Teaching camels to swim

[enigma]

I posted this elsewhere yesterday, and thought maybe it would be useful fodder here.:



So, he says, "I've been practicing meditation for 30 years, and I'm telling you it works!" I said, since your goal is Truth realization, and this hasn't happened after 30 years, I'd say it's an unmitigated failure.

This guy in a Tolle forum has been practicing 'stilling his mind' for 25 years. I said, 'Since the mind that is trying to be still is the same mind that is trying to not be still, what sort of a game are you playing with yourself?'

Lately, I've been chatting with a guy who declares endlessly that nothing can be known. I keep asking him how he can know that.....

Practices have a practical value. They can demonstrate something in the context of our experience that we can't understand conceptually, but all practices are ultimately to be transcended or they fail to serve their teaching purpose, and the practice itself becomes the goal, and more often than not, an effective means of insuring failure and the continuation of delusion.

In meditation designed for Truth realization, the goal is not to perfect meditation but to realize Truth. The goal of the practice of stilling the mind is not to perfect a process but to stop chasing thoughts around in the first place so that it's not necessary to stop doing that. The practice of Neti-Neti (not this, not that) is not to perpetually and habitually deny that anything is true, but to notice that all thoughts are inventions of mind and need not be attached to, which ends the practice of looking for thoughts that are true. The purpose of a forgiveness practice is to notice judgments and the negative impact they have on ourselves and others, and that they are not ultimately true, thereby letting go of judgment so that a forgiveness practice is not necessary.

Marie and I were in the park the other day and she asked "So how do we let go?" I said that letting go cannot be a practice, because there is no separation between the one holding on and the one letting go. To imagine that there is, is to split the mind and create an internal conflict that insures failure. I picked up a stone and held it in my closed fist, palm down, and I said, if it's my intention to let go of the stone, what sort of practice is required? How long will it take for me to perfect the practice of letting go of the stone? If there is any space at all between my intention to let go, and the letting go, then the intention is not to let go, and if it is not, how is a practice going to change my intention?

I was talking to a friend today about how practices that do seem to serve their purpose are very often not let go of because there's the idea that 'it took me this far, so it should continue to work', even though the usefulness of the practice has exhausted itself. I said it's like saying, 'this camel has taken me through the desert and brought me to the ocean..... Now if I can only teach my camel to swim.'

[lightmystic]

Hey enigma,

It's a good point, the letting go value. Craziness in all shapes and sizes because people just want SOMETHING to cling onto. Who could willingly go into the death/oblivion of conceptual unknowingness, of letting go-ness, without having to face things that most people would never face by choice. I don't know about everyone else, but most of the huge things that I went through I did because I had no other choice. I had a desperate desire for the truth and so all growth was in line with what I wanted. When it got to some of the really big stuff, however, I would get to the point where I would want to take back the desire, as it was too painful. Fortunately, at that point, it was too late. Granted, not everyone has that intense of a path, perhaps, but, from what I've seen, it tends to be the same story just a bit less dramatic, happening more slowly over time.

That said, even though there is no concept or "technique" that will allow us to "let go" as an act of volition (that would be a bit of an oxymoron), I've noticed that we can definitely always let go more and more. The way to do this seems to be about recognizing, on the level that it is, the ways in which we are ALREADY hanging on. By noticing those, by seeing it clearly, then the unwindingness can happen. It's not until we notice that we clench our jaw unconsciously when we are nervous, for example, that we can start allowing it to relax in those situations....

[zendancer]

Enigma: Great post. Very funny and very true.

[enigma]

Apr 3, 2010 13:27:38 GMT -5 lightmystic said:

Hey enigma,

It's a good point, the letting go value. Craziness in all shapes and sizes because people just want SOMETHING to cling onto. Who could willingly go into the death/oblivion of conceptual unknowingness, of letting go-ness, without having to face things that most people would never face by choice. I don't know about everyone else, but most of the huge things that I went through I did because I had no other choice. I had a desperate desire for the truth and so all growth was in line with what I wanted. When it got to some of the really big stuff, however, I would get to the point where I would want to take back the desire, as it was too painful. Fortunately, at that point, it was too late. Granted, not everyone has that intense of a path, perhaps, but, from what I've seen, it tends to be the same story just a bit less dramatic, happening more slowly over time.

Yes, very similar to my experience, except that there has always been an intense curiosity, and like a child who wants to know what that interesting wheat thresher is all about, I inadvertently ended up losing various parts of myself in the process of exploring the works. A few moments of "Holly shit, no, no, no, that's not what I was looking for at all!" However, once it's seen that, without those parts, I feel much lighter, there's more encouragement to check out the combine and see how that really works.

That said, even though there is no concept or "technique" that will allow us to "let go" as an act of volition (that would be a bit of an oxymoron), I've noticed that we can definitely always let go more and more. The way to do this seems to be about recognizing, on the level that it is, the ways in which we are ALREADY hanging on. By noticing those, by seeing it clearly, then the unwindingness can happen. It's not until we notice that we clench our jaw unconsciously when we are nervous, for example, that we can start allowing it to relax in those situations....

Yup, noticing is precisely the word I would use. That's all that's going on here anymore, and all that I can do, cause that seems to be what I am, the doohicky that notices stuff.

[lightmystic]

Hey Enigma,

Yes, I really appreciate your descriptions, as there is that very intense desire to know. It's like the trauma of losing pieces of oneself goes because, once gone, it was realized to never have been actually part of you in the first place....So there are no battle scars - more like whatever the opposite of battle scars would be....
And that increased lightness definitely aids in giving the strength to look at more. I notice the clearer I get, the more tools and capacity I have to get even clearer....

Apr 3, 2010 17:39:53 GMT -5 enigma said:

Yes, very similar to my experience, except that there has always been an intense curiosity, and like a child who wants to know what that interesting wheat thresher is all about, I inadvertently ended up losing various parts of myself in the process of exploring the works. A few moments of "Holly nuts, no, no, no, that's not what I was looking for at all!" However, once it's seen that, without those parts, I feel much lighter, there's more encouragement to check out the combine and see how that really works.

I also really appreciate what you're saying about noticing. I hadn't really thought about it until you brought it up, but it is recognizing that noticing is all that is needed, because everything else takes care of itself. At best, we can get in our own way by trying to do more than that.

That said, even though there is no concept or "technique" that will allow us to "let go" as an act of volition (that would be a bit of an oxymoron), I've noticed that we can definitely always let go more and more. The way to do this seems to be about recognizing, on the level that it is, the ways in which we are ALREADY hanging on. By noticing those, by seeing it clearly, then the unwindingness can happen. It's not until we notice that we clench our jaw unconsciously when we are nervous, for example, that we can start allowing it to relax in those situations....

Yup, noticing is precisely the word I would use. That's all that's going on here anymore, and all that I can do, cause that seems to be what I am, the doohicky that notices stuff.

[enigma]

Yuppers, sounds right to me.

The opposite of battle scars? Hmmmm, victory and medals of honor?
Oooooo, medals of honor! Yum!

[philemon]

Dear Enigma

Thank you for the very deep pictures of truth

I love them

I bow in respect

philemon

[enigma]

Thanks, Philemon. Your kindness is much appreciated, though your respect is perhaps misplaced.