UnbornTao

I’d appreciate book recommendations on the following principles: authenticity integrity responsibility courage unconditional happiness openness

Have you got any experience with Vipassana? What resources have you found most helpful in your journey? I'm currently reading a straightforward, grounded and inspiring book called The Art of Living. Loving it.

Secure. Got a bit surprised by that.

"Among the great things which are to be found among us, the Being of Nothingness is the greatest." -- Leonardo Da Vinci.

No matter how hard you try to fool yourself, you still don't know who you are. Make your knowledge mountain bigger. When it comes to enlightenment, that's irrelevant and even becomes an obstacle. In your experience, no matter how much you think you know, are you conscious of your nature? Be honest.

How real is this work for you?

A communication that comes from experience uses simple language. It is present, straightforward, vivid and vulnerable. And over all, honest. Real understanding comes from this practice. That's real communication -- handing over to another your experience as it is so that he can grasp it. But if it comes from intellect, it's mostly beliefs and opinions, and uses abstract, vague and complex language. It isn't real communication, but manipulation, an attempt to create an effect on another. In the context of practice, the latter is inappropriate. It may at times be useful, but it is hardly needed. When you have a genuine insight, it's more like "Eureka!" or laughing, not a model or faith-based system. You describe it as it is instead of trying to convince others about your opinions and beliefs.

What about a koan? Mu! There you go.

The person and the teacher are different. Make that distinction. If you hold teachers as an ideal, you overlook they're just humans. When the love guru gets angry, etc., that event clashes with your preconceptions. Buddha shat and begged, Jesus had an anger problem, your favorite guru does normal things, etc. They can also fuck up and do stupid things.

Those books are precisely his verbal teachings. The person and the teacher are different. You might be idealizing the teacher role. They are persons too. They can still do stupid things even though that image may interfere with your ideal of what teachers should be and behave like. Their actions don't detract them from knowing what they are.

That is not what I'm saying. You're confusing the person with his communications, which may have merit regardless. Read the books and ignore the author. I didn't even know his personal details, nor do I really care.

Most people readily opine on everything while knowing very little about any particular subject matter.

A presence so intense and brutal, I'm surprised as to how ruthless and loving it is. Been experiencing that lately. Ruthless as in brutal, effective, raw -- you're wholly there, focused, centered, calm. Loving as in including everything, awareness being wide open.

Your mind resists the work. It wants it to remain abstract, where it is safe. Experience, on the other hand, isn't necessarily safe. Practice keeps you grounded and real. Analogously, being hungry and thinking that a concept of a sandwich will satisfy you. That thought gets superimposed on your condition. You then might think yourself smart while ignoring the actual condition -- you don't know (you're still hungry). How sophisticated, nuanced, and complex the sandwich image is doesn't make a difference in your condition. You think that's intelligent but it is lying.

Fasting + running. Wild combination. I went walking with my dog and we ran a bit out in the sun, not very wise since it was 30°C or so. At least I should have brought water.

Holy shit this work is practical. Consider meditation: it kicks ass when it comes to being present. Being present increases clarity and effectiveness. Thinking about the work vs experiencing the work.

Pursue more than enlightenment. That pursuit can be complemented with cognitive development.

Some spiritual teachers come across as narcissistic. Except when that's actually the case, this is a misunderstanding stemming from the social domain. It isn't seen appropriate for an individual to be actually authentic, not a pose that's good for marketing. Enlightenment is never insanity.

People seem to judge a communication mostly by how it makes them feel instead of by whether it is factual and true. Observe when you do this. You may listen attentively to a manipulation that sounds good and validates your preconceptions whereas you feel bored when listening to a profound and genuine communication.

Self is an assumption, a thought, a conceptual construction. --- Elaboration needed. This could fill an entire book.

Melancholy and sadness are about the past. What thought is your sadness based on? Find out. In other words, what is your mind holding reality like? What are you focusing on? Try being absolutely grounded in the present. See if sadness can arise then.

Your perspective influences or determines how you perceive events.

We don't feel like we can be authentic. Socially, true authenticity isn't seen as appropriate. Throughout our upbringing, our wildness was tamed by others. Society is based on not being authentic. Social acceptance and groupthink are integral parts of it. Hence, our individuality has to be and remain captive in the others' eyes, except perhaps in intimate relationships, but even then it is the exception not the rule. As kids, we learned to play by the rules, pretending, suppressing, and hiding personal aspects in order to be socially validated.

Humor is spontaneous, unexpected, sudden. It has a surprise component.