Contemplation and thinking mind

[makouda]

I'm confused about the topic of contemplation.

for me, contemplation is thinking, asking question and asking, then maybe an answer would come somewhere. but isn't that just thinking thinking which is the opposite of stillness ?. when I meditate or just watch a leaf for an hour I'm in peace, but then if I start trying the find something, my mind chattering returns again and I loose the stillness.

any insight 

Edited January 5, 2018 by makouda

[Nahm]

@makouda  It’s like when you hear something and get it, and then a minute later get the deeper joke, or deeper meaning, connect the story, see what’s really going on, etc, but staying with an inquiry for 5, 10, 30 min, etc. That’s over simplifying it. Here’s Leo’s video on contemplation, and the enlightenment exercises. The comments on the enlightenment exercises are really great. 

https://www.actualized.org/forum/topic/9425-contemplation-the-most-important-tool-summary/

https://www.actualized.org/forum/topic/7587-list-of-enlightenment-exercises/

 

https://www.actualized.org/articles/contemplation

[Joseph Maynor]

Contemplation is getting at what you actually believe too.  This is why I like to often ask for definitions to be put in your own words.  I'm trying to get you to actually find out what's in the subconscious mind.  Sentence completion exercises also get at this.

For example: My top 5 greatest fears are . . . . 

 

Edited January 6, 2018 by Joseph Maynor

[Hero in progress]

@makouda 

The first thing that will supercharge your contemplation skills is not knowing, that is the first principle.

Not knowing has a bad connotation and this is likely to be culturally influenced. For example when I was in school when I was a kid, I remember actually getting anxious about the teacher asking me a question at random, and would feel relieved when they would single some else out. I feared that all the eyes in the room would stare at me as I say those dreaded words...    "I don't know" 

Maybe you could relate to that in your own experience when you was young. 

I can see in myself at that time that the idea of not knowing was something I probably drove hard to get away from. Even if my "inherent" not knowing was only covered over with adopted and programmed beliefs, that didn't matter because my job as a self was not to get what's true, but rather find out how to relate to others socially and manage that.

Imagine this possibility... 

You wake up tomorrow and you are charged with a fierce curiosity! Suddenly life has become one big open question mark (?) 

From this place of standing on nothing you are free to start asking questions that you have never asked in your life. You come out your room and as you do you stub your toe on the bed. The normal reaction to that is noticed, but instead of stopping there you ask... 

What is pain? You seek to get past your minds automatic interpretation of what pain is and start to look at the actual experience directly, it becomes a open question.

You then get ready to go out of your house as you step out the door you perceive a dangerous looking person, you then have a negatively charged feeling arise in your body, what we normally call an emotion. You then start to ask what is that? Why does that arise, am I creating it? Or is it inflicted? For what purpose would I be creating that for?

The feeling then "moves" or motivates you to walk the other way, as you start walking down the road, you start to engage in a inner dialogue with yourself. Then that becomes the question - what is the inner dialogue? Who is it aimed at? Why does it exsit? How did it come about that human beings have a inner dialogue?

Imagine the consciousness one would have, the subtle distinctions and details of life that you would create. You would experience life like no other human being does. if you approached life as a constant question you would eventually become conscious of shit so inconceivable to you at this moment it would blow your mind.

Interesting possibility isn't is?