lobo
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Post by lobo on Jun 28, 2010 21:03:09 GMT -5
Have you ever had the universe tell you this?
It all starts with the idea or belief that something is missing or it could be better that this......
if it does, how does it tell you?
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lobo
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Post by lobo on Jun 29, 2010 11:16:07 GMT -5
this means stop looking outside yourself, for something out there that will do the trick for you, whatever that may be at this moment.
You know, the next book, teacher, peak experience, mystical experience, meal, accomplishment, conquest, drink, ego boost....
what ever it may be that draws you out and then in...
but for people here, it will probably be most meaningful if looked at as the next teacher, book, or teaching....
Then, what does it mean to stop?
Why stop?
Who is it that searches?
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Post by karen on Jun 29, 2010 11:43:26 GMT -5
I stopped looking for the next teacher, book, etc., but there is still searching. Sometimes there will be remembrance to seek within (looking at what feels like myself - the beam of my awareness), but there is not singular interest and it wanes.
I wonder when this business will be over if ever. It doesn't feel like something I get a say in.
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Post by zendancer on Jun 29, 2010 11:55:35 GMT -5
this means stop looking outside yourself, for something out there that will do the trick for you, whatever that may be at this moment. You know, the next book, teacher, peak experience, mystical experience, meal, accomplishment, conquest, drink, ego boost.... what ever it may be that draws you out and then in... but for people here, it will probably be most meaningful if looked at as the next teacher, book, or teaching.... Then, what does it mean to stop? Why stop? Who is it that searches? There is only One in all things, but it doesn't have a name like "Betty" or "Joe." LOL. It appears to search and it appears to stop, but appearances can be deceiving. Chuckle. |
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Post by vacant on Jun 29, 2010 15:14:18 GMT -5
I like this thread so far but don’t know how to grab it! I’ll have a blind try. I have to say that I still look, I mean look with a vengeance, encouraged by the likes of Douglas Harding, Richard Rose or our very own ZD in these pages, but that is not about looking “FOR”, just looking dispassionately, without judging nor commenting — just looking at what presents itself in some sort of faith  that therein sits a portal! A sort of shortcut past what’s imagined. And all along reserving as major as possible in the moment a proportion of that looking for attending to the mysterious and unknowable observer. Indefinable, unfathomable, disturbingly blank. Oh… disturbingly blank, but I perversely go for that disturbance as there is a call, we’re talking fog-horn volume kinda call, to rattle the cage and it’s occupant, aka “vacant”, away from explanations, definitions, any wretched boxes where this head of mine likes to order things. Going for what is most unknown —thanks again ZD, via Seung Sahn. But that’s the looking, not looking FOR. I stopped looking for the next teacher, book, etc., but there is still searching. Sometimes there will be remembrance to seek within (looking at what feels like myself - the beam of my awareness), but there is not singular interest and it wanes. I wonder when this business will be over if ever. It doesn't feel like something I get a say in. I still very much read passages of my favorite books (mostly on the bus, going to work) and to a great extend peruse through what you guys post on this forum. I have to say that ii’s no longer in search of leads or answers, but more for reminders, signposts along my somnambulist stupor, which point “Hey! FIND-YUR-SELF!” None of this garbage (with loving respect) is gonna do it, but it reminds me of perseverance, persistence, relentlessness actually. This leads me to the most f**ked-up factor here: you cannot find IT by seeking, it’s not a IT, it’s not a This not a That, it’s not God, not WHAT IS however much capital letters you care to use for otherwise perfectly benign words, because in one full sweep it sees, witnesses AND creates all that can be found or known —and I’m quietly confident that this statement is well wide off the mark, more like nowhere near! But how on earth can one stop seeking once bitten by the bug and afflicted with this calamitous disorder? Grace? I wish!  Let IT be, one instant at a time, I guess… |
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lobo
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Post by lobo on Jun 29, 2010 17:15:23 GMT -5
I'm glad this got a little traction..
ya, I guess searching is the more common phrase.
There was a time a couple of years ago when I went to pick up a book off the shelf I had for a while but had not read yet. Then I got a brain cramp, or at least a constant pressure on my head for about two weeks.
No reading for you!!!
I just sat, relaxed, did mindless things but was just present
That was all I could do without increasing the pressure
It is a real addiction, the belief that there is something to find out there....the next thing, what someone else knows or has that I need.......
Recently I have come to the realization that it is all right here, any looking away from here is a distraction, feeding the illusion, the addiction.
When I say looking away from right here it is more of a stance, a way of being, than looking or not looking at anything.
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lobo
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Post by lobo on Jun 29, 2010 17:24:05 GMT -5
I stopped looking for the next teacher, book, etc., but there is still searching. Sometimes there will be remembrance to seek within (looking at what feels like myself - the beam of my awareness), but there is not singular interest and it wanes. I wonder when this business will be over if ever. It doesn't feel like something I get a say in. karen, do mean like a homing signal? some subtle sense that leads you back to the source of being? I get that too, but it is different from the actively looking. zendancer, the looking I am talking about is done by the false self or ego, like the character in a movie trying to awaken ar find control. This is the classical seeker. I see what you are saying, and I am frequently decieved  |
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lobo
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Post by lobo on Jun 29, 2010 17:31:13 GMT -5
vacant, I also will read a few pages in a book I have already read....yes Harding is always good for the simplicity he invokes.
just looking, percieving as part of the experience of being, yes this is happening.
Although wht you wrote may sound a bit like rambling (no offense, I do it all the time) I do get the same feelings and similiar thoughts in my experience.
I have just been getting it very strongly lately to stop and just be.
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Post by karen on Jun 29, 2010 18:22:26 GMT -5
karen, do mean like a homing signal? some subtle sense that leads you back to the source of being? I get that too, but it is different from the actively looking. I don't know. In my experience my attention jumps from one event to the next looking to find pleasant feelings. It goes in a linear fashion from one goal to another and when it starts to fail to find pleasure suffering emerges, and I am often then reminded to start looking at the looker again - looking at the looking. Sometimes looking at the looking (really, looking at the awareness) will seem hard because there are so many distractions. Sometimes it is easy. Sometimes it seems to create a pleasant feeling which the attention seems to fix upon the feeling rather than the awareness making me think I probably have yet to peer into my awareness deeply if at all as only glimpse at its corona. |
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Post by thistoo on Jun 30, 2010 2:03:07 GMT -5
Ah, what the heck, Burt. I'll wade in, too... Have you ever had the universe tell you this? Not exactly, but I have reached plateaus where a particular "activity" like reading books, for example, stops having an impact. Once a certain layer of the onion is peeled away, the thing that "caused" it doesn't feel meaningful anymore... if it does, how does it tell you? ...at which point it just seems obvious, to stop looking there, usually because (in the case of books) they all start appearing to say the exact same thing. It all just fosters more mental concepts, as we have discussed, the only value of which I can see is if it helps with what David Scoma refers to here as "deconstruction" of the false "self." It all starts with the idea or belief that something is missing or it could be better that this...... Art Ticknor wrote in his Critical Path to Nirvana essay that it starts with "dissatisfaction." Then again, LM mentioned here about a year ago that one needs a "fervent desire," too, which is where I'm a little stuck. Bart Marshall said about the same thing in Shawn's interview, along with something that's sorta haunting me right now: "Paradoxically, this burning desire for Truth can't be a reaction against a life we object to and are dissatisfied with." I'm getting the idea that an unhappy "self" can't possibly be satisfied by That which would prove the "self" irrelevant. This presents quite a conundrum for me, because dissatisfaction is what brought me here, not any burning desire for Truth of which I'm consciously aware <sigh>. |
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Post by ravenscroft on Jun 30, 2010 5:57:07 GMT -5
Michael Langford read over 2000 spiritual books on his path to waking up
I met a guy who lived in a dumpster outside a university library for over a year before waking up
people like Richard Rose and Jed Mckenna read voraciously
the odd thing is, their are a lot of excellence resources "out there" for the serious student
I can tell by most I run into they haven't read nearly enough
they go see the pop neo-non-duality teacher of the day..
he tells them to "look within" or "observe thoughts" all day
they conceptualize that and it becomes just another form of Entrenchment
just my two sense and I acknowledge this goes against conventional wisdom on the subject
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lobo
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Post by lobo on Jun 30, 2010 7:49:27 GMT -5
karen and thistoo, thanks for your replies
It seems to me a signal like this is an indicator to refocus, or to just bring the attention to the present, here and now......but in a settled way, .....with the understanding or bottom line gut knowing that what you seek is here, not out there....
this is why I used the word stopping
at this point it stops on its own
sitting with that, doing nothing with it, ..........
I would like to hear from others who get a message like this in their experience.
Please notice the invitation to examine your own experience.
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lobo
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Post by lobo on Jun 30, 2010 8:34:27 GMT -5
thistoo, a deep dissatisfaction is a powerful signal also. I enjoy that at times LOL no but seriously, I have suffered by believing what others write, even those very things you mentioned... not everyones experience is the same stuff not all "grunge" or "blood and guts" "this is so awful" not all bliss not all "you have to have a burning desire for____" this is an individual reporting their own experience, maybe similar to you, maybe not.... I think a good principle though is to take whatever is here, now, and be with it, just be with it in earnestness..... something will eventually happen, but it isn't you... at least that is my experience LOL each one has the truth revealed within their own experience in a unique way peace and freedom for you brother |
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lobo
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Post by lobo on Jun 30, 2010 8:47:14 GMT -5
ravenscroft, what is your experience my friend? you have told some of what you think or believe, but the question here is direct experience that directs one away from the seeking, or stops it any experience with that? if not, no problem. I am not saying you should |
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Post by thistoo on Jun 30, 2010 10:09:53 GMT -5
thistoo, a deep dissatisfaction is a powerful signal also. Indeed. I think it serves to keep us in the game, so to speak... I have suffered by believing what others write, even those very things you mentioned... Same here. In my experience (in case it's helpful to you or anyone else), the question I'm compelled to ask myself is whether a "teaching" is causing "suffering" because it's just another mental concept that's keeping me entrenched, or is it making me uncomfortable because it's upsetting to the status quo (the untenable delusion)? In other words, I have to ask myself whether a negative emotional/physical response to something is necessarily a signal to stop looking at it, if that makes any sense. I'm not so good at telling the difference between "intuition" and my ego's need to seek comfort. |
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that therein sits a portal! A sort of shortcut past what’s imagined. And all along reserving as major as possible in the moment a proportion of that looking for attending to the mysterious and unknowable observer. Indefinable, unfathomable, disturbingly blank.
Let IT be, one instant at a time, I guess…
