--- In [email protected], Michael Dean Goodman <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: <snip> > > Judy continues: > > I wish he were around. > > Judy, I AM around - on this list and many others.
I kinda figured you might be. <whistling> <snip> > What I want to do is two things: > > 1. To shift your awareness itself, to direct your awareness back > upon its Self, so that the simple, direct "experience" (if it > can be called an experience) is an "aha", an awakening! > > 2. To present an understanding that is an alternative to the > ignorant "understanding" that we've all been immersed in > through our culture/family/school/religion/etc. - to present > an understanding that compliments/supports that "aha" > experience. > > > but I'd really like to ask him about being overshadowed by the > > relative, which is my sole basis for saying I'm not Self- realized. > > Judy, have I ever failed to come out to answer your questions? ;) Not the ones you've seen! > > If my experience is that I'm overshadowed, how would Michael > > interpret that in terms of what he says in this piece? > > What I need here is a more detailed understanding of what you mean > by "being overshadowed by the relative": OK, if I could "interrupt" for a second: What I'm trying to get at is that there are things that lead one to think one hasn't achieved Self-realization that don't involve flashy experiences or complicated concepts or improved behavior or "noticing" witnessing or not wanting to let go of one's "seeker" identity or witnessing sleep or clearer transcending or any of that stuff you listed. It's not a matter of thinking one knows what enlightenment will be like, but rather of knowing what it *isn't* going to be like--i.e., it isn't going to be like ignorance. Someone who is still in ignorance knows what ignorance is like. So as long as one is still having that experience--i.e., of ignorance--one isn't enlightened. My criterion for ignorance is being overshadowed by the relative. I *don't* know what being identified with the Self is like, so I don't make up a lot of concepts about it; except that it is *not* being overshadowed by the relative. You didn't use the term "overshadowed" in your post, which is why I brought it up. Jim quite correctly, I think, pointed out that you did mention it in other terms; you talked about strain in action, feeling that you have a choice of action and that you are responsible for implementing that choice, that you are the author of your actions. In enlightenment, you said, that strain is gone, and it's "a dramatic shift." I'm pretty sure I'll recognize it when the strain goes away. For now, it's still here (although less than it once was). With that as preamble: > a. What overshadows you? Everything, specific things...? Ultimately, everything. It's most apparent when I have to do something I don't want to do or not do something I do want to do. But there's also a sticky feeling about doing what I want to do or not doing what I don't want to do, in that I know there would be strain if I couldn't or had to. > b. Who/what gets overshadowed? That question makes no sense to me whatsoever. It's like asking me the square root of chocolate. > c. How do you know you are overshadowed? What are the "symptoms"? Discomfort, physical and/or mental and/or emotional; a feeling of resistance, of strain. > d. Who notices that you are sometimes overshadowed and sometimes > not? Well, as noted, I would say I'm *always* overshadowed, except for occasional brief experiences of witnessing. Which is how I know what being overshadowed is, because during those experiences, it's gone. Actually I had a sense of it before I ever started TM or had any witnessing--just a general sense of being existentially oppressed. St. Paul has a wonderfully convoluted passage about this, about not being able to do what he knows he should do; I wonder if you're familiar with it? If not I'll try to find it. As to "who notices," though, again that makes no sense to me. The same "who" notices to whom this formulation doesn't make any sense! Self-inquiry a la Ramana Maharshi is not my cup of tea. ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> AIDS in India: A "lurking bomb." Click and help stop AIDS now. http://us.click.yahoo.com/VpTY2A/lzNLAA/yQLSAA/JjtolB/TM --------------------------------------------------------------------~-> 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/
