Here is something from Shvetashvatara Upanishad IV.6: "Two birds of beautiful plumage, comrades Inseparable, live on the self same tree. One bird eats the fruit of pleasure and pain; The other looks on without eating."
It seems that awareness is necessary for thoughts to happen but thoughts are not necessary for awareness to happen. Awareness without thinking is still awareness of something, only there are no thoughts. Can't really think about it but I'm sure we have all experienced it. Rick Carlstrom --- In [email protected], "authfriend" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > --- In [email protected], "Patrick Gillam" > <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > > > off_world_beings wrote: > > > > > > > > > > Can anyone advise me on what to do when > > > > > I am arguing with myself? > > > > > > Patrick Gillam wrote: > > > > > > > > Eckhart Tolle ... was consumed > > > > by the thought that he couldn't stand himself (or a > > > > sentiment to that effect), which prompted a follow-up > > > > thought: if I cannot stand myself, it suggests there's a > > > > part of me that's observing that disagreeableness. > > > > > authfriend wrote: > > > > > > Wait. The silent aspect of his awareness > > > was observing his behavior, but was it also > > > making the judgment that his behavior was > > > disagreeable? > > > > Hmmm. I see what you mean, Judy. How's this: > > > > The Witness can discern whether thoughts are green > > or grey, pleasant or boorish. Discernment is different > > from judging. > > I've never been clear how the Witness can > discern, or discriminate, or differentiate. > That seems like a mental function to me. > I thought the Witness just *be's*. > > > The key point is, a witness exists. > > > > Not having the book here, I can't quote it. But here's a > > related thought, from Amazon's peek into _The Power of Now_: > > > > "The beginning of freedom is the realization that > > you are not the possessing entity -- the thinker. > > Knowing this enables you to observe the entity. > > The moment you start *watching the thinker* > > [emphasis his], a higher level of consciousness > > becomes activated." > > Mmmm...I'm still confused. > > > An aside: the non-judgmentalism of the witnesser may explain why > purportedly > > enlightened people can be assholes. They have no motivation to > change because their > > relative personalities, jerks though they may be, are fine to the > non-judgmental Self. > > Well, but their relative personalities might > engage in self-criticism just as anyone's does. > > > As I unpack this notion, I suppose it's wishful thinking to ascribe > Off World's internal > > arguments to the dynamic Tolle describes. What about it, Off World? > Is your mental dialog > > nascent awakening, or schizophrenia? > > Can it only be either? Most people have mental > dialogs like this at times. Seems to me Tolle > bounced off a very common experience to come to > his realization. What's unsual is what he got > out of the experience, not the experience itself, > no? > > > - Patrick Gillam > > > > P.S. You just have to believe Rumi had some eloquent poem about how > each of us is two > > people, the thinking mind and the silent witness who takes it all > in. Can anybody here cite > > such a verse? > > No, but here's a famous passage from St. Paul that > hints at the same dichotomy, albeit expressed as a > magnificently messy tangle: > > For that which I do, I allow not: for what I would, that do I not; > but what I hate, that do I. If then I do that which I would not, I > consent unto the law that it is good. Now then it is no more I that > do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. For I know that in me (that is, > in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; > but how to perform that which is good I find not. For the good that I > would, I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do. Now if I > do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that > dwelleth in me. > > I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with > me. For I delight in the law of God after the inward man: but I see > another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and > bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. > O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this > death? > > I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I > myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin. > > --Romans 7:15-24 (KJV) To subscribe, send a message to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Or go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ and click 'Join This Group!' Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
