talespin, your right ,all of it can be done and enjoyed . I go on binges with all these things but they do not resolve the conflict that is within me, so I always return to what is being overlooked. The present
Experiencing Ego death at the age of 28, bringing that insight into Jehovah's Witnesses and subjecting myself to the Governing Body as something I could do because of knowing this fundamental truth, led to a full understanding of the fallacy of Belief without Ego death. As a Witness, I became a "believer" in every sense of the word however I noticed that my belief made me an "actor" whereas Ego death transformed me. There was no peace in "acting" only anxiety.
After much suffering , it became clear that I was in the wrong place simply because of the insight about Ego death.
Ralph Waldo Emerson, Krishnamurti, D.T. Suzuki, Alan Watts, Nagarjuna, Jesus Christ, St Francis, William Blake,Spinoza,Ingersoll, William James, Ram Dass, Eckhart Tolle, Aldos Huxley,Mark Twain, The Tibetan Book of the Dead : All of these have helped , especially Krishnamurti.
As children the unity of life was palpable. That fact, which is in our memory,is still right in front of us. Perceiving it changes everything , including our philosophy.
The quality of lifes oneness, which is palpable to children, comes from their feeling the relationship of the world of "relatives" to the Absolute World which is the Source. When we separate these we are like children touching only a single point on a rod instead of like children touching the point as well as the entire rod. Perception is like that.
I understand the suffering we are going through and have tried , from the beginning , to point a way out. I see others trying to help. I'm sorry if I misunderstood your post, I'm always trying to get that one point across... the problem is in the mechanism we are using to solve the problem...Thinking. We don't have to disgard it permanantly, just long enough to uncover its wily ways.
