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- Even if you think you don't like advaita, just try a little taste
Even if you think you don't like advaita, just try a little taste
- JackWick
- Topic Author
13 years 7 months ago #87833
by JackWick
Even if you think you don't like advaita, just try a little taste was created by JackWick
This is from "That is That" by Nirmala which is available for free as an e-book on amazon. I keep coming back to this wonderful book. Here's a little taste...
Once we stop being in opposition to what is, it is possible to see how all our struggling comes from the idea of a me. Without the assumption that something is my experience, there wouldn't be much point in trying to change anything about the moment. Our effort and struggle to change what is only makes sense if there is a me. It is all in service to maintaining the idea of a me. In fact, the struggle is the me. Where there is no struggle, there is no me. All of our suffering is the result of having and maintaining an identity.
Once we realise this, the tendency is to try to fix this --- to try to change our belief about who we are. We focus on getting rid of identification, which is focusing on what is not again. We are still suffering because we are at war with our tendency to identify. Instead of accepting what is (our tendency to identify), we are oriented toward how we think it should be: I should know better than to be caught in identification. I should know who I really am.
Another possibility is to be really present to this tendency to identify without making any effort to change it. If that's what's happening, then that's what's happening. You just let it be that way. You can even be amazed by it all, including the fact that there is a sense of me. You see how unreal this me is, but you don't struggle to be rid of it. There's no longer an assumption that something is wrong that needs to be fixed.
When it is finally okay for the moment to be just the way it is --- including the fact that we identify with a me and therefore do battle with the moment --- then more of our experience can be recognised and included in our awareness. If we are willing to be present to and allow... cont. below
Once we stop being in opposition to what is, it is possible to see how all our struggling comes from the idea of a me. Without the assumption that something is my experience, there wouldn't be much point in trying to change anything about the moment. Our effort and struggle to change what is only makes sense if there is a me. It is all in service to maintaining the idea of a me. In fact, the struggle is the me. Where there is no struggle, there is no me. All of our suffering is the result of having and maintaining an identity.
Once we realise this, the tendency is to try to fix this --- to try to change our belief about who we are. We focus on getting rid of identification, which is focusing on what is not again. We are still suffering because we are at war with our tendency to identify. Instead of accepting what is (our tendency to identify), we are oriented toward how we think it should be: I should know better than to be caught in identification. I should know who I really am.
Another possibility is to be really present to this tendency to identify without making any effort to change it. If that's what's happening, then that's what's happening. You just let it be that way. You can even be amazed by it all, including the fact that there is a sense of me. You see how unreal this me is, but you don't struggle to be rid of it. There's no longer an assumption that something is wrong that needs to be fixed.
When it is finally okay for the moment to be just the way it is --- including the fact that we identify with a me and therefore do battle with the moment --- then more of our experience can be recognised and included in our awareness. If we are willing to be present to and allow... cont. below
- JackWick
- Topic Author
13 years 7 months ago #87834
by JackWick
Replied by JackWick on topic Even if you think you don't like advaita, just try a little taste
... cont.
If we are willing to be present to and allow our identification and whatever else is happening, then it's also possible to notice something beyond identification, something beyond our struggle and effort to maintain a me. What that something is, for lack of a better word, is Being.
OK that's the end of the excerpt. It ties is so well with noting because it reminds us to note everything including our battles with our me's.
If we are willing to be present to and allow our identification and whatever else is happening, then it's also possible to notice something beyond identification, something beyond our struggle and effort to maintain a me. What that something is, for lack of a better word, is Being.
OK that's the end of the excerpt. It ties is so well with noting because it reminds us to note everything including our battles with our me's.
- AndyW45
- Topic Author
13 years 7 months ago #87835
by AndyW45
Replied by AndyW45 on topic RE: Even if you think you don't like advaita, just try a little taste
Just sent to my Kindle! Will take a look 