Mason Riggle

@Hulia Whether or not 'reality' is 'imaginary' (just mind stuff) or 'actual stuff' isn't important. The important thing to be recognized, is that whichever it is, it's happening, and 'you' are not 'doing it'. 'You' and 'Doing it' are in quotes, because these are tricky bits of language. It's this language that creates the illusion of a 'doer' and 'doing'. When an organism has the thought, 'I am thinking', for example, it tends to imagine that there is some 'separate self' somewhere within itself that is 'causing' thoughts to occur, but this is false. When an organism has the thought, 'I am growing my hair', it is never tempted to imagine that there is some 'separate self' within itself 'causing it's hair to grow'. The organism is growing hair, thinking thoughts, etc, automatically. So.. whether 'you' are defined as 'Hulia, actual human organism' or 'God/Everything, imaginer of itself', there is nothing 'to do' other than 'be how you are', which you are always 'doing', without trying. Consider, for example, that language can be used to say, 'trees are growing leaves', and then recognize that there is no 'separate tree' somewhere inside of a tree that's 'doing the growing of leaves'.. the 'growing of leaves' IS the tree.. Trees ARE trees, without ever 'trying to be trees'. 'You', however you define 'yourself', are always just 'being you' without trying. How hard are you trying to 'be you' right now? The answer is, 'not hard at all'.. you are just 'being you', effortlessly. You don't have to 'try to grow your hair'.. or 'try to beat your heart'.. or 'try to think your thoughts'.. Hair is growing, the heart is beating, thoughts are occurring, and there's no 'you' that's 'doing it'. Consider what it would be like, to be a tree and suddenly become aware that you were a tree.. 'oh.. I'm a tree.. I'm growing leaves, and branches, and roots, and a trunk.'. What could the tree do with this realization? It would still be a tree, doing what a tree does.. it would just be aware that that's what it is. "I'm a tree, being a tree." The tree would be confusing itself, if it imagined that this 'being aware of being itself' allowed it to be other than how it is being. It's all happening, whatever it is, and no one is doing it.

Meh, language is a powerful tool, and Leo uses it masterfully. He doesn't swear excessively. As kids, my brother once told me, 'notice how other adults swear all the time, but not our mom.. when she swears, that's how you know she's mad. If she swore all the time, the words would lose their power.'

Sometimes. When the ego recognizes it's own lack of foundation, it reverts to the Godhead. Both are God being what it is. Like lucid dreaming, there is awareness that it's a dream, while still being in the dream.. It's only when fully awake, that the dream disappears completely. The funny thing about making distinctions, is that all distinctions are dual in nature, and these dualities can be transcended. It can be realized that even as limited human ego, that's what God IS, when it's that.

@LastThursday "You find out that the universe is a system that creeps up on itself and says 'Boo' and then laughs at itself for jumping." -Alan Watts ????

The separation between 'self' and 'that which is not self' is imaginary.. where are 'you'? Inside your organism somewhere? Are you your organism? All of it? If you remove your hand, don't 'you' remain?.. so 'you' are not your hand. What part of your organism is 'you'? Your brain? What part of your brain? All of it? Well.. there is no boundary to say.. 'I' am just as much 'my body' and 'my hand' as I am 'my shoe', or the sounds I'm hearing, or the things I'm seeing. "I have no other self, than the totality of that which I am aware." - Alan Watts.

@LastThursday Typically, the 'ego' is this notion of some 'separate self' that exists somewhere.. The ego doesn't really 'disappear', because it was never there... 'notions of there being an ego' occur sometimes.. and sometimes not.

@LastThursday who are you asking? Are you the organism "LastThursday" asking the organism "Mason Riggle"? Or you are 'Consciousness', thinking there are organisms, so it can ask itself? Does it matter which it is?

Recognizing that the 'ego' is just thought, doesn't stop an organism from behaving like that organism.. it just realized there isn't some 'other separate self' somewhere within itself, 'doing' what it does.

"If you really understand Zen. You can use any book. You could use the Bible. You could use Alice in Wonderland. You could use the dictionary, because... the sound of the rain needs no translation." - Alan Watts

@LastThursday My wife teaches lessons that I don't know. I teach lessons my wife doesn't know. Hopefully our children will know more than either of us.

@Mason Riggle it's like 'wanting/not wanting'.. they are the same thing.. When I quench my thirst.. did I 'want to be not thirsty' or did I 'not want to be thirsty'? Just two ways of saying the same thing. Do I want to go outside? Or is it that I don't want to be inside? Same thing. Can you ever do what you don't want to do? Only if you want to.

Why doesn't lightning follow other paths? Are there other paths the lightning 'could follow'? There is just one path.. the path of least resistance. Call that path what you will.. 'least resistance' is relative to 'more resistance'. We could use the word 'easiest'.. lightning takes the 'easiest' path.. Don't get caught up in the words 'love' and 'hate'.

Recognize that love/hate is a duality, like up/down.. They only have meaning in relation to each other.. Up is really just 'not down'. What is happening is never 'what is not happening'. The Universe does what it does, because it Loves to do it. If you are inclined to take the the perspective that you are 'God' or 'The Universe' or 'Consciousness' and you are 'doing all of this', you must Love to do it, otherwise you'd be doing something else.

@Roy yep. No 'doer'.. no 'doing'.. just 'being'. It's so simple.

@CBDinfused I like the analogy of 'lightning'... what is 'the path' of lightning? Well, it's 'the path of least resistance'. It doesn't make sense to say, 'why doesn't it take the path of most resistance?' "Love" is the 'path of least resistance'.. it's 'what's always happening'. It's the only thing that 'can be happening'. Reality is how it is, because that's how it loves to be... and you're all of that. It seems that sometimes reality Loves to pretend it's not itself.. that it's separate from itself.. that it's you.

"It's all happening, and no one is doing it" - Me

Pulling what strings? Doing what? What am 'i' doing that "I" am not doing? I don't see a difference. Isn't 'the puppeteer' pulling it's own strings? Who else is? This notion of a 'doer' that 'does things' (a puppeteer pulling strings) doesn't seem accurate. When I pay attention to experience, I recognize that it's all 'happening' without anyone 'doing it'.. and even this 'paying attention' and 'recognizing' are just more 'what is happening'.

@SoonHei

There are microscopic variations, too small for the eye to see. When you say 'same', what you mean is 'similar' (alike in almost every way).

identity (n.) c. 1600, "sameness, oneness, state of being the same," from French identité (14c.), from Medieval Latin identitatem (nominative identitas) "sameness," ultimately from Latin idem (neuter) "the same" (see idem). Are the 2 iphones the "same" phone?

There exists a 'state of the Universe' where the Universe does not exist?

When you stop caring what your college mates think of you, you will have overcome your inferiority complex. "Inferior" is just a concept that has meaning when you give it meaning. Does a hamburger taste 'better' than Pizza? It's totally subjective.. it only does if YOU think it does.

Every time I've fallen in love, it was never something either of us pursued.. If I 'went after' a girl, things never went past a first or second date. Stop thinking about it so much, and start feeling about it. When it's right, it's right, and it's unmistakable. You won't have to wonder 'is she in to me? should I pursue this?'.