Edg, excellent stuff. Didn't catch it the first time around but enjoyed every minute of it this morning. Thanks.
Marek ** --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Duveyoung <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > Okay, I'm jumping into this dialog by re-posting the below which I > posted months ago but no one responded to it. I think it is a good > attempt to set forth the nature of identification and can give one > clarity about what "attachment" is and what it means when > identification is withdrawn from the individual ego. > > Edg > > This "identification" thingy's the most subtle concept I have ever had > to integrate with my world view. Oh, it's an eel in a bucket of slime > when I try to grasp it. Don't think that if you can understand my > words here that that is all you'll need to make "identification" your > conceptual lapdog. The intellect can only grasp something so much and > no more. Then the heart tries with its delicate hands, and it too > will fail to take a snapshot of "identification." Only the Self is > subtle enough to contain this dynamic, wield it with the artistry of > an angel alighting on a photon. > > Everyone is identifying constantly, but it has taken me decades to > understand this, see this, feel this truth. > > Here, let's at least let your intellect play with this. I'll develop > a scenario, and hopefully, you'll see -- with your imagination -- THE > IDENTIFICATIONAL PROCESS happening in your mind as clearly and in > about the same amount of time that it would take a fresh cracked egg > to turn cloudy spit-sizzling in a hot pan. > > So get set, watch for your understanding to shift/gel here. It will > happen fast. At some point, you'll see that, "Yeah, I could do that, > and, yeah, I do do that sort of thing with my mind all the time." > Watch for that to happen here as you put yourself into my imagined > story-line. > > The story: > > Suppose you and a pal are watching a window pane with rain drops > hitting it and coursing downwards. You could pick one of the drops, > and your pal could pick another, and you could make a friendly few > bucks bet that your drop will reach the bottom of the window first. > > The race begins. > > Excitement mounts. > > "Will my drop get hit by another one coming down from above and be > able to get to the bottom faster?" you ask yourself. See? You've > decided -- nay, make that YOU'VE DECIDED that "you're that drop," and > now, its karma has become yours, and you are concerned, attentive, > focused on it. > > Will your drop be lucky? > > See? That's your desire set for that small drop mounting up, getting > expanded by your attending the drop. Does it veer to the right where > there's other drops to join, or does it turn left where hardly > anything is "south" of it except still-dry pane? > > See? Your heart is involved. You want YOUR drop to win the race, be > triumphant, obtain gravitational atonement, whatever. At some point, > it is no longer "the drop I'm betting on," and it is no longer "my > drop; instead, YOU BECOME IT. You say to your pal, "I'm winning" > when that drop surges ahead of the other. Your pal, of course, > WITHOUT HAVING TO HAVE A SINGLE TRANSLATE-THE-DROP-METAPHOR THOUGHT, > knows what you're saying. To him, you ARE that drop also. > > Both of you could spend a very long incarnation standing there as the > few seconds pass and reveal which of you will finally ALLOW -- give > yourself permission to have the emotion of success be authorized to > swell within. During that time, well, time itself lengthens like time > in a dream does and one lives for ten years in a dream of three > minutes. During the raindrop race, you're this tiny entity with a > desire that needs fulfilling, with a life-ahead-of-itself, with, yes, > a PERSONALITY. > > "I took that right turn and glommed into that big drop there, and > zoom, down I dropped another two inches, while my pal's drop hung up > in a dry area and needs to be hit by another rain drop to make any > faster progress downwards, and oh, wow, I just noticed that there's > this little teeny thread or dust mote in my path, and when I hit it, > it might slant me sideways such that I'll then drop down to that very > large "pool" below that's just waiting for me to exploit it. HUZZAH > HUZZAH HUZZAH! I'M GOING TO WIN!" > > Like that. Like that. > > Like that we turn our backs on ourSELF and identify with things instead. > > We become things, instead of the consciousness, the silence of amness, > that contains them. Our minds identify with each and every thought > that passes through. "Oh, I'm that thought." "Oh, now I'm that > thought." "Oh, now I'm that next thought." Click, click, click, we > incarnate on each drop of thinking traveling down the pane-paths > inside our minds. > > Attending each thought as it arises is a CHOICE. This action, this > choosing to be addicted to the thought stream, seems to say, "If I'm > that thought, well, then I must want to have another like it, so that > I can fulfill that thought's goals, so that it will "win," so that > other thoughts will come also. I must keep thinking that thought and > others like it -- just as I wanted my drop to continue to exist and > fulfill itself." > > Like that. Like that, lIfe is a pane. > > And, nothing, NO THING, that we can "place a bet on," will ever be so > complex, so beautiful, so meaningful, so deep, so bountiful a > metaphor, that it will capture our attention FOREVER. There's the > rub. That's the snag. Oooo, the fine print is seen. The Devil's > details get ready to chomp ass when we discover that the human mind is > a very tiny place. > > That's why there's 900 cable television shows -- turns out that that > number is very close to infinity in that our brains can be overwhelmed > with choices. But, nope. Click. Click. Click. Nope, nope, nope. > We're seek spontaneous resonance with the next channel. We hope for > immersion, identification, something to "ENTER." We're salivating for > something exciting, tar-babyish, sticky-grab-ya, me-me-me; something > guaranteed to accept one's imagination's projections upon it, enriched > with fecundity, something able to generate the space within which one > can imagine one's self enmeshed. > > Incarnation: it's what's for breakfast. > > We channel surf to see if we can score a "half hour lifetime," or hey, > maybe even find a "two hour special" lifetime. Whatever. For most of > us, we just want a place where we can "hole up" and snuggle with a > vision of ourselves -- safely on a screen, having adventures we'd > never dare to try in "real" life. > > We seek drops to bet on. Drops to be. Channels to click on. Portals > to peer though. > > Talk about reincarnation! Talk about taking on a hunk of karma. Our > hearts are so vast that it is nothing to us to invest ourselves even > in the tiniest of things -- we've got sentience to spare. Remember, > as a child, how you followed an ant walking on the ground? Can you > remember that small stones became huge cliff faces to climb, that > trickles became rivers to ford, that the world was treacherously > filled with travails and possible assassins? Do you remember being > godlike then, safe inside your brain instead of an ant's? > > See? We can put our selves into anything. We can invest in any > THING. Stare at a dot on the wall for ten years -- oh, it'll come > alive, let me tell ya. It'll become the Elvis of all dots. It'll > twang its hips and sneer and thank ya, thank ya, verah much. Take a > mantra for a few decades in a cave, and it'll fractal on ya -- become > infinite without, you know, really being infinite. > > We've all got GOD BRAINS. We can be anything. We can identify with > anything. Nothing is too challenging for us to resonate with. I can > read the biographies of Ghandi and then Hitler and then the Unibomber > and then Osama's and then Christ's and then -- see?.... no end to it. > I can walk a mile in anyone's shoes, and usually I can be found > betting a few bucks on it. I'll say, "Oh, that Unibomber sure took > risks, and that Hitler smote the earth's masses with a cultural > sledgehammer, eh?, and that Christ sure presented a sacred set of > truths that would be true in every culture, on every world, in any > incarnation." Like that. Like that. Like that we can walk any walk, > talk any talk, be things, be objects of consciousness, feel the flow > of concepts like blood shooting through arteries, enliven every > Lazarus we encounter with our life-force, our projected awareness. > > Go see that movie, "Cars." You're there, right? You're delighting that > all the human concepts are so easily seen in that "world." You can > feel all your favorite thoughts as they are triggered by this movie's > metaphors -- anthropologically animated cars. > > Or, save yourself eight bucks, and heck with a movie. And, why be > bothered with the ponderousity of having to click a remote and change > a channel. What a chore! > > Instead, better than Spielberg, better than Lucas, better than > Hitchcock, when you dream each night you muster up whole universes. > Godlike you populate your dreams with every manner of beings with > every sort of intent. In your worlds, you create it all: death, > love, fear, drama, and great costuming, great lighting, great plots, > great dialogue, and utterly utterly believable acting. > > Or, save yourself the trouble of eyes closed dreaming. Geeze, gotta > wash my face, brush my teeth before I can get in bed. MORE WORK! > > Howzbout: Right here. Right now. You're ENTERING, these words you > read. Each word a raindrop, each sentence the path it takes, you > identifying with each step. > > You're pumping these letters with meaning I know not of. > You're filling up this post's universe with your projection of self > into it. You're CREATING RIGHT NOW. You're identifying right now. > You're the Master of Masters right now. Michelangelo cannot best you. > Da Vinci is no better. We're all made from divine stuff. We fling > out universes with an ease that is as telling as the nakedness of the > emperor. > > We're so obviously pretending at the speed of light. > > Bang I'm that. > > Wham, now I'm that. > > Boffo, I'm so that. > > Click. > > Click. > > One drop after the next gets us to take a ride with it. > > And every drop offers a roller-coaster thrill. > > Ask a high energy physicist how long a ride he/she takes when a > particle lives for an attosecond. Oh, it's a lifetime for sure. > > And all the while, there's silence attending everything like a mother > with a newborn in her arms. Silence that is the Self. Silence that > cannot be ridden, attached to. Yet, silence that will imbue the > smallest speck with an honorable intent. > > Next time you see a drop. > > Next time you bet on being something for a few seconds or years. > > Next time you hang your hat. > > Next time you stop channel surfing. > > Why not do a non-doing? > > Why not, for once, just once, you know, just ONCE, why not for GAWD's > sake for one measly lousy once, why not JUST ONCE skip being what you > see before you, skip identifying with its qualities, skip judging its > futures, skip slipping inside its skin, skip wondering how you'd feel > winning the Tour De France, skip being on the cross with Christ and > swooning as you see so clearly the uncounted futures of every > scintillation of sentience, skip being Bruce Willis crunching glass > shards with bare feet, skip being a lover, skip being all the things > you've been so many gazillion times before. > > Let it rest. Put down that burden. > > Close the eyes. > > Close the mind. > > Just be. Don't bother being anything. Just be. > > Ahhh, how sweet that repose. > > That's the peace that passeth all understanding. > > You can be Indiana Jones tomorrow, right? > > No rush to conquer worlds. > > No rush to author a raindrop. > > That's the silence of the fully drawn bow. > > That's God's mind upon ya. > > And all ya gotta do is this: pause, and it's there. > > Gotta love it, eh? > > Edg > > --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "lurkernomore20002000" > <steve.sundur@> wrote: > > > > Judy wrote: > > I think the notion of "free will" is an artifact > > of duality. > > > > > Bronte writes: > > >Wow, Judy. This statement of yours demonstrates that these aren't > > just semantic distinctions between us. > > > > Hi Bronte, > > > > This statement aside, I think that what Judy may be saying, is that > > on the whole, do you think anyone is really advocating dissolution > > on their individuality. I mean if you asked these people, "is your > > goal to just dissolve into the ocean of bliss", or "do you still > > want to go skiing, have a nice pastami sandwitch, watch the Cubs > > make it to the World Series", I think most of them would say yes. > > (well, maybe not about the pastami sandwitch-missing one of life's > > great pleasures IMO) > > > > lurk > > > > > >
