This post wraps up the November Project 2011.

Now that there have been a few days of space, and as I sit here looking over the posts for November, I think the project went quite well.

I would like to thank everyone for all their wonderful questions. I could not use them all, but I am grateful for every one. And special thanks goes to everyone taking part in the comments. It is always good to see others give themselves over to the questions in order to look deeper into them.

Thanks very much!

For those of you new to the site, and to the veterans unable to read the earlier posts, the following list contains all of the writings for the November Project 2011, in order.

The November Project 2011

01: On Dropping Thought

02: The State of Non-Duality

03: Burning the Notebooks

04: Quick Thoughts on Living

05: Questions Answered – Again!

06: On Increased Awakenings

07: Quick Reply on Living

08: Life After Death

09: What Are You Reading?

10: Confused About Enlightenment

11: In Sickness

12: Belief

13: On Writing at Takuin.com

14: On Freedom

15: On Meditation

16: On Dreaming

17: On the Earthquake and Tsunami of March 11, 2011

18: On Finding Out for Yourself

19: Where Should I Sit?

20: On Siddhis and Super-Powers

21: Takuin on Film

22: On Conclusion

23: On Apophis, Natural Resources, and Love

24: On Haters and Troublemakers

25: On Enlightenment and Awakening

26: On Ending

27: Ask the Reader

28: On Questions

29: On Suffering

30: One Last Sentence

Thanks again, everyone!

And for those of you coming to these posts late, please keep this in mind: Quick Note on Comments

Out of the Woods...

]]> http://www.takuin.com/november-project-2011-finale/feed/ 4 http://www.takuin.com/one-last-sentence/ http://www.takuin.com/one-last-sentence/#comments Wed, 30 Nov 2011 12:51:26 +0000 takuin http://www.takuin.com/?p=3516

November Project: Question #30

This last post for the November Project is a combination of two questions

First:

I know you’ll be leaving soon, in a manner of speaking. Do you have any last words of advice for us seekers?

And second:

If you had only one sentence you could say to the spiritual seeker, what would you say?

Well, I won’t leave…just move on with life. I won’t stop posting here and I won’t shut down the site. And I am sure there will be many more interesting conversations with all of you, so in some respects it might seem the same, or at least similar to what came before. But my own explorations have taken me far from where I began, and to remain any longer would be insincere.

Last words of advice sounds morbid, or at least far too dramatic. And I don’t care for unnecessary drama. So let’s say, the entirety of this website (330 posts, counting this one) are my last words of advice.

And as far as one last sentence for the seeker…it is difficult. It is not the kind of thing you can create a set answer for. Well, people create set answers all the time, but that is like taking medium size pants and expecting the entire world to fit in them.

Certain things are immutable, but they are only relevant in relation to one’s exploration. And that can take on forms difficult to imagine. So it is probably best to leave the ‘answers‘ to the ‘experts‘, and just get on with your life and your own explorations. An expert with an answer will never compare to the beauty that is you, anyway.

For my one last sentence, I will quote jazz/fusion guitar legend, Scott Henderson. He is speaking about technique, but this can relate to anything we experience in life. Some of you might not get it, but it means something to me.

“I would rather hear Albert King drop his guitar on the floor than hear some jazz guy play streams of eighth notes with no rhythms. It is boring.”

That distills my thoughts on life quite nicely.

Leaving the Building...

]]> http://www.takuin.com/one-last-sentence/feed/ 6 http://www.takuin.com/on-questions/ http://www.takuin.com/on-questions/#comments Mon, 28 Nov 2011 07:34:13 +0000 takuin http://www.takuin.com/?p=3465

November Project: Question #28

This question comes from Brooks through email

Is there a question you’ve been surprised no one has asked?

Well…not really.

What surprises me is people rarely ask themselves the questions they pose to me. And I have always found that baffling. Sure, there is really no way for me to know if they have asked themselves the same questions, but after spending five years listening and speaking, I think I have a good sense for the amount of inquiry many might allow for themselves.

It is never deep enough, it seems.

It reminds me of a story about the writer Gabriel Garcia Marquez. When he read the first line of the Kafka story The Metamorphosis, it almost knocked him out of his bed. [The first line reads, 'As Gregor Samsa awoke that morning from uneasy dreams, he found himself transformed in his bed into a gigantic insect.' ~ TM]

Garcia Marquez said of the line,

“When I read the line I thought to myself that I didn’t know that anyone was allowed to write things like that. If I had known, I would have started writing a long time ago.“

What he says is so telling: ‘I didn’t know that anyone was allowed to write things like that.’

This kind of thinking follows people into their inquiry. It is almost as if they need a certain ‘permission’ in order to proceed, and I could never understand that. If someone is serious, then surely, they’ll explore themselves thoroughly. It might not come to them all at once, and I can understand why. But you don’t stop, if you are serious.

And I absolutely understand one might be limited to the questions and restrictions of their conditioning. So it very well may be out of their experience entirely to ask a different kind of question. But if they want to see a different ‘answer’, they’ll need to ask a different question. And nothing is stopping them from doing so, at any time.

Empty Your Bowl

Recently on Twitter (it was actually about an hour ago) I had a little conversation over something I tweeted more than a year ago. The tweet itself reads,

#liesyoushouldntfallfor I am the right guru, and I can bring you true freedom.

The conversation on Twitter was just to clarify what I meant. I was asked,

Q1: How best 2 know it’s a lie?; 2: what lies r ok?

And I answered with,

Is there a ‘right’ guru? Can anyone bring you true freedom? Does true freedom actually exist? No one seems to ask these questions.

It isn’t that people have not asked me those questions. It IS rare, but they have asked. But they never seem to ask themselves the same questions. And those are good questions, damn it! Don’t waste them on me! Explore them within yourselves!

A few years ago on a Skype call someone asked me a similar question to, Can someone else set me free? (Or Can freedom be given to me? Something like that.) My answer was, Have you asked yourself? I’ll never forget his reply:

But I want you to tell me.

My reply was something like, No. I can’t tell you. You have the question, and you seem to be curious about all of this. That is all you need to begin.

If there is any final message on this subject it is this: Any question you receive from Takuin is in no way better than any question you might receive from yourself. In fact, yours is better. You gave it a life and a mission of its own. Takuin didn’t.

Thanks for the question, Brooks.

November Project: Question #27

I received this in my email inbox just a few minutes ago from James

I can’t imagine the number of questions you must get all the time, nevermind this November project. But I wonder if you have a question for your readers? My question is, what one question would you like to ask your readers?

Hmm…interesting. I like this.

My question for the readers is one that no one has ever asked me.

What concerns you in your daily lives?

Whether this concern blocks you off from what you consider daily life, or is an integrated part, however you might see it, what concerns you? Forget for the moment if you believe your concerns to be selfish or of no real importance, or even if you believe those concerns to be illusory…I don’t care about that…

I would just like to know, as human beings running around living your lives, what is it that concerns you? To be good parents? To be enlightened? To get laid? To make a name for yourselves? Or something else entirely? What is it?

And I ask this question with love. It is in no way accusatory, nor asked to make you think you are not doing enough in the ‘right’ areas.

I am really looking forward to your replies, as simple or complicated as they might be.

November Project: Question #26

Another grouping of questions, all with similar answers. I’ll put them together and see what comes up…

#1)

You’ve been writing here at takuin.com for almost five years. Do you think you’ll continue to write on these subjects for another five years?

#2)

What did you mean by this comment? “I think I have said all I want to say on this subject. It is almost time to walk out into the sun…” [On the previous post On Enlightenment and Awakening ~ TM] Did you mean you were finished with your answer for that particular post, or are you quitting the site? I didn’t quite understand it.

There have also been more than a few comments during this November Project amounting to this:

#3)

How can I get what you have attained?

I’ll answer all three quickly, then give a bit more detail.

For #1: “Do you think you’ll continue to write on these subjects for another five years?”

I definitely will not. In fact, I am thinking five years is quite enough.

For #2: “Did you mean you were finished with your answer for that particular post, or are you quitting the site?”

I am not quitting the site, no. But I am finished answering those kind of questions.

And for #3: “How can I get what you have attained?”

See #2.

I will write more on this in a later post after the November Project is finished. But I will say a few things now…

I don’t know that ‘answering questions‘ is what I have done on this site. I like to think of it more as exploration. After all, I began Takuin.com for the purposes of learning how to speak…umm…so to speak. It has been hit or miss, and some days have been better than others, but I think I have done what I set out to do.

When we get down to it, I think I am finished talking about freedom, as I would much rather express it. And we all know, deep down, talking about something is not the same as expression. ‘Talking about’ is prevarication, or at least postponement or procrastination in a way. Expression, while it may be dependent upon words or some other physical medium, is not dependent upon description. And THAT is what currently interests me.

I know this will come as a shock to a great many of you. And I am not leaving the site, and I will keep writing. But it will not be the same as before. It is just time to move on…

But for now, we still have a few more posts before the end of this year’s November Project, so let’s make them good ones!! I am still accepting questions you know. Chop chop! Let’s go!

November Project: Question #24

This question was asked by TJ during a recent Skype call

In my own ‘spiritual’ writing I’ve had some problems dealing with haters and troublemakers, and I can’t really handle it well. It totally gets under my skin and it makes me want to block comments or start over. What do you do to get over that kind of stuff, and why do you think they do it in the first place?

Thanks for the question, TJ.

I hope I’m not being forgetful, but I honestly don’t remember having much of a problem with that on the website. There certainly have been incidents, but it has not been terribly mean-spirited.

Those problems mainly arise because of the interpretation of the reader. The writer is certainly involved in there, too, so one can’t remove oneself completely. The writer always has some degree of responsibility.

There are certain subjects that invite intense reaction. If you talk about belief, reincarnation, life after death, god, or religion, and you say something contrary to popular belief, prepare yourself, haha. People will come out of the woodwork to tell you why you’re wrong. And sometimes you might actually be wrong, so you can’t just instantly dismiss anything they say.

As a writer of that kind of material, you should always be questioning yourself anyway. So if you take those comments as new lines of investigation, and you can invite the commenter to share in further exploration, it will only be better for everyone involved.

But sometimes, a troll is a troll is a troll. And our blogs allow us to block anyone we wish. Feel free to exercise that right.

Always remember to be open, but in the end it is your house. If you don’t want someone there, feel free to throw them out. Just don’t be an asshole about it.

As far as why they do what they do…they’re simply asserting their beliefs. They believe something different from what you say. For whatever reason, your words become a threat to who they believe themselves to be. After all, if you point out something within them that destroys a particular belief, you are in effect destroying the person.

When we look out into the world, it is easy to see how this plays out in terrible ways…

Thanks for your question, TJ.

November Project: Question #23

Today let’s do something different. Multiple questions, multiple answers. These particular questions I did not plan to answer. But I thought, What the hell? Why not?

This might not interest you, but I thought i’d ask anyway. First, what do you think of the possibility of apophis striking the earth in 2036? [She's referring to 99942 Apophis ~ TM] And second, if an impact seems imminent what do you think humanity will do?

Well, the chances of Apophis striking the earth are 1 in 250,000, so we’re probably safe. BUT, I don’t like those odds, haha. Usually when scientists give us the odds, the numbers are so high we can’t really understand them in any significant way. But 250,000 is a number very easy to get our heads around. I don’t like that I understand it as well as I do.

But even if Apophis strikes the earth, it is not an Extinction Event sized asteroid. It is a 10 – 20 million death sized asteroid, in all probability. But that is really dependent upon where it strikes, if it does.

What will humans do if the strike is imminent? Probably wait till the last moment, work frantically to try and stop it, then when millions die lament, “We did the best we could!” But that is just based on human behavior in general.

I’ve heard we’re coming up to our last reserves of oil for the entire planet. Do you think its too late to avoid the horrible things that will happen when the oil runs dry?

Depending on what source you trust, the earth’s supply of oil will be completely tapped within 30 to 70 years. I tend to think it will run dry sooner rather than later, for one main reason…

Humans will not stop screwing.

The more humans born, the more resources needed. And since the number of humans brought into the world will only increase, the amount of resources needed to support them will also increase.

The general theme for resources has been, when you run out, or do not have what you think you need, you take it from someone else.

For example – and purely hypothetical, of course – if a particular nation has certain resources the rest of the world depends on in certain amounts, and if they put a strangle hold on said resources, another more powerful nation(s) might invade and take the resources, through force, for their own use. Now normally, people all over the world might stand up against such oppression. But if they can be convinced the invasion is for the right reasons, they’ll keep their mouths shut.

But thankfully, we’re only speaking hypothetically.

As I mentioned in the Apophis question above, historically, humans tend to wait until the last minute to act. And at that point, the only method for change is violence. This is mostly due to the stupidity running through thought that says, “It is not so bad. I’m sure someone will take care of it.” And maybe that was fine years ago, but we can no longer afford to be lazy in this way.

Only you can take care of this problem. And by YOU, I mean EVERYONE.

If we keep to what we’ve always done, when we run out of resources we’ll see horrors that would frighten Hitler and Mengele. And they’ll be committed in the name of some noble pursuit.

Sitting in the Dark

Do you think you love more, or have more love, after your awakening?

What is love to you? Is it dependent upon the past? Dependent upon a history you have with a particular person? I bring it up because that is how a great many people see it. And many say that is love. But it is familiarity.

We might ask, is love dependent upon familiarity? Can you not love a person you are not familiar with? Or is it simply a matter of what you prefer?

Can there be more or less love? Or is it more or less familiarity?

Thanks for the questions, everyone!

November Project: Question #21

This question comes from Thom through email

I remember some time ago you mentioned being in an upcoming film. [In this post ~ TM] Whatever happened with that?

Thanks for the question, Thom.

I quit.

Now that I think of it, I never really explained what happened there. I’ll give a quick answer to this, as I don’t really need to get into the details of what transpired.

I became very uncomfortable with the whole thing. I got an idea of where the film was going, and I did not like it at all. It seemed like it was heading in a new-agey direction, which is fine for them, but that is not what I do.

Not only that, I couldn’t seem to give them the material they wanted. It was, “That was great Takuin, but could you talk about that again, and THIS time say something about blah blah blah?”

No. I can’t.

I really do like the idea of film or video or whatever, and I have nothing against other potential projects in the future. Just dont tell me what to do, haha.

November Project: Question #19

This question comes from ‘The Jake’ through email

I don’t want to ask about a ‘best place’ but do you think it’s more beneficial to sit in certain places more than others? Does any kind of environment provide a setting more conducive to sitting?

Thanks for the question, The Jake.

Again, I don’t want you to think of it as something you do, separate from your daily life. Sitting IS your daily life, whatever that might be. If you find yourself outside, at a supermarket, in bed, at a hospital, or wherever, there really is no difference.

You might say if you are at a hospital you would certainly feel differently than if you were at the supermarket, and I can understand what you mean. But it makes no difference. As a part of sitting, all of those feelings will become apparent to you, and one is not necessarily better than another.

However, if you feel uncomfortable at hospitals, and if you want to explore that feeling, maybe you should go to a hospital and face it directly. If you try to face it while sitting at home, you’ll have to imagine, attempting to dredge up the feeling while sitting on your comfy sofa. And that will never compare to the real thing, if you know what I mean.

(In that example, perhaps it is better to go to a specific place, but that is not really what you are asking.)

As far as an ideal environment, it doesn’t exist. Sitting is the complete movement of life, and not a cut and paste of what you prefer. After all, it’s the bit of dirt that makes a pearl, not the preference of the oyster.

November Project: Question #18

This question comes from an old friend through Skype

I understand the importance of finding out for myself. And I hope to find the truth of my functioning, but I don’t know how to do it. Where should I begin?

You begin with yourself. If you want to “Find the truth of my functioning,” as you’ve said, that is what you must do.

Everything you say, think, believe, and feel all points back to something. Find out what that something is.

I hope you can do this, I really do. But I am not sure you will. You say you understand the importance of finding out for yourself, and yet your first instinct is to ask someone else how it’s done…

Good luck, my friend.