Question of the Week: 6/30 - 7/6

A recent question through e-mail:

Are you a member of any religious, philosophical, or spiritual organisation? You never really talk about that, but it seems to me that you’d be resistent to the idea.

Because one is not a member does not mean that one is resistant. It simply means one is not a member. When the period appears at the end of the sentence, that is it. Nothing carries over, and there is no idea that one should or should not do something, due to a conflicting belief. When it is finished, nothing else begins.

Some would equate every apparent state with an opposite. There is hot because there is cold. There is hate because there is love. There is light because there is dark. This is life as it is lived by so many, but is any of it true? It is an incredible waste of energy.

When it is extremely cold, we talk about how cold it is, and then wish for warmth. Why do we talk about the cold when it is cold? If you and I are together, and it is below freezing temperatures, do either of us need to mention how cold it is? If you say it to me once, I understand and I am right there with you. But why keep saying it?

It is cold, it is cold, it is cold!

Do you really know that?

Think of it for a moment; all the time you spend talking about the cold, you are not there with it. You are only thinking about how cold it is. Stop thinking about it and live it.

If it is cold, and it very well may be, do you really need to tell yourself at all? The body has its own physiological barriers that will take care of the situation. And beyond that, we dress accordingly. If there is snow outside, it is generally understood that it is also cold. Why can’t we leave it at that?

When it is noisy, we resist and resist, complaining of how noisy it all is. But is the problem the noise, or our resistance to it? Again, the body has its own protective mechanisms for excessive noise. Beyond that, we can put our hands to our ears or stuff something in there to help balance it all out.

If you complain and complain about the noise, are you really hearing the noise in the world? Or merely the noise in your head?

Our use of imagination is misguided and destructive. We never sit with the cold, even during the moments when it is cold; we think about it, talk about it, and wish it weren’t so.

We never sit with the apparent noise. We cannot love it and learn how to listen. We resist and complain about how noisy it is compared to what it should be.

But these are the moments to flower into what is. Every moment is the perfect chance to see clearly.

Now, having said all of this, I am not a member of anything. (Apart from humanity, I suppose.) This does not mean that I am against anything, or have an idea that some other philosophy is better. If I reject something because I think something else is better, then I am a member of the something else.

I reject, but not due to an idea; it is a rejection born from intense curiosity. It is a necessary rejection, in order to find out what is really there. But there is no activity here that is pushing against. It is just that things come and go, but nothing sticks here. Not because I push it away, but because there is nothing here that can grab it and cherish it.

A bit long-winded, but I hope it answers your question.

These are question posed to me by Jerry on the post, Sitting #2.

Not judging the thoughts and or compulsions that seem to be unsavory and dark is one thing. However, is reducing them and even eliminating them possible?

Who decides that the thoughts are unsavory and dark? There needs to be the judgment of good or bad before any of that can take place. So, even if you consider you are not judging the thought, the idea that the thought is dark or should be eliminated is still a judgment.

When you sit in order to see these things, you must go slowly, in a step-wise fashion. Don’t instantly fall back on what you already know and have memorized. Leave space for the meaning to become apparent without your effort. This may not be easy to see yet, but you do not need to be there controlling what is happening. Just sit with your curiosity, and find out what is happening.

…when I am not in meditation, I am prone to experience thoughts and inclinations that are sometimes mean, unsympathetic, selfish, desirous and forgetful of higher spiritual truths and states-of-being.

That is exactly where you want to be. Forget what happens on the cushion, because that is not your daily life. It is just a short diversion, and when it is over, you will wish for it to continue.

If you have thoughts that are mean, selfish, and so on, those are your greatest teachers. It is the perfect opportunity to see what is happening within, without resorting to theorizing. When there is anger, it is not a theory; it is there. And it is in that moment when you can go deeper and deeper, sinking into the reality of how your mind is functioning. It is extremely beautiful to behold.

All of the thoughts you hate will set you free.

Don’t be so proud that you cannot step away from the anger to see it clearly. Usually, one is angry, and there may be a conscious recognition of that anger. But there is also a vested interest in staying angry. It could be that, if you suddenly stop being angry, people will think you are a fool for not sticking with it. Or it could be any of a thousand different reasons. But these will be clear when you see it for yourself.

There are no thoughts to avoid; only thoughts to observe.

Thru meditation and spiritual discipline, is it possible to be in that higher state-of-being more and more, without even meditating, so that the lower impulses are reduced and or eliminated?

If so called “lower impulses” are there, that is your meditation. It is not something you do for just one hour. It is the flow of awareness as you move about your day. It is everything as it is.

If you want to use it as a tool to eliminate certain types of thoughts, forget it. Awareness is the movement of sitting with what is (even if you are standing). It is something that moves as you move. It has nothing to do with what you believe to be good or bad.

That being said, it couldn’t be more simple. However, you might find it difficult to get into, if you have never considered such a thing. There is something I can recommend to you. If you decide to sit down and try to watch this movement, do it in nature. Go outside; somewhere close to mountains, rivers, forests, fields, lakes, or whatever you happen to have where you live. Sit in that enviroment for some time and see what happens in your mind. Just watch, listen, observe.

The reason I recommend nature as often as I do is because it is something thought cannot touch. Thought can certainly make up stories and create theories about nature, but it cannot touch it. Thought can create a pencil, a chair, guitars, and the most magnificent cathedrals, but it can do absolutely nothing about nature. Only awe in its presence.

Or, are we doomed to exist with a mixture of yin and yang, positive and negative, that acceptance of(thus taking away their power over us)will bring about realizations which lead to enlightenment?

Is there doom in existing in a certain way, or is there only existence? Is thought good or bad, or is it merely your thoughts of thought being good or bad? Go deeply within yourself and look at it.

Do you want to accept + and - only because you crave an end result? If I accept what is, I’ll get the realization or the enlightenment. Is that it? If so, it is still the dualism of the seeker and the thing to be sought. Now, if this is what is there, it is absolutely fine. It simply becomes your meditation. You can only work with where you are and what you have.

You can never have more or less than what you have. That is where you start, and that is where it ends.

I don’t know that I’ve answered your questions, but I hope you can get something out of this. Feel free to leave your comments below, and maybe we can go into it together if you like.

I have received a few similar questions over the last week. This is one of them, but captures the gist of all of them:

I’ve been reading your recent posts, and the spirituality series at Tom Stine’s blog as well. But I have a question. I have never really thought about spirituality before and wonder how I should start. I hear about meditation and mindfulness, and the things some people do for spirituality, but after reading your posts and comments, and Tom’s posts and comments, I am beginning to think that those things don’t really matter so much.

So, where do I begin? Where did you begin?

I don’t really consider that I have done the “spiritual journey” that others speak of. I think I always suspected something else was available, but could never trust that someone else could tell me what it was.

I started with doubt. It is difficult to remember now, but I guess I thought that if I didn’t rely on anything another person handed to me, I would have to see the truth eventually. But nothing changed until I became curious.

It was curiosity that really allowed me to let go of the goal. Curiosity, in its own way, eliminates the seeker. It is very subtle, but if you are truly curious, it has less to do with the outcome as it does the moment by moment exploration.

I wrote a slightly different view in another blog post.

If you decide to get into this remember:You can go here and there, listen to him and her, read this and that, but none of that really matters. In the end you have to find out for yourself, without reliance on authority.

There will be only your own tracks in the sand. But even these will be obliterated behind you.

Over at Tom Stine’s website there have been several recent articles on various aspects of spirituality, and his post, “So What is Spirituality? Really,” gave rise to this one.

If you have a look at his article, it goes into fine detail on the various definitions used for that word and how it is generally looked upon. It is a great piece and well worth the time to read. (In fact, if you have not been to his site before, there is plenty of fine material to pore over. So check it out.)

I rarely ever use the word spirituality. In any form. Why? Because it has far too many definitions based on opinion, and seems to be rendered useless by the sheer amount of choice one has. But I will use the word in a different context.

What is Spirit?

If we look into the etymology of the word, it comes from the Latin, Spiritus. This word simply means, Breath (from Spirare, which means to blow, or breathe).

I am not at all sure of the reason, but somewhere along the line someone must have thought about the “breath of life,” as the indescribable thing that gives us animation; the thing that gives us breath.

(Not that it is all important to look into the word origins to live a better life, but you would be amazed at how clear things can become, at least on an intellectual level.)

Well, What is Spirituality? Am I spiritual?

To answer the question is quite simple:

Are you breathing? Yes? Then you are spiritual.

It doesn’t require any affiliation to any special club, and you don’t have to go anywhere to get it. Hopefully this can clear out some confusion, because if someone claims they can make you more spiritual, you’ll now know they are full of it.

Look into the wholeness of your life. It is complete in every possible way already. You may think, “No it isn’t,” but what you think about this is irrelevant. Your idea of what you need keeps you from seeing that you already are.

Every animal, every plant, and each of us has this spirit. It is inseparable from daily life because it is daily life.

Rejecting the Obvious

You can try to reject the obvious; that you are already whole and complete, a perfect spiritual being; but where will that leave you? The sun will rise tomorrow, a beautiful sphere of fire, the mother of life on this earth. Reject it all you want, but it will be there for you tomorrow. It will always love you, even if you hate it, loathe it, or completely ignore it.

Don’t let yourself get in the way of the obvious. It is all so beautiful.

Question of the Week: 3/03 - 3/09

Today I have an audio post for the question of the week.

This is my first attempt, so it is a no frills, simple recording. If there is general interest in this kind of thing, then I will continue to post audio from time to time. (I hope so, as it was surprisingly easy to do.)

Just let me know in the comments, or through the contact page.

You can also download this clip.