Search the Community

The thing with humans is, most of the time it depends on the energy that you have with it as to how they will respond. If there's any validation seeking (which be aware, with family members should actually be quite common), there is a higher chance they will blow it off. Show in behavior would be the best by far (let them ask why you are so peaceful). Second, maybe question them if they think they are their thoughts and body and why? And casually present a few good arguments as to why that's maybe not so: the body changes, thoughts change, awareness seems impersonal and so universal and just see what that does

Day 5: I just had two profoundly different experiences with the University I used to attend. The first experience was with a program called career connect. Woke up early no traffic heading to the Valley and finding parking easily then being driven to the place we were going to have the orientation. My favorite part of the whole thing wasn't exactly the orientation but, it was the ride there. Being in the shuttle going down the freeway and while others were talking to people I mostly sat there silent staring out the window and looking up at the clouds. It reminded me of simpler times when my parents would drive me places and I'd sit in the car just not saying anything and just staring out the window. Those were some of the fondest memories I'd had of my youth. The best of the best was looking out a planes window and just admiring a birds eye view. So as I sat there we arrived at our destination got to say hi to all the people working there and got to know the inner workings of the cruise line they worked for. I also had a really friendly chat with a person who worked there and we kind of got to know each other. I had no problem speaking and socializing. I shared with him stories about my travels and it related to the industry to since it was cruise ships and that's about hospitality. Then on the shuttle ride back I felt the same way just looking out the window and enjoying that view. Today on the other hand the experience wasn't exactly that great. I went to an alumni reunion and actually the first person I talked to was a really nice lady who I had a class with and I enjoyed that class because I got to express myself. The problem was though is that I dislike these socially awkward situations. That's how the whole thing felt like though one big socially awkward situation. In situations like that I kind of retreat into my own thoughts especially when there are people there that I hardly know. It had some good moments but, not exactly that many. I had expectations for the event but, all and all I came out of it disappointed. It was a story of other people although I wanted people to know my story and my story was that I didn't exactly have a kinship with academia or my University to begin with. So many people feel as though they have some kind of relationship with the place they graduated from. As for me I just felt kind of a sense of nothingness. I wasn't raised in the typical growing up way I just wanted to get out of anything that had to do with school ASAP and find some work. Unfortunately for me my upbringing didn't make me the most social person or the most successful because of how turbulent it was. This experience really fell flat because I figured I went through this horrendous traffic to get there, paid for the parking, and looked forward to it. At last when I finally got there just to feel socially awkward and weird in front of people who I kind of barely knew. I think to myself sometimes that I was so responsible as a young person. I may have not had the best social skills, I didn't exactly make that many friend, and I may have not gone the extra mile that many times in my life ON THE OTHER HAND I was responsible. I did what I was told when I was younger. I finished my assignments, I came early and on time to classes, I got my work finished on time and sometimes even ahead of schedule. I was also well behaved and didn't start any trouble. That's why I have such a personal struggle and a very deep vomit inducing disgust with the adult world or as some people like to call it the "real" world. This world consists of things called jobs and this is when it gets real ugly. Most of these "jobs" that you will be accepted in when you're old enough to have one will be things that don't feed your passion and make you feel like an automaton. The other thing is nothing is more subjective than "getting a job" you're just a piece of paper either an "application" a "resume" or a "resume with a cover letter". I think it's so impersonal and dehumanizing. No where on those papers does it show your personality, the struggles you went through, the kind of life you had, and the passion and potential you poses. Nope your life is reduced to a piece of paper that is no longer than a page. The human element is completely missing from the equation as well when all the jobs need to be applied to online and you can't just walk in and talk to someone. Anyway I used to write stuff like this in a private journal. I think though that hopefully the majority of people on this website are cognitively complex enough to appreciate my musing and philosophies on life. Although I on the other hand need to understand one thing and it was actually good that I took that UCLA trail for the Peers program about making friends. I remember when I told the counselor that I had a long winded conversation with someone about philosophy and life but, then she told me that gets boring and it's unsustainable. She told me that friends are made by talking about common interests and my interests are video games, science, technology, chemistry, politics, geography, and travelling. That's a good piece of advice when I go too far down the rabbit hole with these philosophical excursions with others and in my writing. I'm more than happy for the entire world to be exposed to my writings and philosophies and to contemplate them once in a while. I think that's what the world needs more of what do you think @Anna Konstantaki?

@Yen277 Assuming you're a guy then you can expect some level of distance from everyone, even your closest friends. It is healthy to keep some part of yourself to yourself that nobody else sees or affects. It provides internal security and creates and air of mystery that is attractive. Also keep in mind that men are naturally action prone and tend to form alliances/friendships with other men who have similar interests and partake in the same activities. This gives you common ground on which to walk conversationally, keeping the topic of conversation impersonal and directed towards some practical end. Think of some of the best conversations you have had with other guys. They were probably about some shared hobby you both enjoyed. Which is why as you grow and your interests change your friendships will also change. Simply keep an eye out for others in the spaces you are entering and see if you can find something that you admire about them. You will find some common ground in there.

Try writing down(honestly) what you think is the cause of your blockages. Be impersonal in your writing. Write out your thoughts and look at them. Try to locate the fear. Observe your reaction to whatever you're writing. Follow the reactions. If they're fear-based, and most likely they are, go in them and dig deeper. Works wonders, but you gotta stick to it and be observing yourself.

Entry 100 | Reflection PHWOAR! What a beautiful number that is! So as of today, I will have consciously marked 100 days of my life. And let me add that it feels like no time at all. But simultaneously, it was so long ago since I started that I can no longer remember a time when I wasn't journaling. I'm going to have a day of two after this entry to read back all of my journal entries to myself. That was going to be my plan for today, but there are some special things I want to talk about before I forget. First of all, I followed the advice of the performance coach and visualised myself on the day of my big recital in May. Fortunately, my imagination is very vivid so I was able to feel the nerves and the anxiety filling my body in the present moment. Starting from the moment I woke up, I continued to visualise the whole day leading up to the performance. When it came to visualising the performance, I paid close attention to detail. I visualised the venue, the audience, the examiners, my band mates, my stage layout, the lighting, and, most importantly, my performance ability. Although I was nervous to some extent, it was so comfortable and effortless that I even caught myself bopping along with the music outside of my visualisation! Every note that I played was utter perfection in terms of giving it my all. After the visualisation, I became filled with so much joy as I realised that this could become a reality. A few moments later, I started a new visualisation. In this, I chatted to my future self having just performed the recital. He was beaming with energy and almost crying with happiness. I asked him how it went and he replied "That went exactly how I wanted it to go." He advised that he was "so grateful to have done that visualisation every single day leading up to the exam" but warned that he could only become a reality if I listened to his advice. For those of you thinking I have a dual personality disorder of some kind, rest assured that my creative imagination has become so developed that it takes on a life of its own. This would later prove to be the case as I was hit with divine inspiration to write some song lyrics, of all things. For years, I've wanted to write song lyrics. And now when I least expected it, inspiration struck! I stayed with the energy of the creative Muse and began to write down the lyrics to the song, which is currently 4 stanzas long. Then later on, after having recorded my first live music video on Facebook, I tuned into the creative Muse once again to figure out the accompanying guitar part to the song. As I played through the song for an hour or two, it felt so obvious that these lyrics were passing through me, not being created by me. Not often have I experienced this as it's happening. The song seems to be about the loss of a loved one. In particular, the image of my mother appeared to me several times in the practice room. But my mum is neither dying nor ill. These words are so impersonal to my own life. And yet, I can see how one day, they are going to be incredibly personal to me when the fateful day comes that my mum will die. Hopefully, there's plenty of life left in her for a lot of years. I love her very much. So those were some magic moments of my day! Now to reflect on the last 100 journal entries from memory. This journal has been one of the most fun aspects of personal development that I have come across. I've tried journaling in the past in actual books but there's something so nice about this platform that motivates me to keep going. The digital interface is nice enough for sure. But the best thing has to be the 'community' aspect of it. I've been able to reach out to like-minded people and learn about them and their way of life. Some of you have contacted me with messages of support and encouragement for my work on this journal so far. To those people, thank you very much for reaching out to me. Without knowing it, you've influenced my willpower to keep going along this journey for myself and for the benefits I will eventually bring to others. This journey of personal development has given me something wonderful: I have developed the capacity to feel unconditional love for everyone and everything. This is something very new. There were certain people in my life that I felt it necessary to avoid and hate. But that has completely transformed into its opposite. Thanks to this journal, I have been able to get my important thoughts into writing. I've had some wonderful moments of realisation at my laptop. And to top it all, I'm an absolute boss at the Dvorak keyboard now! To those of you who read this journal regularly, I will take this opportunity to thank you for taking an interest in my story. You guys certainly haven't gone unnoticed! Although this journal has never been about accumulating views, it has been heartwarming to watch that number rise each day. It validates the very reason that keeps me going: I must be doing something good! If you are a regular reader, do message me and share your stories too. I have a desire to connect with more and more people in a deep, meaningful way. None of that shallow, modern small-talk! I will return to this journal either when I have read all of my previous entries or when something noteworthy happens in my life. Until then, love you all! Pick of the day:

Well, if I look from the non-dual perspective that all is one, then relationship has to be a relationship between the one and itself at the ultimate level. So, relationships between two people are illusory, just as (presumably) all happenings within existence are illusory including the illusion of self. But perhaps the illusion exists for a reason (if the one even traffics in reason, at all). So, the potential reasons for relationship that come up in my limited human mind are 1. The one wants to know what it is like to relate to another despite it being the only one, as the one must know everything by its very nature (assuming that God is omniscient as religions have told us), and how could the one know everything if it doesn't know duality and relationship. 2. The one wants to know what it is like to know conditional love due to the fact that its nature is unconditional love. 3. The one wants to know what it is like to know imperfection due to the fact that it's nature is perfection. So, relationship gives the one the experience of separateness, otherness, imperfection, conditional love, differences, conflict, pain in opposition to the state of unconditional love and infinite well-being that is the state of entropy that our attachments keep us from falling toward. So, relationship often creates and solidifies the emotional attachment needed to stay out of the state of unconditional love and Truth that is the original state, so that the one may stay in a state of illusion to know more how it is like to be other than what it is. Full enlightenment might potentially nullify the reasons that the one wanted to experience the human perspective in the first place. Maybe enlightenment is ultimately foolish, despite that it is more expansive and is qualitatively better from the human emotional standpoint. You only have maybe 80 years to be this particular human with all its imperfections, while you have an eternity to be the one. Why do you have to be the one now and nullify all the beautiful illusions and the beautiful terrible suffering that stems from it? That is, other than the fact that you are indeed God and can do whatever the heck you want to regardless of whether or not it seems to make no sense. It's not as though there are any rules to the game that you didn't yourself create. But from the dualistic standpoint, relationship is two or more different people, places, things, or ideas that share something in common or have some form of dependence on one another. So, we could say that practically, this is what human relationships are as well. Human beings naturally and instinctually tend to create relationships with the exception of some understanding, idea, or goal that prevents a person from engaging in them. Even enlightened human beings create relationships, which is not necessary for the purpose of "getting love" as enlightenment is the realization that all is one and all is love. There is no sense of filling some place that lacks "love". Real love by its very nature is impersonal, unconditional, and non-directional. So, it has nothing to do with the emotions felt in a relationship on the dualistic level. But on the non-dual level, it is the very substance of the one and of all of existence. And the relationship is another creation of this one that is love. So, relationship as most people know it is not love, but all is love. So, relationship is also love. With this in mind, it seems that most enlightened people tend to still create relationships romantic and otherwise. Perhaps, because enlightenment is a state of non-resistance there is no reason to resist the natural urges to form bonds with others or natural urges in general. It doesn't matter in the end as it's all an illusion, but that's no reason to forego these instincts or resist them... but simply to be detached from them and see them for what they truly are. In the same way that there's no reason to forego practical things such as work. "Before enlightenment, chop wood and carry water. After enlightenment, chop wood and carry water." And at that ultimate level, relationship is truly an expression of love just as everything else is an expression of love. But it's not int he particularity of the relationshipees or in the emotions shared by the two. But it is the very substance of all things involved in the existence. It's the very dance that reality does to create the illusion of relationship that the reality and love can be found. To be continued...

This mind-body-spirit complex has had an intuition about the ego. An analogy is best used to explain what is meant. Envision an onion with many protective layers. This is you. When you are around certain people like your parents, boss, girlfriend or random stranger layers might be added. This is either to protect you from saying something you shouldnt or prevent emotional pain in other selves. Can you see a self perpetuating cycle here? It is even built into the language that this mind-body-spirit complex is using to communicate with you. Once the desire to seek for truth and reunion with intelligent infinity what is referred to as the ego can be encountered and many properties are assigned to it. However the important thing based on this mind-body-spirit complexes experience with the ego is the following: There are many layers to an onion. If you have had any experience with real onions you might know that even if the outer layers are rotten the core remains fresh. These rotten layers might be the cause for the negative properties that you have assigned to the ego. The ego can be seen as the guardian of your onion which you refer to as "you". When layers are peeled away a backlash from the ego may be experienced. This is very common for the techniques and paths that have been devised to get to a non egoic experience of consciousness. This backlash can be very severe and this mind-body-spirit complex has had some experiences with this. In later stages, experiences that you might refer to as panic attacks or existential terror can be experienced. Whenever a strong backlash is experienced there might be a very strong urge to relieve the pain. This might be through sex, masturbation, food cravings, tv, videos or anything that can act as a distraction. In a sense what you refer to as ego is trying to grasp at anything to make it stay. It might do anything to convince you to hold on to your egoic onion. However once you have let go fully "you" can experience a completely impersonal experience of reality. This mind-body-spirit complex has had success with using the Wim Hof breathing technique to help relax at times of panic attacks. Any breathing techniques, referred to as pranayama in Hinduism might be useful. Meditation is useful to cultivate self control in the prefrontal cortex and provide some insight into the workings of the mind. Entheogens help to temporarily remove several layers of the onion. However too high doses might lead to panic attacks which this mind-body-spirit complex has experienced. These are some things that have helped this mind-body-spirit complex to accelerate it's growth: Open mindedness, self control, honesty (mainly with yourself), a practical approach (if it doesn't help discard it), the ability to let things)emotions/concepts/thoughts go (if it doesn't help you throw it away), acceptance of what is, acceptance of feelings, acceptance of other selves state of development...

Don't settle for less than what you really desire. Because even if it will give you some short physical pleasure, you will have a long mental hangover, if you will go against yourself or compromise with yourself just to get laid....at any cost..... And don't listen to the advice that you have to improve some traits, etc. All you have to do is just be your REAL YOU as close as possible. And this quite often means UNLEARNING the things that contributed to the current fake version of you. If you are looking for serious relationships then do the things what you really like, enjoy life, and the girl will show up... But if you meantime, want to have active and high quality sex life, then I would like to give you additional advice. Nowadays, one of the biggest mistake of many men is that they are so horny and dumb, that they immediately show the sexual interest to the girls......and that is a really huge mistake even in places where people openly search for sexual partners........remember, there is no girl who wants to have sex with horny idiot............. if you really want to succeed in relationships with women, at first you have to show them that you have at least a little bit of intellect and that you respect women.......and that your brain, not dick, is in charge of what you speak or write........and ONLY WHEN you after a few minutes/hours/days/weeks/months (it depends on each girl, situation, etc) will notice that you GOT HER INTELLECTUALLY......many high quality doors (legs) will start to open up for you........and this is the moment when you can finally start to let loose your dick.........you can start to speak and write with it ........ and even most educated, self-confident and intellectually developed women will gladly to communicate with your dick........and enjoy all the other actions it can provide........because this is not just another impersonal intrusive dick..........this dick is special and chosen one........

Outlook 1 seems neurotic, wanting something fast, is never a good sign. Outlook 2 imply there is a purpose to life, which can't be proved, and most enlightened people just say there is no point to it, or that it is just there to be experienced. The ego can't be a foe, existence is impersonal, it has no enemy, since it is only one being. If you fight your ego, it is the ego that is mad about itself, which reinforce it.

@Phil This is exactly the kind of mind trick that I'm talking about. Don't you see how ego likes to think of itself as being special? "Enriched sensations and emotions?" Sure! Just what the ego wants. "Reconnection to Oneness? Damn! What an awesome and developed ego I am! I transcended all illusion, am I not the most special ego that there is? I'm soooo superior, I tasted TRUE HAPPINESS, TRUE BEING!" Feels good and warm, doesn't it? REAL reconnection to Oneness means dropping EVERYTHING! And what I'm claiming here is that transcendence of ego is not possible for the ego, just like having senses is an impossibility for a chair -- it simply doesn't have the necessary tools to do that, it is just a partition of something WAY bigger. Even in theory, in the exact moment when transcendence would occur the ego would cease to exist, along side with all thoughts and senses and feelings and so forth. You're saying that transcendence would bring along all those incredible enhanced feelings, but that's just not the case -- notice how good it feels to think that that's the case, that's ego right there! just as there's ego in trying to communicate this insight with you. Because oneness is impersonal, selfless, senseless, thoughtless. And as for ego death through stopping thoughts / focus, meditation shows that the stream of thoughts is a never-ending process as long as you're alive and conscious. I know this got pretty ranty, but I feel like that's the best way to communicate this perspective. I'm genuinely interested in discovering the truth (or something as close to truth as possible) about this issue of transcendence and so far this perspective seems the most accurate to me.

The more "Person" you let go, the more empty you will know. Let the light of yourself bleed away the suffering of time. There is a infinite field that doesn't talk, you can only hear when your mind is quiet. The impersonal is one with all personal. The observer is the observed, the thinker is the thought, life knows only itself. Impersonal awareness, is all inclusive. There is a deep affinity with nature to rekindle, that can only be found again when you look intensely. Last quote by rumi "Out beyond all ideas of wrong doing and right doing there is a field I'll meet you there"

Hi all, Sorry to resurrect and old post but similarity to the original posters comment I am having some difficulty understanding this too and would appreciate some clarification if possible. I believe I understand what enlightenment is to the best of my ability without having experienced it, and if everything in my unconscious reality is untrue, how can we have a life purpose? It seems to me that the only way to be truly happy and content would be to wake up and realise enlightenment. So what reason is there to chase some imaginary life goal? For example, if I felt my life purpose was to be a Doctor, Self Help Guru or Vet, I would work towards this and once it was achieved, I would still feel like my life was missing something? Is the point not that we do not need anything external to be happy, we just need to be in the present moment? I appreciate that getting to the stage of enlightenment can take many years if it even happens at all, but if you are in a stable career that may not be your passion as such, what is the reason to chase something else when in fact it is only an illusion of self tied to your ego. This could be some basic misunderstanding on my part, and I hope it makes sense and is clear. If someone is able to help me it would really be appreciated. Quotes taken from @Leo Gurafirst spiritual enlightenment video that I am using to help base my understanding as well as numerous books by people such as Tolle etc. “There’s nothing personal about life, which means that everything that you take personally about your life is an illusion. In fact, life is completely neutral and completely impersonal. Even your very body is impersonal. Even your thoughts, your very thoughts about you, are impersonal. The other thing spiritual enlightenment means is that all thoughts and all beliefs, no matter whether they’re religious, spiritual, scientific or everyday beliefs, are all just stories. They’re not reality and they’re not truth-telling. They are just stories.” They are stories about reality, but not reality itself. They don’t carry truth about reality, even though we believe that they do. Another aspect of spiritual enlightenment, which is really cool, is that because the you is an illusion and it doesn’t actually exist, mortality becomes irrelevant. Number two – The other reward you get is lasting happiness and peace of mind. You will have true happiness. What you have now is not true happiness. You are living in a living hell. With this truth, you can actually have true peace of mind, regardless of circumstance. This is a very cool thing. From the moment you were born and up to today, you have been living your life looking and chasing for happiness. You keep telling yourself that if you watch enough of my videos or if you do enough of the personal development work, you will find happiness. Well, I hate to break it to you but you never will. You never will. You can already sense it because you have been trying your whole life and it hasn’t been working, has it? Don’t lie. It hasn’t been working. No matter how many houses you get, girlfriends you get or marriages you get, you are not going to be truly happy. Why? It is not possible because the you is an illusion. This illusion needs to be perpetuated by constant motion. Constant motion creates suffering. If you want to fix this happiness thing and be peaceful, if you want to be peaceful independent of what is happening in life, no matter if you are rich or poor, if you have a girlfriend or not, if you are married or you’re not, you’re kids are doing good in school or they are not, you’re healthy or you’re sick, you need to be spiritually enlightened. It sounds too good to be true. Again, this is one of the awesome rewards of doing this work.”

Yeah I've experienced similar, you're not alone. In the "journey" to come don't fixate on the experience you had though. It's just another arising. You've not gone anywhere or done anything special. That's an interpretation of the situation. If the reality you are experiencing right now is infinite and impersonal then you can't go anywhere can you! This is fucking it. Just start to realise that all the time throughout your day.

@Scarecrow I tried it once, and found it too time consuming....and impersonal....that said...I did meet some people that I could have been friends with if they were perhaps less desperate...when we didn't connect in a romantic way, from my perspective, i'd genuinely offer friendship....it was usually met with "I already have enough friends I only want you as a girlfriend" type thing....my experience aside, I know some people that this online dating approach works well for...ask yourself the questions @ajasatya posed....and also why you are considering online, do you typically communicate best in writing? etc...personally I'd rather meet a stranger in person, on the phone, or even video rather than having to type something....with no tone of voice, inflection, expressions etc...I find there is too much misinterpretation with text...especially if you are looking to actually connect with someone, there is very little energy exchange online....I hope you meet someone rad....force yourself to be bold in person too! Love!

What? Im actually here because I have a conditioning to argue. Its not something I can let go of overnight. But one day it will drop, and I wont be on here talking enlightenment. Its impersonal, its not me doing this, its conditioning. That takes a long time to get over and im watching how it agaitates my mind arguing with idiots who want to win arguments because they think they know something, or are here to "help" others out of "compassion". It isnt compassion, its self serving to make yourself feel better. Otherwise you would not do it. I do wish people would stop lying to themselves, but hey, that is my problem and one that i will get over one day - people lie to themselves, get over it kurt.

Normally, so long as you are carried away by your speeding thoughts, you do not feel disturbed by the thoughts. But if you pause in-between, and study your mind, you realise how feverishly it works, and disturbs your peace. This pause is essential for curbing the over-activity of mind. You have to halt and watch your thoughts; for, if your thoughts are running fast, you cannot know your mind. Take a completely impersonal view of the thought process. Be only an observer of thoughts; have nothing to do with them except to observe them. When thoughts cloud your mind, and harass you, ask them, ‘Oh thoughts! To whom do you belong? Do you belong to me?’ You will get no reply to this inquiry! Because the thoughts do not belong to you! Try and find out. Look for the gaps between the thoughts, increase your awareness then your 1 hour sitting will be refreshing.

@Anton Rogachevski Anton, it's fine. Your path is fine. It's for you to tread. These paths are all valid otherwise they would not be there. Nobody is disputing it . All I'm saying is that there is more. And one day, maybe when you're tired of chasing your own tail you will thank God he left us the sampradaya, because if you hadn't have given up by then you will be tearing your hair out trying to figure out why you're still not enlightened. I'm only interested in liberation. I'm not here to play around with paradigms. It's a waste of time to be frank also. But I do understand. I'm nowhere near enlightened, but I can tell you I'm way further along now ive got a proper map and not just endless talk "about" enlightenment, which is all one hears these days. They don't tell you how to get from a to b and what a and b even look like to "all people". You got to understand that with an individual teaching you're only getting that person's experience that they are trying to communicate. This teaching is universal. You're free to believe that were all different here, but there is only one Self, and it's manifest form in Samsara operates in exactly the same way in everyone - the subconscious. Unless you know what to look for, you're left with netti netti and the direct path. But none of those teachings include samsara, they only talk about the pure self. Most of enlightenment is about understanding samsara and the dharma field. Adyashanti is good. He's an enlightened man. So is Mooji . They are both mature human beings. But try getting anything out of them in the way of a teaching and you just find their opinions coming through. Which doesn't fair well for the student and puts the student in an awkward position , even if they are not aware of it. The student is left grappling and confused and stuck to a subjective experiential description of ONE persons enlightenment experiences. The sampradaya is a complete teaching designed to liberate all people because it's impersonal and millions of enlightened people contributed to it over thousands of years and it's been fiercely defended against corruption. In fact, the anti corruption aspect is built in and this is the scripture and teacher format.

@NTOgen The mind extroverts itself because of identification with the predominant guna (flavour of shakti) we are conditioned by, and the vasanas that appear in our stream of experience as likes and dislikes. The yoga I'm referring to is called Ashtanga Yoga, and it prepares the mind (indirect knowledge) to directly understand and then take a stand as awareness (direct knowledge). Ideally you want to get a routine going that involves a number of Yogas to get the mind nice and quiet: Karma Yoga - to neutralize the vasanas, and eventually cancel your sense of doership Triguna Vibhava Yoga (understanding the 3 gunas teaching) Upasana Yoga (meditation) Here are some comments from a little email satsang from one of my teachers which is a summary of the gunas teaching: The creation comes into existence with the emergence of the 3 gunas: sattva, tamas and rajas. Sattva is intelligence and knowledge; tamas, a heavy dense energy is matter the substance of the creation; rajas is the dynamic active energy also known that transforms objects. Psychologically it is known as the mode of action and desire. The gunas make up everything in creation, from thoughts to gross objects. In effect, the gunas are another word for God. Sattva, rajas and tamas correspond to the three forces in creation: Rajas, vikshepa shakti, which is the projecting energy; tamas, avarana shakti, the concealing energy and sattva, the revealing energy. When maya operates, sattva (pure knowledge-intelligence) is the first guna to emerge. It is known as pure maya and becomes the nature of the mind. Tamas and rajas appear next. Rajas and tamas are the main cause of ignorance; they extrovert the mind, turning it towards objects. When a person is sattvic the mind is turned inwards toward awareness, its nature. This happens when rajas and tamas have been largely eliminated. Sattva feels very good. With karma yoga and the practice of self knowledge it can become the person’s predominant guna. Purifying the mind is to aim for a sattvic mind. Liberation or self-knowledge means that you have assimilated the knowledge that you are whole and complete and that the ‘person’ that you used to think you were is no more than a notion in you, awareness. When ignorance (avidya) of yourself as awareness has been removed by self-knowledge, maya (macrocosmic ignorance and its effects still obtain and the gunas continue to condition the subtle body (the ‘person’)…but they are rendered non-binding as the doer has been negated by self knowledge. They have nothing to do with you, awareness, because you know that you are not the Subtle Body, the person/doer. You are trigunatita, beyond the gunas The gunas are called macrocosmic vasanas i.e. they belong to Isvara or the total, the creation, not to the person. As an apparent person or jiva, (the self under the spell of ignorance) they are in the driver’s seat, so to speak. The person thinks he/she is a doer so they drive him/her relentlessly until he/she gains the direct knowledge of his/her true nature as awareness. There are basically four stages to the guna teaching, which can be applied to people at different levels of their spiritual development. The Four Stages of the Guna Teaching Stage 1 The guna teaching is very effective for doers (karmi's); these are people in the world, not going for moksha. As a karmi, one uses the knowledge to accomplish things in the world and get what one wants. One can gain knowledge of the gunas without realising the self and use this knowledge very productively to live a better life. It is possible to ‘un-couple’ the guna teaching from Vedanta and apply it “on its own”, so to speak. This would be very useful for people in the human resources field, as well as a more enlightened approach to psychological counseling and related therapies. Stage 2 This is for the application of karma yoga. As a karma yogi, how does one really understand what giving up the results of your actions are, unless you understand what makes up the dharmafield? Also, the karma yogi uses the guna teaching to purify the mind as well as identify their conditioning. This is the most powerful way to negate the doer. Stage 3 Once the mind is purified, one uses self knowledge to discriminate the self from the not self. This means that your conditioning does not belong to you. At this stage, unless one really understands the gunas, many highly qualified inquirers get stuck with the most subtle teaching of all, the relationship between pure awareness and Isvara, jiva and jagat. Remember, it does not work to superimpose satya (pure awareness) on mithya (Isvara, jiva and jagat). If superimposition happens, even though the self is known, it will remain indirect knowledge i.e. the self will still appear as an object. And one will still think one has to “get” it. Or one will still wait to have that final experience that will prove he or she is awareness! Direct knowledge and self actualisation is the difficult part. Therefore, full understanding of the Isvara-jiva-jagat identity (aikyam) and the guna teaching is of paramount importance. Stage 4 In the fourth and final stage self knowledge has fully removed the ignorance of your true nature and you know without a doubt that you are beyond the gunas. This means that knowledge and ignorance are both ‘gone’; they are simply objects known to you. Only, you, the self remains. This is moksha. Typical Symptoms of Rajas, Tamas and Sattva Start observing them. Each of your thoughts and feelings are guna driven. See which ones are sattvic, which are tamasic and which are rajasic. Understand the implications of identifying with each kind of energy and the thoughts they cause. Start observing all objects (the world around you or your environment) from this perspective. It will be obvious that no-one is doing anything; it is all a play of the gunas. You will be amazed how clear it all becomes once the gunas are identified: it is like having 20/20 vision. When rajas is operating, the person will be projecting, arrogant, passionate, angry, frantic, over-stimulated/active/driven, extroverted, jittery, can’t sit still, afraid, dissatisfied, insatiable, possessive, jealous, controlling, can’t sleep, bored, wired and tired… (to name a few) Rajas triggers fear based thoughts and actions; the person will project their stuff onto ‘others’ or the ‘world’ and he/she will go “unconscious” (tamas). One tends to speak too quickly, do things too quickly, drop things, bump into things, break them, have accidents and injure oneself. In the extreme he/she will be totally extroverted, driven by passion and desire to gain whatever object he/she is fixated on, certain that the joy is in the object. The mind is turned completely outwards. When tamas is operating, the person will be in denial, blaming, holding onto the past or using it as a reason to justify action or inaction, or as an avoidance strategy to deny his or her fears, making excuses for why he/she can’t be honest or make decisions, rationalising, dithering, living in potentia, can’t wake up or get out of bed in the morning, exhausted, complaining, dull, lazy, depressed feeling a victim, feeling the wrongs of the world on his shoulders, unloved or that the ‘world’ is unloving or a bad place, cruel, uncaring, self absorbed etc. Here the mind is clouded, dull. When sattva is operating, the person is peaceful, calm, clear thinking, balanced, compassionately honest, loving, secure, taking appropriate action, owning all projections, cleaning up his/her karma, dispassionate (especially about his/her own thoughts and feelings), unconcerned, untouched by the opinion of others or the results of his/her actions, enjoying objects for what they are i.e. fully aware of all their inherent defects, satisfied, whole and complete... etc. How Do the Gunas Function? The gunas are programmed ways of thinking and acting. They are totally predictable. All the gunas build on themselves, so rajas will create more rajas, as will tamas create more tamas and sattva more sattva. The gunas all work together and at any given time, one of them will predominate. Rajas and tamas are inseparable. I call them the ‘terrible twins’. James calls them ‘incestuous bedfellows’. For instance, when rajas is operating, the mind will be projecting outwards and tamas will be right there to deny it. They are just the programmes that run the individual (and everything else). They are a problem if you do not have the knowledge of how the apparent reality functions, or if you identify with them. For instance, if you find yourself saying “I am rajasic or I am tamasic today”, you are identified with them. The person may be rajasic/tamasic today but you, awareness, are not. Remember, you are the knower of the person; therefore you are the knower of the gunas. Again, whenever you find yourself saying “I” press pause and ask yourself, “who is talking here... which perspective am I identified with, the reflected self (the person) or me, awareness?” If you can consistently do this, it will change your life forever. All three gunas have an upside as well as a downside, as does everything in this apparent reality. Without rajas, you would never get out of bed in the morning or accomplish anything. Rajas is the active, creative ‘force’. It is the mode of passion and desire. Not all desire or passion is bad however; you need a passion for self inquiry and a strong desire for moksha. It is one of the qualifications. Tamas is the very substance of matter, a heavy and steady energy. Without it you not be capable of endurance. You would not have the staying power to complete anything and would more or less float off the planet. You would not be ‘earthed’...and you would never be able to sleep. With too much sattva you can get stuck in a golden cage of experiential bliss, thinking happiness is the Holy Grail and that you are quite special. Sattva is not the be all and end all, even though sat, awareness (of which sattva is the most subtle manifestation) is actually the true nature of the mind. Sattva however, is a state of mind that is experienced by the doer, the Subtle Body. It is purely experiential and therefore does not last. It certainly will not free the person from dependence on objects or end the subtle existential suffering that comes with it. It is the last object to be released before moksha. Yet it is a valuable energy for inquiry and should be cultivated as it is the guna springboard for self-knowledge. ‘After’ moksha, sattva or peace of mind no longer needs to be the goal, although one will still make choices in alignment with it. However once all the objects have been negated along with the doer, it will be there naturally and if it should not be, that is fine too because you know that as awareness you are beyond sattva. ~ Is it Self-Inquiry or a Spiritual Lifestyle? Many spiritual seekers are looking for a way to cope with their unresolved psychological issues or as a balm to salve their emotional wounds. Often, they have the vanity to think they are pure and holy because they have had some kind of transcendental spiritual experiences or because they have walked away from a samsaric life when their ‘renunciation’ is actually escapism. They build a ‘spiritual’ identity that makes them feel less small and afraid. This is one of the negative effects of sattva. Being “spiritual” becomes a lifestyle. ~ How to Manage the Gunas Other than gaining the knowledge of what the gunas are and how they operate, which is half the battle , you can do a great deal to manage them through self knowledge. This means that you know that there are appropriate actions to maintain peace of mind for the jiva. If you are feeling brain dead, depressed or lazy, you can do something physical, like take a walk or exercise. If you are bouncing off the walls with extroversion, stress, fear or anxiety, driven by desire or action….slow down. Skip the coffee, cut down on sugar. Find some time alone where you can sit quietly and breathe in light. Once you have calmed down, meditate, sit in silence or light a candle, do a puja, chant or pray. Many enlightened people do not bother managing the gunas and simply accept whatever transpires in the dharmafield, knowing it has nothing to do with them. This practice is fine if the underlying motivation is not a refusal to face binding vasanas; or a way to camouflage the doer. If the mind is agitated or dull because of your life choices or lifestyle, freedom will not be that free unless you acknowledge the cause of the agitation in the light of self-knowledge. This is a common trap for spiritual seekers and one the ego likes. Often it is not lack of self-knowledge that is the problem. It is just that the ‘self-realised’ person is avoiding doing what it takes to change their behaviour…meaning staring down their vasanas, and getting their actions and lifestyle to conform with dharma. ~ Practical Lifestyle Management Take a look at your lifestyle and change what you can. Diet is very important for guna management. Learn which foods cause which guna. Examine what you do for a living, how you recreate, spend money and exercise. Stop hoarding unwanted ‘stuff’ (psychological and otherwise). Examine your relationships with people. Don’t keep company with people who bring you down. Or, if you can’t avoid them, see how the gunas run them. See where they want things to be different and the pain it causes. People can’t help being true to their predominant guna when they are unaware that there is choice. The practice of seeing how the gunas operate in yourself and ‘others’, will put you in a whole new world of perception. Of course there really are no ‘others’ as there is only one self with three guna- manufactured bodies. By that I mean that they work the same way in everyone. The gunas run the show for everyone who is identified with the body/mind and the story of personhood. If the predominant guna is tamas, clean out your cupboards; give away everything you don’t really need, stop staying up or getting up late, stop eating tamasic foods, get some exercise. Educate yourself about proper nutrition. Guna management is just common sense. Avoid depressants such as alcohol, sleeping pills and drugs. Be constantly on the alert for denial of any kind. If the dominant guna is rajas, be on constant alert for mindless activity, aggression, arrogance, projection, desire and extroversion. Rajas and tamas are the real problem makers. Check your diet. Too much sugar, coffee and other stimulants exacerbate rajas and induce it. So do many over-the-counter as well as prescription medications. More than half the planet seems to be on some kind of tranquiliser and it is not hard to see why. James says that rajas is the disease of the 21st century. If you observe too much sattva, stop pretending that you are ‘special’ because you have ‘out of this world’ epiphanies, spiritual knowledge and lots of bliss. Or stop pretending that you are very holy because you meditate, chant for hours or have an enlightened guru, (or worse, that you think you are an enlightened guru). Or you think you have the moral high-ground because you are a vegan/vegetarian and live on sprouts. Get real, keep it humble and keep up the practice of self-knowledge. The point here is that everyone has a predominant guna which will not only create their most entrenched tendencies, (i.e. vasanas) but it will also be what has conditioned them to have a particular kind of nature. There is no right or wrong here, no better or worse. We do not make ourselves the way we are; Isvara…the gunas…do. The ‘work’ involved in self-inquiry is identifying the gunas through self-knowledge and allowing the knowledge to help ‘you’ manage the gunas by dis-identifying from them and standing as awareness. ~ You can Choose the Guna Once you find yourself acting a particular guna out, just observe what is going on. As a person you have relative free will to choose what action to take to achieve a desired result and thus success in the world is possible. One can make ‘the best of one’s life’ as a jiva. However, those choices themselves are determined by your conditioning, i.e. Isvara or the gunas. Don’t judge or beat yourself up, be dispassionate about whatever is going on… it’s a movie after all. Trace back the train of events, thoughts and feelings to their source and identify what triggered them. The practice of knowledge, the ‘work”, is keeping an eye on the person and his/her likes and dislikes. Make a note of the guna and adjust it in light of the kind of mind you are trying to create. Make peace of mind your aim at all costs. Each time you do this, it will get easier to manage the gunas and it will be easier to recognize them quicker when they appear as your likes and dislikes. Consider the likes and dislikes appearing in your mind as red flags, ways to identify the vasanas that keep a particular program running. It is like playing a computer game: although it appears as if you are making the moves, all the moves that are possible are already programmed into the game. If you keep up the practice of knowledge, before long, you will have de-activated the like or dislike that keeps the program running. It will no longer condition the subtle body, although it may still appear. You will no longer be a robot acting out unconscious motives by reacting to your environment. If the vasana is still there but you do not have to act on it, it is considered non-binding. As stated above: understanding the guna teaching means that you understand the nature of your environment, (meaning Isvara) which includes you as a jiva. It is also important to remember that it is impossible and unnecessary to de-activate all vasanas. Not all vasanas are bad; you need a vasana for self inquiry and other to motivate yourself. As long as a vasana is not causing excessive agitation in the mind, it is dharmic. Knowing the nature of the gunas and vasanas renders the doer non-binding. Quote from Edwin on the Gunas As it is with all the teachings of Vedanta, knowledge is power. Sadly, many people try to control the gunas without understanding them. This can lead to a painful exercise in what is called “will power.” When we do things we recognize as harmful, but don’t understand the mechanism at work, we make resolutions, manhandling our psyche, so to speak. Sometimes these resolutions are kept; often they are broken. And we suffer accordingly. As the gunas are Maya, they are illusory. They draw us into the world of objects – including thoughts and feelings – and lead us to identify with these objects. The whole point of identifying the gunas, (which are also objects) and managing them is to understand the gunas, not to be afraid of what is bad or become attached to what is good in the gunas. ~ A Fearless Moral Inventory Conduct a fearless inventory of your likes and dislikes and see which guna values they represent. Be totally honest, without shame, blame or fear as you investigate what you are invested in. Be really alert, like a sharp bird with an acute monocular vision; witness the person you think you are and what goes on in his/her mind and life. Triguna vibhava yoga (managing the gunas) is a great way to purify your mind and prepare it for enlightenment. All the vasanas and samskaras (a conglomeration of vasanas) are nothing but the results of the gunas and their conditioning. They become binding obstacles (pratibandikas) when they are not understood and controlled. ~ Prarabdha Karma, the Effects of Ignorance and Karma Yoga If the effects of ignorance are playing out (prarabdha karma) and you cannot change it, accept it. Don’t resist. Do what you can to ameliorate them with equanimity and through dharmic lifestyle choices. Know that it is not you and it will pass; this is what Isvara is bringing your way as the jiva and you must flow with it. Resistance keeps you tied to the person and is a guarantee of more suffering. The gunas are constantly changing and impersonal, like everything else in the apparent reality; what use is control? Karma yoga is the only solution as there is no way to fast forward this process. It is common that people who have realised the self, still struggle with stubborn samskaras and with fears that seem to have no origin. The effects of ignorance take as long as they take to subside; it is not up to the jiva or to awareness. Fear is an acronym for False Evidence Appearing Real, and is the very nature of rajas. It is part of the fabric of the macrocosmic mind and the jiva being an extension of it has unnamed and gripping fears that emerge from the depths like monsters from the deep. Rajas and tamas are impersonal and together these two form the main problematic components of ignorance. They are not real. They belong to the causal body, not to you. It only seems like they belong to the jiva because there is always a corresponding story that comes with them. The gunas belong to Isvara and have nothing to do with awareness or with the person. The person has a story and has suffered; there is no escape if you are a jiva. As long as one is identified with the person, rajas stalks you every step of the way and the pitfalls of tamas are waiting to engulf you. ~ Following Dharma The knowledge of how the gunas function alleviates existential pain and guilt and gives you X-ray vision into yourself and everyone else. It shows that no-one is doing anything…or ever has. You can stop blaming yourself or anyone else for anything you did or anything that happened ‘to you’. Those who think that they are doers have no choice but to follow their natures. When you know you are not the doer, you can choose to drop “your” story’. This is not to say you do not take appropriate action when required or that you would do harm to any part of the creation. You would naturally make choices that give peace of mind, (sattva) and causes no injury, not because you feel guilt or duty bound, but because you are doing what is right. This is what following dharma means. Om and prem,

Disagree with that. Letting it run means dis-identification with it and depersonalising it. I been there done that with the letting off steam thing and got stuck in it for years. So I know it don't work. What does work tho is being vigilant of when the I claims authorship of any of it. Sorry, to have to snuff your out there lol, but mom and pop have nothing to do with it. It's the Gunas and the vasanas and the identification with them that's the problem. And if you understand that then you can let it go because it's all impersonal. But if you continue to buy into this therapy story then that's what you see and that's who you are. So you can either use it as an enlightenment tool or you can use it in a western therapy way to grow the ego. Your choice really.

There is no such thing as conditional love, if it is conditional it isn't love. And the only thing that is unconditional is pure consciousness/being, you could say that consciousness and love are the same thing. If you define enlightenment as the realization and the merging with consciousness then that also means that person aligns with unconditional love. By the way, love can express itself in a countless number of ways. Even hate ultimately consists purely out of love. Just because Mooji expresses himself in such a heartfelt and emotional way doesn't mean he is more loving than guru's who express themselves in a more intellectual or impersonal way.

Hi Fer! This book was also bought to my attention by Dr Wayne Dyer. I was fortunate to see Dr Wayne Dyer at his workshop in Melbourne Australia a week before he passed last September. The Impersonal Life (and The Way to the Kingdom) by Joseph Benner has been my constant journey (and ally) since June 2015. It is so exciting to correspond about. I have read both books (plus numerous other JB work) and listened to JB related audio constantly this last year. With each read and listen the text resonates more. There is so much to say and share. I came across this website after submitting a search in google in reference to forums associated with Joseph Benner. I was very excited to see your comments on here especially as it has been hard to find other JB related connections.. In addition thank you for indirectly introducing me to this site which I have accessed and already found valuable information.

2016, oct 9th healthy meals happiness sharing bike rides meditation self-inquiry & dharma contemplation deep talks compassive listening actualized.org contributions today i gave a free yoga class to a woman. she's on her 50's and we've been doing this for a while. she has 3 herniated discs but she feels MUCH better now. her flexibility and muscle strength are increasing and she's becoming younger. her eyes shine! after the yoga class i also taught her the practice of zazen. we practiced together. she said that it was hard but she also acknowledged the fact that zazen is what she needs. then i headed to meet a friend of mine. we ate açaí while he was talking about some bad stuff that was happening to him and his parents. i just listened to him. there's nothing much to do in these kinds of situation. i just listened with all my body. in the end he said that he wanted to practice meditation and i invited him to the daissen-ji sangha, which meet on mondays. then i came back home and invited the ashram residents to a free-style meditation in the darkness. there's no form to grasp. just sit and observe whatever happens. i could feel from bliss to agony. pretty interesting! i watched leo's new video and i was amazed by his extensive accuracy. incredible video! then we went to a free choro concert near by. it was AMAZING! the musicians were so good. my perception of reality went kinda crazy but it felt good. i love the impersonal and meaningless taste of reality. i continued the actualized.org subtitle work. it's going to be a long run!

Normally, so long as you are carried away by your speeding thoughts, you do not feel disturbed by the thoughts. But if you pause in-between, and study your mind, you realize how feverishly it works, and disturbs your peace. This pause is essential for curbing the over-activity of mind. You have to halt and watch your thoughts; for, if your thoughts are running fast, you cannot know your mind. Therefore, I reiterate, your experience is a good omen. Do not be worried about it, on the contrary, be glad. But then take the next step: take a completely impersonal view of the thought process. Be only an observer of thoughts; have nothing to do with them except to observe them. When thoughts cloud your mind, and harass you, ask them, ‘Oh thoughts! To whom do you belong? Do you belong to me?’ You will get no reply to this inquiry! Because the thoughts do not belong to you! Try and find out. Thoughts are your guests. They have made a lodging house of your mind. It is wrong to think of them as yours; and this same mistake comes in the way of getting rid of them. If you identify as yours, you stand in the way of their exit. And the thoughts which are your temporary guests become permanent lodgers. By looking at thoughts impersonally, you sever connection with them. Whenever a thought or desire is born in you, watch its birth, see it grow before the mind’s eye, and then observe its decline, and the final departure. Repeat this observation with the second thought that enters the mind; watch also its birth, and growth, decline and death. Thus, in a quiet and detached manner—that is, as a witness—observe the constant stream of thoughts. Feel nothing about them, good or bad. Form no opinions about them, favourable or unfavourable. Just watch. Thus, by silent choiceless observation, the traffic of thoughts slows down; and finally, a state of thoughtless Bliss is achieved.

Yes. To understand God takes a fair amount of work using a process called superimposition and negation. God is non dual understanding, we would never get it unless we do the negation process (takes years) and then be able to recognise consciousness in place of the "matter" that normal people see. You're right, I cannot experience your exact same experience at the time you are experiencing it. But we can make an educated guess, us humans are all blessed with the same instruments in the gross, subtle and causal bodies. In the gross body we all have hands and feet, in the causal we all have feelings: sadness, happiness, relief, or the assumption of specialness are universal qualities in all people. Empathy is used to make an educated guess at what others are experiencing. After all, you just confirmed the phenomena of empathy yourself when your friend said he suspects he resonates with your experience!? But, your friend and I may also both be wrong and deluding ourselves. But I know myself pretty darn well and have also understand non dual knowledge, so I can hasten a bet my guess is slightly more accurate. Sorry about that, this isn't personal to me, expertise is yet another impersonal shared phenomena. I'm sure you have special talents of your own in your own field? Anyway, no issues here on my part. I have learned from this

There is likely relative truth to it, as the realization of enlightenment is basically that all is one thing and that one thing is you and that one thing is also God. So, as God, you are the creator of reality itself and can manifest into this reality whatever you want. But it's not quite as simple as thinking positive so that positive things come about. As JJ said, there is really no such thing as positive or negative. So, to think positively doesn't make positive things come as it already pre-supposes that things are negative or undesirable in some way to begin with. To try to manifest things in this way comes from the ego, as the ego is the only thing that labels experiences as positive or negative. The ego has no power to manifest... only the higher self (aka what you actually are) has this power. But it doesn't likely want to manifest things that simply please the desires of the ego. I would imagine (though I'm not sure) that the higher self wants to manifest to itself whatever causes it the greatest level of expansion. So, if that's by making you rich, it will manifest that. If it's by killing you in a fire, it will manifest that. It's a very impersonal force. However, there are probably ways to manifest more pleasant things and greater levels of fulfillment by releasing resistance and creating more pathways by which the higher self can expand itself. But this is all conjecture based only upon what makes sense to me, so take it with a grain of salt. But my advice for manifestation using the law of attraction is to manifest emotions and not things or particular external outcomes. So, for example, if you have a desire to be rich, it's not because you want the money. What you really want is the feeling that you associate to the money. So, don't try to manifest the money but put yourself in the feeling-space of that desired feeling as though you already have it. It may or may not manifest the money but it will give you what you really wanted all along anyway.