way to separate. It can perhaps divide, but without the 3rd factor of the fulcrum, there'd be no way to separate.

So I started looking for this fulcrum between my mom and I. Between slow drivers and I. Between everything and I. I can drop the 3rd factor - the fulcrum - "the bone of contention".

Obviously this (the "method") is not profound. But what was profound was connecting with reality and in making this a personal discovery.

[karen]

I should add too that I try to remember that any discoveries are only true insofar as they undermine the false. It seems like they have no truth in and by themselves.

[Peter]

Oct 11, 2009 12:49:11 GMT -5 karen said:

So I started looking for this fulcrum between my mom and I. Between slow drivers and I. Between everything and I. I can drop the 3rd factor - the fulcrum -'the bone of contention'.

Hi Karen

Great analogy. As well as going straight to the ultimate solution, you might find some interest in some 'working out', which could give more detail to your picture, before the picture gets removed entirely!

You could ask yourself:

Q1: So why am I annoyed?
A1: Because the car in front is slow.

Q2: And why is that a problem?
A2: Because it's making it take longer to get to where I want to go

Q3: And why is that a problem?
A3: Because...

etc

Most times I've followed this pattern I get down to a rather childish voice saying "Because I WANT to!" and then you can kick in the "Who wants to?" and it all goes eerie zen quiet...

PS Like the username change

[zendancer]

Karen: I picked up the name "Booyah" from LM's post, and didn't realize that you started this thread. Sorry about that. Here are some fun experiments. Several years ago I was a very impatient driver, and I was always fussing about slow drivers and drivers that did seemingly idiotic things. Then, I read an article that suggested imagining our mother as the driver of all cars. It is amazing how quickly that changes one's perception. If your mother were driving slowly in front of you, you would not get mad at all. You would be infinitely patient and forgiving. Try it and see what happens.

Later, I thought of a variation of this psychological game that represents the truth far more accurately. Imagine that every driver is you!

There is another variation that is even more helpful. Realize that everyone is always doing the best that he/she can, and that whatever is happening here and now must be happening precisely as it is. Accepting reality as it is, totally, leads to enormous relaxation and even amusement. Cheers.

[Peter]

Oct 12, 2009 8:56:53 GMT -5 zendancer said:

Karen: I picked up the name "Booyah" from LM's post, and didn't realize that you started this thread.

ZenD> Booyah became Karen.

Or rather, Booyah always was Karen, we just had to realise it.

Or rather, Booyah and Karen are in fact the same thing seen from different perspectives.

A Booyah by any other name would be as Karen. (Sorry Shakespeare. If that is your real name...)

[zendancer]

Peter: My wife asked me why I like this website so much. I told her that it's always a joy to find intelligent life, especially when its coupled with a sense of humor. You'll have a hard time surpassing your last post!

[lightmystic]

I like your point here.

Getting used to seeing that third thing that is always there and connects both of you and is not different than both of you really helps it bloom.

Sounds very profound to me.

Oct 11, 2009 12:49:11 GMT -5 karen said:

So I started looking for this fulcrum between my mom and I. Between slow drivers and I. Between everything and I. I can drop the 3rd factor - the fulcrum - "the bone of contention".

Obviously this (the "method") is not profound. But what was profound was connecting with reality and in making this a personal discovery.

[karen]

Thanks.

I never use my name for a user name since it is always taken. I choose booyah5 because it sounds like some hi-5ing sports fan which I'm not anything like. Plus it's rarely taken. The other day when poking around the CP I noticed the display name and - presto!

[karen]

I got to thinking about this book in regards to informal meditation.

"Proficient Motorcycling", page 32
David L. Hough


Emergency Reactions Follow Habits:

One of the important lessons I've learned is that in an emergency, actions follow habits. Riding through the high desert of eastern Oregon one night, two eyes along side the road suddenly reflected hack the headlight beam. I rolled off the throttle and squeezed the brake lever gently. This is deer country. and the reliable tactic for avoiding a deer strike is to stop short of a collision. Those shining eyes were too low to the ground to be a deer, but whether a deer, raccoon, or skunk, I didn't want to hit it.

When the reflecting eyes suddenly darted toward the pavement. my hand squeezed the brake lever. the BMW transferred its weight onto the front tire, and my hand squeezed even harder. braking the front wheel to the maximum just short of a skid. Twenty feet from impact, the headlight beam illuminated a very large porcupine hobbling out toward the center line. then changing its mind, making a U-turn, and scrambling back toward the verge. As Porky ambled off the pavement, my hand eased off the brake, the suspension stabilized, and I rolled back on the throttle.

What amazes me still. is that I don't recall any decision to brake hard. My right hand just produced a classic quick stop, as if it had been controlled by some animal-sensing device programmed to cover the lever and then make a stop in the shortest distance without falling down. Of course, we all carry such a device. It's located on the bike somewhere between our ears. In an emergency, the brain follows whatever programs have been learned through practice. If you always favor the front brake for normal stops. and you have experienced enough power stops to know what an impending skid feels like your brain has a quick-stop program available for emergencies.

The moral of that story is that we must constantly practice the right skills if we expect to use them in a pinch. If you expect to he able to handle the loose gravel or the wandering motorist you discover as you round a blind turn. you must practice control skills such as rolling on the throttle in curves. counter steering, and maximum effort stops, as well as choosing cornering lines that maximize traction.

To put this another way, there aren't really any emergency maneuvers you can pull out of your bag of tricks when something goes wrong. There are only proficient control skills you can practice every day as you ride along. And. if we assume there are physical habits to he practiced, then there must also he proficient mental skills that we must practice so that they become habits.

It seems apt.