Surface Concepts

When one can only see and attach to what’s on the surface, therein lies the root to all suffering. It’s in letting go of surface concepts that one will see there are many parts to the whole, this reveals the emptiness of all things.

When we stay on the surface level of existence, life becomes conceptual and although we all experience life in the human form, it is why it’s seen differently by everyone, except by those who don’t see it through a concept, this state is of emptiness which needs no concept, yet existence still is. Everything is a constellation of parts that make up the whole, so nothing is truly what a concept makes it out to be because it’s only seen and categorized as the whole. When one looks at a tree and applies the concept “tree” the surface parts the trunk, limbs, branches, and leaves meld into one and the true nature of the tree is lost. If you can see this with the tree, you can see it with everything, including yourself. Without a concept of you where is the you and that’s just the surface you I’m asking about, most don’t even think about what parts of you are on the inside.

There is much freedom in seeing this because it allows for the emptiness of all things to be revealed. And when one sees there’s nothing to hold on to no matter what, one is free. You give something that keeps track of time a concept that it’s a watch, there are so many parts to it, but which part is truly the watch. Concepts will keep you marred in ignorance because they will block out seeing the true nature of emptiness in all things, you will only see the whole. When this happens one can only see and attach to what’s on the surface and therein lies the root to all suffering. It’s in letting go of surface concepts that one will see there are many parts to the whole which when seen reveals the emptiness of all things.

Addicted to Thinking

Notice how much you think about yourself and you just may be able to settle in a place where your emotions aren’t in control and hopefully you’ll come to realize life isn’t really about you, you just think it is.

As long as one is alive life happens, actually life happens even if one isn’t alive there just isn’t awareness of it. So life isn’t really about what happens as much as it’s about how much one relates their thinking about what happens. This is where one’s conditioning steps in and determines the relation to what happens next. It can be of love, it can be of hate, but for most it teeters between the two to a large degree. Very few go to the extreme of either one of these emotions so the results for most humans are balanced. When these emotions do hit an extreme level the results are very noticeable and this is all contingent how much one is conditioned to think about themselves, this thinking is what manifest as emotions. If you had love as the main influence in your life, obviously you will love more than a person who had hate as their influence. This all arises from inside the individual so if you truly notice the base of your actions you may be able to alter those actions, but besides relying on divine intervention which will probably not occur, it will take some practice to allow the mind to settle so this is noticed.

The true addictions in society is thinking and when you are the main subject of that thinking, it makes one’s existence very irrational. Now multiply that by billions of people and hence you have the world we live in; billions of people constantly thinking about themselves strictly for personal gain. There’s no one to blame for this because it arises from within each of us. From the mass murderer to the person who is a people pleaser, it’s the thinking mind that causes extreme emotions and everything else in between. So sit often with the intention of developing the ability to notice how much you think about yourself and you just may be able to settle in a place where your emotions aren’t in control and hopefully you’ll come to realize life isn’t really about you, you just think it is.

Embracing the Moment

There are choices in every moment that occur in life and it solely puts your life in your hands. It has nothing to do with your circumstances, but if you don’t have awareness of this, you will continue to push life away as situations arise.

Being all inclusive to what occurs in your life (embracing the moment) is living life as it unfolds without excluding any part of it. It’s easy to push away what’s not wanted, but to include everything even though it may not be beneficial or wanted is truly living. If something wants to be excluded find out what it is and why it’s being pushed away. Obviously on the surface it would look as though it’s just not liked, but if it’s what’s occurring, what good is it doing in pushing it away and not liking it. This becomes a defense mechanism that keeps one from truly enjoying life. If one only enjoys life when things happening are liked, there will be much suffering because of the nature of the fluctuations of things. If you go on a vacation to a beach resort and it’s cloudy and rainy and you expected it to be sunny, therein lies your suffering; if it’s sunny everything is great. This is but one example, I’m sure you can find your own that fits your current life.

In the situation described, why it causes suffering is because what’s there is being pushed away, maybe not even consciously, but it’s not wanted so it causes a mind state of agitation. The thing about this is it’s totally out of your control, there’s nothing you can do to change this situation as it is, meaning you can’t change the weather. Well you could do a Sun Dance, but I doubt that will work, so you will either be with life as it is or you will continue to push it away by wanting it different. These are our choices in every moment that occurs in life and it solely puts your life in your hands. It has nothing to do with anyone else or your circumstances, but if you don’t have awareness of this you will continue to push life away as unwanted situations arise, until one day there will be nothing to push away because life in this form will be no more.

The Operative Principle of Love

Making love the operative principle in your life is done by going back to the time when you were a child, thus returning to your natural state of love before becoming conditioned by the world.
One cannot truly love unless there’s awareness of love as the operative principle of the heart and love can’t be an operative principle of the heart unless one turns back the clock and goes back to a time and undoes the things that have been developed that doesn’t make this so. This isn’t to tell anyone how to live their life or what the purpose of it is, but I read something the other day that really hit me as being so far from the truth, at least to me, that I had to share on it. What someone said was “being loving is not natural for human beings and we have to work hard at it.”

Now this is someone’s experience and an experience isn’t right or wrong, but this hasn’t been my experience. My experience is that love has always been and will always be in my heart, it was just blocked out by the way my mind became conditioned. Here is an example of this, just substitute the Conditioned Mind with a polluted body of water. When you take a body of water that’s been polluted and you want to return it to its natural state, all that needs to be done is to remove the pollutants. If something is added to the water it becomes what it isn’t or never was, so one needs to only remove the pollutants to return it to its natural state. To me this is what was meant when it was written that Jesus said “Truly I tell you, unless you become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven” So unless love becomes the operative principle of the heart, heaven on earth or possibly when one passes on will never be experienced. How can it be with the way the mind has been conditioned to block out our true nature to love?

The practice of discipline and concentration is important because it allows the mind to settle so the mind pollutants are removed and our natural state of love becomes the operative principle of our heart. Love is already in our heart, but our polluted Conditioned Mind blocks far to many from seeing this. It does seem like it’s going to take hard work to return to our natural state, but only because its been a long time since we were little children. By practicing discipline and concentration all we are doing is removing our mind pollutants which allows the mind to settle so the principle of our natural state of love becomes operative. We aren’t becoming something that we aren’t, we are returning to our natural state of love and are allowing the love that is already in our heart to become the operative principle to live by.

Recognizing the Cause

Nothing is done or held onto without an underling cause and if that cause isn’t recognized, one will unconsciously succumb to it and it’s conditioning as if they were a dog on a leash.

When some feeling or emotion arises, something causes it, learn to see the cause of the emotion arising and the feelings that go along with the cause. Whatever arises has a cause, the reason for that cause and the sensation of it needs to be understood if one isn’t to be blindly drawn in and controlled by it. Nothing is held onto without an underling cause and if that cause isn’t recognized, one will unconsciously succumb to the cause as if they were a dog on a leash. Why people don’t see how this holds them in captivity is because many of the things that are being held onto are used to make one’s identity and also the holding is done because your conditioning tells you what you are holding onto is needed. When the cause of what arises is understood or at least noticed, there arises an awareness of what one thinks they need to hold onto. When this occurs there’s the possibility it will fall away and in the process your made up story falls away.

As stated before, why it’s so difficult to see this is because what’s being held onto is thought to be bringing you pleasure, and it probably is in some way, but it’s not true pleasure because no object has the capability of providing true pleasure; one is easily deluded by this. Whether it’s a partner, program, sports team, work, social status, self help, working out, yoga, or whatever is being held onto, if the cause of why one thinks they need something to feel good (pleasure) isn’t realized, the object becomes one’s prison cell and this is regardless of what’s used. So if the cause of why something arises and is held onto isn’t recognized, you might as well keep the dog collar on because when your conditioning says it’s time for a walk, you will have to go because of the conditioning in place.

Emotions of Me, Myself, and I

Separate I from your emotions and separate from the pull the emotions have over you. When this happens all you will be left with is peace because the emotions of your me, myself, and I mind isn’t in control.

Emotions aren’t right or wrong as much as they are signals to get in touch with what’s going on. At their core all emotions are based in a concept which strictly involves the me, myself, and I mind. I’m not suggesting that emotions are needed or aren’t needed, I’m just stating the experience I had with emotions is they were never much of a benefit to me or anyone around me and because of the me, myself, and I mind, they were in total control of my life. It will take much sitting and discipline to see the true nature of one’s emotions and the suffering they cause when they’re attached to. This isn’t to say today I’m emotionless, it just that they don’t have the control over me they once had.

Emotions will arise that’s a given, they’re a part of our human conditioning, but that’s not the issue, it’s how they’re allowed to control and dictate one’s state of being that the issue. Here’s an example of the emotion of anger; anger will arise and if it’s attached to, the results will cause some form of harm. So the key is to not ignore the anger, but to see how it arises from I (who’s angry?) and not attach to it. In this way the anger is there, but it’s not controlling. All emotions can be viewed in this manner because what they have in common is they all arise from I. Anger, fear, sadness, joy, disgust, love, and so on, look and see how without I although the emotions are there, they cannot control you. Separate I from the emotion and separate from the pull the emotions have over you and when this happens all you will be left with is peace and this is because the me, myself, and I mind isn’t in control.

Love Attracts Naturally

Like energy attracts and opposite energy repels naturally so if you have love in your heart, others will be drawn to you naturally because when one comes from a place of unconditional love, there’s no conflict within.

I’ve noticed in my journey when someone is in my life that it’s not exactly coming from a place of love, they are removed without me doing anything. Although it’s not for me to judge anyone to say they’re not coming from a place of love, I do understand the Conditioned Mind enough to understand what isn’t love. I truly would rather not be associated with anyone who acts in non loving ways, this energy isn’t a benefit to anyone, especially the one who is acting in such a way. People use God to justify acting in this way, even those who talk love with their lips, show non loving behavior in their actions. I ask how can a loving God be non loving? People quote the bible and think it’s love, I say what does your heart say, that’s where I look. Anyone can quote and twist scripture to fit into a conditioned view, but love has no view, it just loves. If you truly want to judge, start with your own heart and leave it at that. Unless one is raised to love, you will have your hands full investigating yourself, and judging anyone else is just wasting energy.

Please look at the log in your own eye and not the speck in someone else’s. It’s so easy to judge others, but I say hold fast to love if you truly want things to change in your life, but it won’t be others changing, it will be you. One can not be all things to all people, but one can love all people and that’s all that matters. Like energy attracts and opposite energy repels naturally so if you have love in your heart, others will naturally be drawn to you, not because of some belief or saying from the bible, but because when one comes from a place of unconditional love there’s never a conflict with oneself so there’s never a conflict with others.

The World's Energy

The world’s energy is from the thought realm which attaches one to the world. As long as one is controlled by the world, love can’t be the operative energy of life regardless of the beliefs or concepts being held onto.

The more this world and its ways are held onto, the less love there will be as the operative energy in one’s life. This is why we as a society are in our current state and until this is realized individually and as a whole, things will remain the same. I know this was factual in my own life, but that was until I learned why I acted in the ways that I did. I never understood resentment, greed, hate, jealousy, or the outright deluded view of life that I had. I couldn’t see the love that was in my heart because of all the conditioning that was in place. This blocked me from the magnificence that life had to offer and as long as the things of this world were held onto, this magnificence was never going to be seen.

The block to life’s magnificence is also a block to our own magnificence. Our magnificence doesn’t manifest as a story about certain beliefs and concepts, it arises from the silence within. It’s such a shame that this isn’t understood by the masses because life would be so much different, we would be falling over each other in love instead of harming each other in the name of religion or whatever else is believed to be right. There’s so much resentment and hate carried around and although it’s directed to the outside it arises from within so it’s one’s own energy. This energy causes much harm to others, but it causes the most damage to the one who it comes from. This is what’s missed and not understood. This energy is from the thought realm which attaches one to the world and as long as one is controlled by the world, love can’t be the operative energy of life regardless of the beliefs or concepts being held onto.

If You Think It So It Is

If you think it so it is and this is because the thought arises from the same energy that the action would be and this energy being based in self centeredness makes the thought and action one in the same.

There’s a verse in the bible that says something like “If you think it so it is” This isn’t an issue when the first thought comes in because there’s not much one can do about that, but it does become an issue when the thought is given energy for it to come alive and this is even if the thought is never acted on. This occurs because of one’s self centeredness and this is why it’s an issue, it blocks one from their own innate love. Here’s an example: It’s not wrong to look at a woman, or to find her attractive. It’s not wrong to think of a man as handsome, but if a married man or woman goes farther and starts fantasizing about kissing or having sex with someone other than his or her spouse, then he or she has taken the thought to the level where it now becomes one’s bondage and blocks out the love of from one’s own heart. This is when an issue would arise.

This issue doesn’t occur when the thought, emotion, or passion arises, but if those thoughts aren’t resisted then issue occurs because we give in to the emotion, thought, or passion by dwelling on it, and this is only the thought, not an action. If the action of the thought is acted on, the bondage goes to an entirely different level with much more dire consequences. But it all starts with a single thought and if the thought isn’t given energy, an action cannot occur. This is true with any thought, whether it’s anger, lust, greed, and so on, if there isn’t bondage to the self centered base, there wouldn’t be further attachment to the incoming thought and if you don’t think it, it cannot be so.

Conditioned Mind Activity

Peace is naturally within everyone, but because of the way a person is conditioned the mind is in a constant state of some activity and this is why one’s natural state of peace isn’t noticed.

Thinking is an activity of the mind and regardless of what the thoughts are, it takes one from the minds place of non activity and thus peace. There’s nothing that can be done to prevent this from happening, but one can become aware of it; the reason nothing can be done is because anything that’s done becomes a mind activity. Notice when the mind is in a state of peace and what takes you from this state. There are so many activities of the mind that takes away one’s peace that the list is endless, but it wouldn’t matter if there was only one activity on the list, as long as one is in unaware of the activity it will take you from your place of peace.

To notice this activity is a very simple practice, just watch the activity, nothing more. I’m sure you’ll be amazed at how much activity and how little non activity there is. Watch when an itch arises and how the mind activity now becomes to scratch the itch. Can you notice this and not scratch? This is something simple to start with and when you become aware of this you can watch other mind activities as they arise. The key is not to say to yourself “I’m not going to scratch” it’s to just be with the itch and watch it. Most times the itch will simply go away. This is how it is with most mind activities, but it will take some practice (just watching) for the awareness of this to take hold because of the conditioned thinking that’s in place. Just watch the conditioned mind activity, don’t do anything but watch it, thought in, thought out, thought in, thought out, and ever so slowly the activity will lessen and in the process there will be more peace (naturally). Simple yes, but don’t make it something that needs to be done or it will just become another conditioned mind activity.

Becoming the Dash

Making up a story about life has no benefit to it because regardless of what the story is, one day it will end and the only thing left will be the dash between the day life in this form began and the day it ends.

Everyone regardless of who you are will sooner or later have a born date and death date separated by a dash and that dash represents your life, regardless if it’s a week or a hundred years long. It doesn’t matter much whether you accomplish great things (to the ego it does) or if you live a quiet uneventful life, you will become the dash and be equal to all the other dashes that came before you.

The other day I attended the wake of my ninety eight year old uncle who passed away and although ninety eight seems as though it was a long life, for him it’s over and his life is now represented by a dash. My uncle was a good man and this isn’t to diminish anything he accomplished in his life, but what does any of it really matter. He is the same now as all those who came before, regardless of the life he lived, good, bad, or indifferent. The point of this is to show how no matter what, we will all become the dash one day. So what are you holding onto that you think is so important?

What story are you telling yourself? It doesn’t really matter because it will change many times throughout your lifetime and at the end the only thing with any significance is the stories that others have about you. And these only matter to a degree as they’ll only last until the last person who knows you also dies. This isn’t to say there’s no purpose to life, I just don’t know what it is. I don’t see how making up a story is beneficial because regardless of what story is held onto, sooner or later it will end and the story of becoming the dash is the only one that will remain and this is regardless of the way one’s life was lived. So remember live now and forever hold your peace or at least until it’s time to join all the other dashes that came before you.

Facing Yourself

The only obstacle one has to truly being free is themselves and until you face yourself, true freedom is something that will always be out there in the next book, program, good deed, relationship, pill, drink, self help method or whatever else is reached for.

Consider life as water and emotions as a flood, if you’re on low ground you will be overcome by the flood waters (emotions), but if you’re on high ground the same flood water will come, but the way it affects you will have a much different outcome. This is what happens when a person faces themselves, you are naturally put on higher ground which builds up a defense against your emotional flood water. Without facing yourself there will be no defense against the flood water because you will be stuck on lower ground and on lower ground when the flood water arises, some form of destruction will be the result and the severity of the flood (emotional attachment) determines the destruction.

The flood water only affects what’s on lower ground, and our lower nature manifest as emotional attachments. The destructiveness of this attachment is determined by what is reached for, drugs, alcohol, gambling, sex, food, and so on. Although not everything reached for is destructive, some have much more destructive potential than others. If one doesn’t face themselves there won’t be awareness of either the destructive or the subtle things reached for. To me, the key is facing yourself because it puts you on higher ground so when the flood water comes it has less affect on you. This is the value of facing and understanding yourself, it allows you to not be flooded emotionally by circumstances that occur. Although the flood water will arise, because you are on higher ground you aren’t affected like the person who’s stuck on lower ground and is reaching out there for a life preserver, in whatever form that may be.

To Cling is to Suffer

A mind that’s free of expectations is a mind that doesn’t cling and without the velcro effects of clinging it’s impossible to suffer. So the dilemma is to cling or not to cling and this makes one’s suffering a choice.

Let go and be free or hold on and suffer, that is our dilemma. Expect things a certain way and when they aren’t in that way, the next step in the process is the reaction to the different results of what’s expected. Peace or suffering, that’s always the choice. If we cling to results and they’re different than expected, it creates suffering and we are the one’s creating it because we are the one’s clinging to our expectations. Disappointment is only unpleasant because clinging to wanting things a certain way makes it so.

When we expect, we attach labels and when we attach labels, we cling. This is how our mind develops the velcro effect of clinging. Even if the expectations work out the way we think they should be, we’re still clinging, but we don’t notice it as a problem because it’s the way that we want it. So the velcro effect of our mind clings to everything that is labeled and since it labels everything, we cling to everything, but we mostly focus on and notice the things that don’t go our way.

The only way to be free of this velcro effect is to not label things. The labeling process of our mind produces clinging, the letting go process through non-judgement produces freedom. It’s a choice that needs to be cultivated so our moment to moment expectations don’t cause our own suffering. Life is one continuous expectation after another, but we have been conditioned to think it’s only the disappointments that effect our velcro mind. We are mostly unaware of this moment to moment labeling process that produces clinging. When the mind quiets enough to understand this, the labeling process will lessen, and so will our expectations. This results in a mind that’s free of expectations and the clinging effects it has on the velcro mind. Without the velcro effects it is impossible to suffer, so the dilemma is to cling or not to cling and this makes one’s suffering a choice.

Labeled Distractions

Regardless of what it is, once something is labeled it becomes a distraction to one’s mind state of peace. Without a label the mind remains open and more and more truth is revealed, truth that sets one free.

The other day when I woke up, it seemed I was in an annoyed mind state, I had a few things that had to be done as soon as I woke up, but this isn’t anything out of the ordinary. Being in this annoyed state made it seem as though everything was annoying me, but I’ve learned that this mind state is temporary and it arises as a distraction to my state of peace. I had to take a look to see why everything was annoying to me, some will say to just be with the annoyance and watch it dissipate, but to me I take it a step further because I can and I’ve learned that the annoyance will return stronger if the root of it isn’t exposed; knowing what the root of my annoyances are has been my saving grace. On this morning these annoyances had nothing to do with anything in particular, nothing was going on for me to be annoyed. I didn’t have time to sit because I had an appointment so I begin a mindfulness practice of watching how each annoyance that arose was directly linked to I. It arose, it was acknowledged that I was at the root and quietly I was saying “don’t attach” and boom just like the annoyances that arose were gone. This is the value of understanding your own mind.

You can just be with the annoyance and over time it may dissipate, but it will take longer and it will return because understanding why it arose won’t be known. This isn’t to say that just remaining with what arises doesn’t produce results, but to me if one knows why something arises there’s less chance of attaching to it and it returning. This is tried and true, but unless it’s seen it’s very unlikely it will be understood. At times what I write about is questioned because it’s not seen by someone, but something should never be discounted just because it hasn’t been experienced. Keeping an open mind is vital in the expansion of truth in one’s life. The moment something is dismissed without it being investigated, it becomes a limit. Near Death Experiences, reincarnation, states of extreme bliss, seeing or hearing Angels, to name a few, although I haven’t experienced these I refuse to discount them because I just don’t know. Regardless of what it is, once something is labeled it becomes a distraction to one’s mind state of peace, so without a label the mind remains open and more and more truth is revealed and truth is what sets one free.

Gossiping Energy

The small self (ego) gossips because there’s lack within, this creates the need to feel superior. So when a person gossips it’s only to subconsciously fill this lack and make themselves feel superior to the person being gossiped about.

The reason why gossiping is so damaging is because of the energy emitted when it’s being done. Gossiping energy arises from one’s own lack of self worth and it engulfs all the gossipers with this lack energy. It doesn’t affect the one who is being gossiped about because for the most part they’re probably unaware it’s being done. Gossiping is also very damaging because it involves multiple people, it’s like the energy of a riot, neither can occur with just one person. Once a person starts gossiping and another person unconsciously attaches to it, it will continue to grow depending on who’s in the room and how unconscious (lacking) they are. It will only be attached to by those who have lack because it’s done to fill the lacks void. Even if the gossiping about another person is warranted to a degree, who is perfect enough to cast the first stone? All humans are fallible and act selfishly at times and that’s mainly the energy of those who gossip.

The small self (ego) gossips because it needs to feel superior to others, so when I talk about you it’s only to subconsciously make myself feel more superior than you. After all gossip is never or hardly never about something good, it’s mostly about something negative. Gossiping is what happens when there’s idle time and not much is going on. It’s difficult not to be pulled into gossips energy because there’s not many people who don’t like to feel superior than another person. Gossip is shallow and unless there’s truly an understanding that you are complete just the way you are and there’s no need to talk about anyone else, one will continue to harm themselves by talking about others and keeping the selfish energy of gossiping in place.