Post by stardustpilgrim on Jul 1, 2023 15:53:18 GMT -5
I think obstacles pertain to the blocked up channels in the life form which are opened in the purification process, but so called 'self realisation' isn't a byproduct of complete purification because it's just as you are now. The two aspects of 'as you are' and purification are related through equanimity, because on one hand it's true that you don't actually react, and on the other, the cessation of reaction enables purification. It's just that 'as you are' is inclusive of the blockages that currently exist because that's the way you are for now.
Hence, they say there's really nothing to do with regards to the 'as you are' side of it, and even the purification side is enabled not by doing something per-se, but by the cessation of what you already tend to do. The meditation addresses this latter aspect with the deliberate intention to stop, so that in contrast you become conscious of your reactive tendencies, and are thereby empowered to stop.
The 'ego', which I'll define as the one that must be let go, is like a ghost of yourself that convinces you it is 'me'. It can only be sustained via reactive processes, which are habitual tendencies that hide in the open within the invisibility of normalcy. When you undertake the practice of stop doing, the ego is interrupted, and one day you notice, Hey, that's not me; 'this' is.
"'This' is" is a presence of which you are aware, but it's entwined with the ego and not distinct from it. When you see that's not me, the ego is recognised and completely distinct from the one aware.
To me, that's a realisation of not-self but not a realisation of I am that. I am that is a more like a direct encounter with the void. I think Tolle described it quite well in The Power of Now. Immediately after he recognised the self he could not live with, he was pulled into a void.
From the void comes the infinite outpouring of love, and this is what the obstacles in the life form impede. Through the purification process the clogs are cleared out and the infinite outpouring is channeled through the life-form. That's called various names like Bliss and Ecstasy I guess. The problem with that as regards purification is the craving, when the art is not to get it and then get even more, but to be aware of what is, as it is, just as you experience it now. This is the attainment of equanimity free of craving and aversion, or as the Bible puts it, shall not want... fear no evil - as the key to your cup runnething over.
So... there's nothing to do, but that truism entails a lot of nuance because you hear of it and can't help but want, but such craving is the artifice of not-me, and as such, merely perpetuates the ego. Hence all this I mention is hard to find because it cannot really be sought, and one must be content and be aware, 'This is the way it is right now'.
Newborn babies live as pure awareness, and are mostly *unblocked*. (All babies have a certain Itselfness, a uniqueness). How does ego arise, how do the blocks arise? A baby is virtually always, while awake, in a state of ATA-T. I would say living through awareness., that's basically *its job*, it's collecting data about how the world operates. To the extent a baby then small child has a sense of self, its sense of self is just-this-awareness. Now, simultaneously with living through awareness, and thus collecting information concerning how the world operates (see Magical Child by Joseph Chilton Pearce), it is also collecting thought and emotional patterns of its immediate caregivers (and in today's world, there is a TV or radio or film in the background, and parents even use them for babysitting). And none of us are perfect, so the baby automatically collects and stores our negative patterns, the blockages, along with all traits. (See Ordinary Wonder by Charlotte Joko Beck, edited by her own daughter after Becks death). This process continues to age 5,6,7, sometimes older, but at a certain point, a baby's sense of self shifts from awareness, to the collected data, especially the not-so-pleasant-stuff, this is the formation of ego. Now all this occurs unconsciously, that's why I said in the previous post, nobody is responsible, it just happens.
Tolle realized there could be two of him, and this obliterated the ego, and he woke up (from ordinary sleep), and he realized the nasty depressed self had disappeared, he now lived through awareness, in the present moment, now.
So, interior spiritual practice is about reversing the process whereby the ego-blockages were formed in the first place. You live through awareness. There is no doing in any sense, there is just being aware of that which constitutes ego. There is no doing by ego, ego is the problem, the obstruction, that of which the blockages consist. (How is it you don't get that laughter?, I've said it literally a hundred times). And so ego is always (unconsciously) obstructing the attempt to just-be-aware, as its job is not-to-be aware.
So, beyond living through pure awareness, the beginning of *doing*, is not-reacting, but that's down the road after getting established in awareness (seeing what is). Now, yes, ego will try to interrupt the process, will, pretend to be the cop arresting the thief. That has to be seen too, that is, just be aware of that too. There's always, just be aware of that too. Now, I gave Pearce and Beck as references, they are, but all that is basically the core of what Gurdjieff taught, and how sdp was taught, that's it in a nutshell, absent specific practices. Dogen said it pretty well: “To study the Buddha Way is to study the self. To study the self is to forget the self. To forget the self is to be actualized by myriad things. When actualized by myriad things, your body and mind as well as the bodies and minds of others drop away. No trace of enlightenment remains, and this no-trace continues endlessly.” And it eventually disengages the wheels and pulleys of-which ego consists. To forget the self means to dethrone ego. Then, when needed, ego can be a servant, you can wear ego as a mask, its true function. All that is merely words, but for me it's the story of Chuang Tzu's Wheelwright. The words can't be understood, unless and until one becomes a "Wheelwright". I've never made any claims about having completed the process. self-remembering means to forget the small s self, and to be actualized by myriad things. self-remembering means to once-again live-through awareness, one's authentic unique ~Itselfness~.