Mr Blak

I love this topic! I use lines as pointers, and reminders of what is important, what is to be the focus of my experience, I have looked through my notes, here are some lines that I use: Be Still, Know That I AM - Eckhart Tolle. As Within, So Without. To embrace life is to embrace death, learn how to die. It is happening, it is what life does, that is all. Connect to the aliveness of this moment, to the flow. When you are working properly, you don't feel it. - Alan Watts Allow everything to be as it is, from here true and wise decisions can be made. - Adyashanti Your path will be revealed to you through your experience, your intuition. I don't mind. - Mooji Live like you don't exist. - Mooji Die to the known. - Krishnamurti Purpose can reside, exist, in the action itself. The truth of who you are does not need an answer. What happens after that, is what happens after that. Feelings are just visitors. - Mooji The mind shines the light of one candle, being and awareness, the light of ten thousand suns. What you do is what happens to you, what happens to you is what you do. - Alan Watts You cannot have one without the 'other'. Always be, always becoming. We question not for an answer, but to experience whatever is true. Perhaps it is not for your to decide, it is not for you to know. Experience is truth, the rest is belief. Question not, how can I be more comfortable, but how can I perceive more clearly. - Adyashanti Feel the fabric and texture of life, let it inspire you. Love is to celebrate the Grace in another, to celebrate the Grace of this. To think according to appearance is easy, to think according to truth is difficult. - Wallace Wattles Most of our suffering is generated by trying to escape it, the harder you try to get out, the more trapped you are. One who looks outside dreams, one who looks inside awakes. - Buddha Abandon yourself, to yourself, to what is. Your destiny will unfold precisely in accordance to the truth of who you are, it can not be otherwise. Not my will, but the heart's will be done. - Adyashanti Your experience of life is determined how you are within yourself. - Sadguru Develop an openness to possibility, ask for a space of curiosity. A man needs a little madness, or else ... he never dares cut the rope and be free. - Zorba Work in terms of essence, instead of details. Learn the art of dying. - Bruce Lee There are no separate events. - Adyashanti Take no thought for the morrow. Not what should be, but what is. - Alan Watts When you get out of the driver's seat, Life can drive itself, for itself. - Adyashanti Ego is the resistance to life. - Adyashanti There is you, and whatever is happening ... it isn't good, bad, right or wrong, it is simply what is happening. Not that which the eye can see, but that whereby the eye can see ... - The Kena Upanishad Only through the heart can you touch the sky. We are moved by the completeness and totality of life itself. - Adyashanti Enlightenment is the absolute cooperation with the inevitable. - Anthony de Mello Whatever is happening, it's happening right now. Say yes to it. -- and my favorite mantra There but through the Grace of God go 'I'

I have had this issue recently, I think a good question to ask initially is what is the cause of the indecision ... perhaps this could give you insight into how to proceed. Usually the cause will be related to some unwanted emotion ... for myself I was afraid that I would make the wrong decision, and the bad decision could lead to a 'waste of time' or some kind of regression. In other words, I would attach some kind of meaning to a particular outcome, usually negative. If you really look into this, this is a projection of your mind, (the ego smog as Bohm states). You will assess a particular outcome based on predetermined set of expectations. For example, I will choose to go to Bahamas instead of Cuba ... because I believe that I will have a better, more pleasurable experience. Outcome: the weather was crap, I got robbed, I fought the whole time with my girlfriend ... i.e. it did not live up to my expectations. Now I will compare an actual experience to an imagined one that I could of had ... result : I made a wrong decision. This can now result in not trusting your decisions, being hesitant, indecisive etc. (There is a book called Missing Out by Adam Philips that discusses this topic. ) So what can we do ... 1. Let go of your expectations, attachments or meaning ... realize that there are no right or wrong decisions, have the attitude; I will immerse myself in the experience in the moment, I will deal with what is in front of me 2. Begin the habit of speed of implementation as Siim mentions, make the decision quickly based on intuition and not logic, and don't ever look back, because you will never know what could have been. You can develop your intuition, there are techniques that you can use as pointers (yes / no). I now tell myself to 'apply awareness' to a particular situation, I have fully realized through experience that my 'awareness' knows more than I could ever imagine, immeasurable more that what I can realize in my mind. Your mind is limited, awareness is not, let the answers come to you. 3. We are just along for a ride ... realize that as much as we would like to believe, our free will is suspect, and we really can't control anything anyways. This will take the pressure off, and you can enjoy your experience, what ever will be could have never not been Points to remember: there are no right or wrong decisions, you will project meaning to the experiences you will have greater awareness to the things you don't experience, to the things you do utilize your intuition, apply awareness to the situation we don't really control anything, time to enjoy the ride! Hope this helps! Aside: This is a very expansive topic if you want to delve deeper. This touches upon the concept of free will, intuition, expectations, mindfulness, authentic desire, and fate. I wrestled with these topics, especially fate, for months ... looking for insights. Here is a quote that will surfaced recently not sure who said it ... but you will get the point. What really is, can never not be, What is not, can never be

This is an interesting topic, and there are many ways to look at this, here are some insights that might be of value. What is pain? I recently read a book called The Pain Chronicles, it is a good place to start. Thernstom writes, "Is pain a sensation, emotion or idea? If pain is a sensation, then why is it so upsetting? If is an emotion, then why does it feel like it necessarily entails a physicality not entailed by any other unpleasant emotion? Pain is now understood to be neither sensation nor emotional alone, but rather an experience that draws upon both; the illusive intersection of three overlapping circles - cognition, sensation and emotion. When any of these elements is missing, there is no pain. There is no such thing as being in pain without knowing you are. There is no such thing as being in pain without feeling the sensation of pain, And there is no such thing as pain that does not cause a salient emotional reaction." "Pain is whatever the experiencing person says it is, existing whenever the person says it does", from Margo McCaffery. We can take a few insights from this statement, 'there is no such thing as being in pain without knowing you are.' Who is the you that is in pain? If you understood there was no you, how would you interpret the experience? It is the meaning we associate to pain that gives it life. As Leo mentioned, if your arm is in pain, it is the association, the attachment, or identification that is is your arm that creates an emotional response. Another key insight comes from Alan Watts on awareness, he asks, "Can you find, in addition to the experience, and experiencer? To be aware is, is to be aware of thoughts, feelings, sensations, and all other forms of experience. Never are you aware of anything that is not experience, not a thought or feeling, but instead an experiencer, a thinker, or feeler. If this is so, what makes us think any such thing exists? There is simply experience." We can take from this, it that you are not separate from experience, you are your pain, fear, anxiety etc. ... and the separation is the resistance. 'I feel fine, means that a fine feeling is present.' To believe, or identify with a separate 'experiencer' experiencing the pain, is what causes suffering. Fear is not something that is happening to you, the fear is you. Essentially, you are your awareness, all of it, even the images and ideas that you have of your identity, your emotions, your concepts. your experiences. The Self is realized when you release from all of the images, ideas, all notions of separation. Krishnamurti, one of my favorite thinkers, has an extended dialogue on thought, and of the observer and the observed, which is quite insightful. He states,"Awareness (of all this), has revealed that there is a central image, put together by all other images, and this central image, the observer, is the censor, the experiencer, the evaluator, the judge who wants to conquer or subjugate all other images or destroy them altogether. The other images are the result of judgments, opinions and conclusions of the observer, and the observer is the result of all other images - therefore the observer is the observed." It is this central image, that we believe 'feels' pain, wants to run away from it, and declares 'I don't want this', which is resistance. Krishnamurti also puts forth the idea that all pleasure or pain is given continuity by thought, if thought does't give continuity to feeling, feeling dies very quickly. For example, we can experience the magnificence of nature, and when fully present or attentive, there is no thought. It is only when we come out of presence and state 'I like this, and I want it again', we turn the experience into pleasure, something to be desired. When we meet an experience with and idea, or a memory, it creates conflict, this is why fear is created by thought. There are also some insights put forth but Daniel Kahneman on pain, the difference between the experiencing self, and the remembering self, I suggest watching his TEDx talk, it is quite good. I think we are discussing the ideas of the 'remembering self', the evaluator, the censor, the thing that assesses, and assigns meaning and context. Pain is experience, when we meet it with our full attention, our full being, i.e. total presence, without any ideas or symbols, it ceases to have meaning, it just is. I hope this gave you a few ideas!

Recently I came across the definition of the term, Samskara, which is defined as: Every action, intent or preparation by an individual leaves a sanskara (impression, impact, imprint) in the deeper structure of his or her mind. These impressions then await volitional fruition in that individual's future, in the form of hidden expectations, circumstances or unconscious sense of self-worth. When I think of karma, I get a sense that our actions leave a 'cosmic' impression, in the 'ether' of the universe, which is to say ourselves. Our actions augment the universal patterns of energy that determine all of causation, analogous to what David Hawkins identified as attractor patterns. They leave imprints on consciousness itself, that are irreversible. What goes around, comes around. I always thought this was true from a young age, and again there is a term Saṃsāra, which is the repeating cycle of birth, life and death (reincarnation) as well as one's actions and consequences in the past. Karma is a law of consciousness, so to speak, it is to say that nothing is ever forgotten or dismissed, and as a result, there isn't one grain of sand that is out of place, as Alan Watts would say.

I don't believe robot would have addictions ... addictions are physiological, or psychological behavioral conditions that are usually beyond our level of consciousness. Our body will usually usurp our mind to get what it needs, to satiate a desire. The ego will just be along for the ride, the behavior is not guided by the ego.

The realization is that the experience of acceptance is not volitional, you had no 'choice' about accepting that we do not have free will, as you had no 'choice' about what to eat for breakfast. Your complete being, that is your memories, beliefs, experiences, weighed in on the decision. Your ego, will lay claim to the choice, but again the realization that the ego is just and idea, and illusion, a thought like any other, was also out of your hands! A point to realize is that just about all of your experience had nothing to do with 'you'. Did you choose your beliefs? Your circumstances? Who is to choose? Your 'choice' about where to live, is analogous to your 'choice' of your own genetics. This may be hard to believe, but even when understood intellectually, it is liberating. ... the 'machine' has no choice, as a dancer has no choice about how she dances

The first thing I would recommend is to not overthink it! I tend to agree with appleaurorae, is to let them fade out. Each time a thought arises ... try to create some distance, say this is a thought, not my thought. Be aware of any tendency to give any life, or identification to your thoughts ... that is, give them no attention. One of the most powerful things you can do to anything ... an idea, a person, a thought, an emotion, is to give it your attention. In the same light, feeling is given continuity by thought, as thought is given continuity to feeling, without the memory of thought to say, I want this (pleasure), or I don't want this (pain), the feeling will dissolve. I have found with my mediation, that after a while, almost 30-40 minutes, my minds gives up, the chatter stops. This is why I tend to meditate for at least an hour. Sometimes it does not happen, but when it does, it is well received, just stillness. Additionally, this practice does not have to be limited to mediation. Anytime you find yourself caught up in a story line, just stop, and move your attention to the present moment. Remind yourself of the reality of thought (as Leo mentioned), it is just images and sound, it is the identity that gives in meaning.

This is an interesting question ... I liked Henri's response. There is a thought experiment from the course, Philosophy of Mind, in which a similar question was posed, What would be the difference between a fully functional human like entity, that acted identically to a human, but with no subjective experience, what would be the difference? Upon reflection, you would find out that interacting with this entity would not be any different, to you, then anyone else. Here, I believe, we have a clue ... it is our subjective experience, or our perception of subjectivity. There seems to be a silent witness to all perception and subjectivity, the awareness itself. A robot does not have this silent witness, a robot can take in, receive, or detect sensory information, but can it say it is aware of such sensation? It likely could detect the color red, point it out ... but would it have the subjective experience of color? Of sound? It could even be programmed with an 'emotional' reaction to certain sensory data ... but what is it to feel the emotion? Think of the experiences that you could not possibly describe to anyone else ... it is something that only you could perceive. Ask if a robot would have the same 'experience.' See what you find out ...