"Without context nothing is anything at all."
That's right. And what puts anything into context? The human mind. And what assigns something the label of right/wrong, good/bad, and all possible pairs of opposites? A viewpoint held by an egoic entity, an entity which when searched for cannot be found!
Without any viewpoint, without a mind to assign meaning, everything is as it is, unfolding in the ever present moment. When a "position" is created regarding anything a duality has been created as well. It is in this field of duality that all problems arise.
poppers
JoinedPosts by poppers
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16
Yin and Yang, Right and Wrong, Love and Hate...
by FMZ init's all so subjective.
just a few thoughts... .
jimmy killed a man, shot him to death.
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poppers
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The Marriage of the Lamb has Taken Place in the Heavens, Amen T.F.D.S.
by EliJah in7 let us rejoice and be overjoyed, and let us give him the glory, because the marriage of the lamb has arrived and his wife has prepared herself.
1 and i saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the former heaven and the former earth had passed away, and the sea is no more.
2 i saw also the holy city, new jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from god and prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.
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poppers
Hey EliJah,
Are you sure you aren't a Hindu, because you keep reincarnating on this board under different names. If you were, you could claim to be Vishnu, the destroyer of worlds.
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The most EERIE passage in a Watchtower Publication leads to atheisim
by Terry inthe most eerie and fascinating passage i ever read in any of the jw literature (literature??
) was in the red book, life everlasting in freedom of the sons of god.
i wish i had written the quote down.
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poppers
Terry,
Mysticism is something other than what I am pointing to. Mystical states are altered states of consciousness that come and go, and are just something else that can mislead you as to your real nature. What I am pointing to is what mystical states arise in - the simple, ordinary everyday awareness. It is so ordinary that it gets overlooked, yet it is so transformational that people usually brush off its significance, thinking, "What's the big deal about that?"
It is this awareness that you really are, and it lies beneath all ideas about what it is, hence the "out of your head" reference. Mental activity tends to obscure it, so any way to see what is prior to the mind is helpful.
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Slap one cheek, turn and kick their @%$!
by free2beme ini remember the whole, "slap one cheek and turn and let them slap the other", philosophy we were taught as witnesses.
i was wondering how others felt about this and how far you left it behind.
i know people will sometimes have that humble personality that allows things to role off them, while others are more prone to fight the fine fight.
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poppers
"If someone wrongs you, why wrong back? I remember a thought from some movie or book I read, that stated in summary, "to repeat an action of the stupid, is to sink to their level and learn from their knowledge." Basically, to do something to another that you see wrong, makes you the reflection of the very wrong you despise."
This is what waking up to what you really are is about. When there is conscious action rather than unconscious reaction you become free. What is it that can 'spot' an unconscious reaction? This 'something' that can spot/recognize unconscious reaction is consciousness itself, and consciousness is what you really are. To wrong back is to remain stuck in unconsciousness; to witness the arising of reactive responses is the beginning of freedom. Without knowing it, most people are sleep-walking through life, unconsciously reacting to everything around them. "Awakening" is about rousing oneself from this conditioned pattern of behavior and remaining conscious of everything as it happens. -
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Does anyone know of a good church I could go to?
by Andrea Wideman inafter being a catholic and a jw i am really gun shy about organized religions.
i identify myself simply as a christian.
i am looking for a church to go to for fellowship.
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poppers
If you are looking for fellowship, why not look for fellowship in nature? In nature there is no judgment, no condemnation, no dispute, no opposition - there is serene companionship calling you to rediscover the truth of your being. What more could one want than that?
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1st step?
by daniel-p ini am forcing myself to do this - i feel nauseated, depressed... my hands are shaking.
i know many of you see this and laugh.
but for those of you who arn't, you know how hard it is for me to do this.
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poppers
AuldSoul,
I appreciate your words, but your suggestion, as heartfelt as it may be, quickly dismisses the possibility for looking directly within oneself in this very moment in favor of a bunch of words which are subject to all kinds of interpretation. As soon as you have words, ideas, and beliefs, you have the inevitable disputes that will arise as to their meaning. As soon as you have words, ideas, and beliefs, you have concretized the entity that would accept or reject them, thereby maintaining separation from others as well as from what has been called "god". Do you see how quickly we tend to demean ourselves? Are we so small and insignificant that we are unwilling to rely upon ourselves? Let go of everything and truth is revealed. -
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1st step?
by daniel-p ini am forcing myself to do this - i feel nauseated, depressed... my hands are shaking.
i know many of you see this and laugh.
but for those of you who arn't, you know how hard it is for me to do this.
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poppers
daniel said, "I want to know the ever-elusive Truth. I want to know, for sure, if I am doing the right thing. If this isn't the truth, I am being taken for a hell of a ride."
May I be so bold as to say that you can't rely on ANYONE else to give you the Truth. All you will get from others is a mishmash of prefabricated beliefs that are most often blindly accepted as true and handed down to you. Truth lies within you, but it is not a "thing" which can be examined by the mind. It is that which lies beyond the mind, beyond the reasoning capicity of thought. If you are accepting as true anything which is presented to you by others, you are indeed being taken for a ride - a ride into delusion. This goes for ANY religion or philosophy.
Instead of looking outside yourself, look within. Look for that which is always here, for that which never changes - that is truth. When it is seen within it will then be seen everywhere. Then you will see that you are never separate from truth. This seeing is not based on ideas but on direct experience, not based on faith/belief but on the reality of your very Being. -
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The most EERIE passage in a Watchtower Publication leads to atheisim
by Terry inthe most eerie and fascinating passage i ever read in any of the jw literature (literature??
) was in the red book, life everlasting in freedom of the sons of god.
i wish i had written the quote down.
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poppers
Terry said, "That I am prior to everything else would come as a shock to my parents!"
There is a zen koan which says something like, "Find your original face, the face you had before your parents were born." The purpose of any koan is to get you "out of your head" and into the reality of what is - in short, to wake you up; to disidentify with what you believe yourself to be and to reveal what you actually are beyond name and form. It is to this which I am pointing. -
47
The most EERIE passage in a Watchtower Publication leads to atheisim
by Terry inthe most eerie and fascinating passage i ever read in any of the jw literature (literature??
) was in the red book, life everlasting in freedom of the sons of god.
i wish i had written the quote down.
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poppers
Let's leave reasoning out of this - I know this flies in the face of everything you've been taught, but you are making statements which are mind based, they are assumptions. Let go of your assumptions and directly investigate. You said, "To be aware is to be aware of something." What is your direct evidence when this is investigated? Find out if awareness can be prior to anything else, if awareness NEEDS something to shine upon.
You said, "One exists possessing consciousness," This too is an assumption; it is based on the largely unchallenged belief that there is a "me". Find this "me" who makes assumptions. Can anything other than ideas of "me" be found? What are you when the idea of "me" is gone? There IS no "me" in reality to possess anything, there is simply what is in its totality. One of the "things" which arises is the personalized "ego sense" which is only a phantom entity, but it is this entity which takes itself to be real and separate, and thereby create "other". Without "me" there can be no "other". This can be dis-covered directly.
You said, "Before it could identify itself as consciousness," Consciousness does not identify itself as ANYTHING, it just IS - it is just the pure and simple "knowingness" itself. It is the mind which applies labels to what consciousness illuminates. Mind applies labels, and the ego sense makes claims of ownership; it accepts or rejects depending upon how one defines oneself as a separate entity.
You said, "To exist is TO BE something". What I am pointing to is that the "somethings" of the phenomenal world are EXPRESSIONS of pure existence, that You as you truly are are existence itself. Because of pure existence/presence/awareness/consciousness/You everything else can BE. This is LIFE itself prior to its EXPRESSION. Without expression it is still "life", although it is life in its unmanifested form.
You said, "Existence is, therefore, IDENTITY; Consciousness is IDENTIFICATION." I would argue out of my own direct experience, which is: Existence IS; Consciousness IS; the "ego sense" (the "me" entity) is consciousness which has isolated itself to create "me" and "other", but this "me" isn't real, it is an illusion because when sought it is nowhere to be found. When it is no longer there, consciousness still remains, free and unbound, not identified with ANYTHING.
Yes, the unreal does not exist, but the human mind insists on creating beliefs and then invests those beliefs with reality which the ego sense accepts or rejects. This is where problems and suffering are created - minds create scenarios out of what is, and the ego clings to or rejects those scenarios in order to maintain its false sense of identity. Without the beliefs, without the scenarios, what is is simply what is. There is no NEED to label any of it, but the tendency of the mind to do so is what creates the illusion of separation. With separation there follows fear; without separation there IS no fear.
You said, "EXISTENCE is a self-sufficient primary." I absolutely agree with this. Existence IS - always has, always will; and YOU in reality are existence. This is what is found when the "me" is searched for, existence itself - it's what you are. Another name for it is awareness/ consciousness/ presence; and IT/You are prior to everything else. -
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1st step?
by daniel-p ini am forcing myself to do this - i feel nauseated, depressed... my hands are shaking.
i know many of you see this and laugh.
but for those of you who arn't, you know how hard it is for me to do this.
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poppers
Hi, and welcome. You've come to the right place; there are many here who will provide good advice.
Next time you post, check the "Automatic Cr/Lf" box below the field where you are composing your post. That should take care of paragraph breaks.