TO WHOM DO THESE THOUGHTS COME?

This can be one of the most important questions of your lifetime.  The assumption that there is “someone” to whom the thoughts come to and arise for … is a lie and it is a lie that is inadvertently perpetrated by most everyone you know. 

Thoughts do not arise for anyone … they just arise … if you pay attention to them they strengthen, if you don’t they disappear.

As you pay less and less attention to them you begin to become aware of what they arise IN.  This Awareness becomes stronger and the attention gets placed on the Awareness more and more fully, until you begin to see that you cannot be the thoughts. 

Once this discovery is made, you become Aware of the Self.  The Self that everyone is IN.  There is no out of it; however, very few are Aware that they are IN it (because it is not an “It” – there are no attributes to Awareness).

Awareness of Self becomes the Sanctuary until such time that a Sanctuary is no longer needed and Self is the only Thing (that is not a thing) that remains.

That you are reading this is proof enough that you are ready to begin to come from the Awareness of Self as opposed to coming from an idea of an individual and separated self.

The assignment for today:  Anytime that you hear the word “I” in regards to you or anyone – you replace it with “who.”  No as a question, as a replacement to both the question and the answer.

You change your assumption from that in which there is an “I” that exists (Blind Faith for this day will serve you well), to one in which the “I” thought doesn’t.  You keep the assumption that doesn’t exist and that you have been unknowingly lied to by most everyone in your life - since the day you were born.  Just like they have been.

Again, you meet the word “I” with “who.”

Soon you will not need Blind Faith or proof that this is so.  However it takes a bit of Blind Faith and Vigilance in the beginning for the Self to be Revealed.  It has been covered over for Centuries and although it can be Revealed in an instant, it usually takes a bit of probing and investigation into the non-existence of the “I” before it is Seen to be so.

Any and all reports of what is discovered is welcome here.

You are being most delicately unraveled.

UNANSWERED QUESTIONS ...

"UNANSWERED QUESTIONS"

March 13, 2013

In a world where there is instantaneous everything, for most, living with unanswered questions can be a beginning step in the discovery of who you are.  Many may ask the question “who am I?”  And then like with all things of the world, expect an immediate answer and not only immediate, but one that is completely understood and explainable.  However, this is not the domain or way of the Truth of who you Are.  Even this writing will mislead you. 

The way of the Truth of Who you Are, is filled with twists and turns and paradox, inconsistencies and incongruent (ness), hypocrisy and ludicrousness.    It is not a straight road … except it is.  How do you tell someone you are on a road tonowhere (now here)?  You don’t, but your life being lived will reflect it and those that are paying attention will begin to see through you, that it is true. 

So next time you need an answer to anything that comes up, take a pause, don’t be so quick to find the answer.  See if you can hold out and see whether or not the answer shows up in a way you could not have predicted.  This is the fun of beginning to See.  You begin to See that everything you have ever needed shows up.  You only overlook it when you are searching for the answer, you don’t get to see all the many ways it comes … because you are looking for something specific.  


When you put your search down for an answer, it allows for all possibilities to that question to arise … it’s like opening a box and then just leaving it open … not looking inside, just leaving it open, you might even begin to allow the possibility that you don’t even know what a box is … this is not becoming an idiot, it is seeing that we have labeled everything to the point that we actually don’t know what anything is, we just assume we do because it has a label … that is actually being an idiot as opposed to allowing for not knowing. 

So just for today, be the box with the open top and allow that you don’t know who or what you are, but you are interested.  And wait and see.

SILENCE (MEDITATION)

February 16, 2013

One of the things that can be rare in this world is being Silent.  It used to be more common, there were longer pauses between words in conversations and the movies of old had fewer words, more innuendos. 

Though drawn to things that are of a quieter nature, that doesn’t mean that there is internal quiet.  Many times there is such gratitude that will arise for having designated times for Meditation.  Without Meditation there would be few stops/pauses during the day to put the attention on Silence/Stillness.  It is not that it isn’t always there, it is, however; the attention will be on what is going on in the world, schoolwork, thoughts about everything and anything under the sun.  And then there is a stopping that comes with Meditation, things slow down and the attention is drawn towards what doesn’t move.  The things of the world, all the problems seem to fall to the side and are not important.  As one arises from Meditation, those things re-appear yet don’t have the energy or strong pull towards them that was there prior to Meditation.

Recently, things have gotten busier, especially this week.  Yesterday a neighbor offered up a ride on his dirt bike.  We left shortly before Meditation time and when we got to the back roads it was time to sit.  Mentioned that there would be no speaking during the next half hour.  Usually, it is looked at with a strange sort of “umm ok?”  Which it was and so off on the bike we went.  There is a gift in Silence that unless one checks it out, cannot be shared. 

A Red-Tailed (Chicken Hawk) Hawk flew directly over us; which was amazing and the trees were brilliant, and the smells of Spring were in the air, there was the sounds of water running from the creek and the sky was brilliantly blue.  There were moments of fear/excitement that would arise from the sense of not having control.  The bike slid on some ice and we fell and since we were going slow, there are just bruises, but there was no ability to complain and without outward complaining, inward complaining doesn’t last long.

We dust ourselves off and picked up the bike and sat and ate some lunch.  There was listening to the stories that were shared and watching as the food is eaten and there is a sense of ease with not speaking that is not there when one is thinking of what it is they would be saying.  It is just listening and experiencing what is actually going on.

Though the preference here is to sit Silently (to not be active during a designated Mediation time), one does not have to sit somewhere alone to be Silent, you can set aside a time, at anytime to do it.  Though I would suggest that one set aside the time to sit silently in Meditation as a way to begin quieting the mind and then move into a “walking or active” Meditation, only because the impetus to speak will be very strong in the beginning and so it is best for one to begin to sit quietly with eyes closed and allow all distractions to be there and to sit in spite of the distractions.

Many times when people are around during Meditation time, they think that they must be quiet, but that is not the case, the noise is welcome, because where the attention is … is Stillness/Silence and so all noises and activity around are welcomed in it.  If you demand that the world be a certain way for you to sit in Meditation, you will not ever sit in Meditation. 

You just sit, Silently, sit and watch until the thoughts and activities exhaust themselves.

Ultimately, one will find that all of their life is in Silence/Stillness/Meditation, yet this isn’t seen while the attention is on the thoughts, actions.  So first things first … one leads into the other.

THOUGHTS

(Click Photo for "Ask YourSelf")

Those thoughts you have that go by all the time, one after another, bringing all kinds of other thoughts and reactions and sensations, have nothing to do with Reality.  This is not something that you can take someone’s word for (although taking someone’s word for it, at first, is a great helping hand in beginning to see for yourself), you must be willing to investigate whether or not, thoughts have anything to do with Reality, or do thoughts appear after the fact.  It is not only possible, but actual, that everything you think, is after what happens, even your arm moving or your eyes reading this, is after the fact of it happening.  The body registers the information and then the brain receives it and thought appears and this is all very instantaneous, yet still behind the action.

Why would you want to begin to see that thoughts have nothing to do with Reality, because then you will begin to see that you are not the thoughts.  This will lead to beginning to ask, if I am not the thoughts, then who am I?  Or “if they are not my thoughts, who’s are they?”  Did you ever wonder where a thought comes from or do you just blindly follow them?  The funny thing is…the blindly following is even before the thought.  Awareness of this, will begin to shed light on a darkened state of mind.  Until someone turns the light on, no one even knows they are in the dark. 

It’s like fish at the bottom of the sea, they do not know they are in the dark, if you went down there and said to them…”hey…fishes…you are in the dark” they might say… “what the hell is dark?” how would you describe it to them?  However, if you took one in your arms and started swimming north, up and up and the dark became lighter and lighter, until the fishes eyes burned and it said “oh…I see…it is so warm, it is beyond warm, it is behind kind, I didn’t know what cold was until now, I don’t know how to explain this, but I know how it feels.”  And then you start to go back down and the fish doesn’t understand why would you bring him back down to the darkness and you explain that the Light would obliterate him because he comes from the dark, but as he now Knows the Light … Knows where all are going and that it is not out or in or north or south or up or down but it is IN everyONE, that the fish can now point to it with others that are in the dark and Lighten their load.

So the fish goes back down to the deep sea and it is not easy to tell those that have not seen something, something which cannot be explained but can be Known and yet he starts and he begins to help move the other fishes that Hear him up slowly into lighter gentler waters and as they move up others move up with them and they all begin to see that what once so dark and scary and unknown, is not that at all.  That they have been in it all along, they only thought they were in the dark.  But the Light was/is always Here.

Thoughts are like Dark waters, you can share with one that they are not in Dark water but only paying attention to Dark water, but the only way for one to See they were in Dark water, is to begin to stop pay attention to the thoughts.  Not trying to stop the thought…just not paying attention to them.  One must begin to pay attention to what is before the thoughts, what thoughts appear In, the space between thoughts…this space right here (       ).

If you are one that is ready to begin to stop paying attention to the thoughts, then get in touch with me. 

  ~Joysters

MEDITATION ...

(Have a Sacred Space)

This morning during Meditation, what came up was to speak about "Meditation" as it has been one of the greatest gifts in quieting the "monkey mind" that goes on throughout ones day.  Prior to Meditation, there was nothing but the "monkey mind", one thought chasing another thought, linking to another thought, following another thought.

It seemed that Meditation appeared in stages, first there was a driving Meditation with a cassette tape my mother gave me called "The Infinite Self" by Stewart Wilde, which shared the story of his life, the undertaking of quieting the mind, his Teachers and his discipline, then at the end of the 12th tape there is a recording of the Theta-Metronome.  I would put this in the car on my drive to school and would listen to him share things that were both hard to believe but absolutely believable and so the first taste of Meditation was in the car.  On his recommendation to do something pointless, which was to get up every morning and take a rock (the same rock) and move it from one side of the yard to the other.  I had two young children at the time, and it was tough at first getting up so early (when I could be sleeping in) but I did...I got up and I went to the backyard each day (feeling quite dumb about it actually, but believing in him) would move the rock from one side of the yard (slowly) to the other.  I don't recall how long I did this, however it made an impact.  There was something about doing something, with no benefit, other than the doing, that shifted something in this mind.

The second taste of Meditation was through Unity Church.  My mother was a member and although there was not ever much of a draw to be at church there was something different about this one.  I was 22 at the time and a bit of a rebel and so some Sundays I would go completely hung over, and I knew that people there knew...but they didn't judge me and I could feel that they weren't and this created a willingness to be there...however I was there and so I continued to show up.  Each Sunday  Rev. Al (cannot remember his last name right now) would start with a 5 minute silent Meditation.  In the beginning it was the longest 5 minutes of my life.  Either the thoughts were racing and it was like hell or the time would go so slow like when you would look at the clock on the wall during the last minutes of school.  But eventually it started to become something I looked forward to when going there.  It became the only 5 minutes of Peace I would have each week, though I didn't know that at the time.

The third and lasting introduction into Meditation came through my Teacher.  I had had an unexplainably intense experience, actually beyond all experience during a Meditation that scared and depressed me so much that I had become afraid of Meditation, I could not understand what had been Revealed and went on years of searching for answers, until my Teacher appeared.  It didn't happen overnight, I was very resistant to Meditation for years after our Meeting.  He opened a room every morning through Yahoo Messenger and many would sit with him.  I was not a regular for a long time.  But He and Meditation eventually won and I began getting up every morning sometime between 4:30 and 5am and I would log in and sit with myTeacher and the others who had also come to sit together.  This went on for many, many years.  I will not lie and say it was an easy undertaking.  It is a discipline that at first, at least for this one, was quite challenging.  There would be physical pains in the back and legs, there would be thoughts of fear or of having more important things to do.  But over time and consistency and through the commitment Meditation and being with myTeacher each day, that it continued on.

The commitment in the beginning was to a 1/2 hour every day from 5 to 5:30am.  To not move.  To let the thoughts be there without trying to fix or change them.  To sit through the beautiful thoughts, the ugly thoughts, the good one, the bad ones, the ones that say do this and do that and not move.  I will not tell you that Meditation will give you anything, but it will take things away, things you didn't know you had or were holding onto.  This can be good news or bad news depending on what you want to keep.  For this one, it has been one of the Greatest Gifts life has provided and life is becoming a more conscious Living Meditation every moment that I am in.  I still set aside time for Meditation 3 times a day.  It is always a different experience.  I have not once had a Meditation that was like any other prior.  Then after that 1/2 hour there would be a Speaking, generally by myTeacher and all would remain silent, with their mics off, and then if there was a question they would type it in.  Here is an edited clip of one of those Speakings called "Screen of Self."

So this came up for me today to share, because it has shifted things so dramatically (through no drama) in this life, that I would like to offer it to anyone and everyone that is willing to begin to lay the mind aside, to Realize what the mind is IN. 

If you are willing, find a quiet place, make it your sacred place and set aside a certain amount of time each day and commit to being there, like the mailman, rain or shine, it is your priority.  You may wish to have a picture of your Teacher or of something that calms you, light a candle in front of it before you begin, have a slight stretch and if you like incense, slowly smell it before lighting it and then sit back and let what comes, come and don't move ... it is all to clear you of who you think you are (thoughts), to Reveal to you ... who you Are (before thought).

I am at Meditation every morning at 5 to 5:30am, feel free to join me, you do not have to be in one's physical presence to be there.  If you would like to let me know that you are there, I would love to hear from you.