How Do I Know If I'm Making Progress In Consciousness Work?

[VincentArogya]

1. How do you guys gauge your consciousness work and what determines your development?

2. I'm not referring to enlightenment when I mean consciousness work.

Please share your strategies and tips.

[Michal__]

Jhãnas are a good measure, also cessations.

Jhãnas themselves don't have much to do with enlightenment but they really help and increase your consciousnesses.

The fact that (if) they're accessible to you alone means a lot.

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Also writing down your insights is another important aspect. That is probably more towards enlightenment.

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Combined it is pretty intense.

[Dario1995]

@VincentArogya

How you react  to  situations, other people in life is a good way to see is someone present. 

And also, spend a week with your parents and family ?

 

[VincentArogya]

12 minutes ago, Dario1995 said:

@VincentArogya

How you react  to  situations, other people in life is a good way to see is someone present. 

And also, spend a week with your parents and family ?

 

Lol, the country I live in, we live with parents for a majority of our lives. I'm 26, and I only moving out this month.

[Dario1995]

@VincentArogya Eastern Europe probably? That is the case in my country aswell.. 

But i am not sure what do you mean excatly by conciousness work? 

[mandyjw]

Why are you doing consciousness work? What do you seek to get from it? 

[VincentArogya]

32 minutes ago, Dario1995 said:

@VincentArogya Eastern Europe probably? That is the case in my country aswell.. 

But i am not sure what do you mean excatly by conciousness work? 

Actually India. When I say consciousness work, I mean raising consciousness. 

[VincentArogya]

25 minutes ago, mandyjw said:

Why are you doing consciousness work? What do you seek to get from it? 

Is there anything tangible to get from anything?

[mandyjw]

@VincentArogya No, but what things that are not tangible are you seeking? 

[VincentArogya]

@mandyjw to raise my consciousness and not to constantly slip into egoic mode. To become a little more aware and present. To see things for what they are in the moment and not after judging them. 

[mandyjw]

@VincentArogya Why is higher consciousness preferable to egoic mode? Why is present preferable to not being present? Why is being without judgement preferable to judging? What do all those things at their root have in common that you want? 

[VincentArogya]

35 minutes ago, mandyjw said:

@VincentArogya Why is higher consciousness preferable to egoic mode? Why is present preferable to not being present? Why is being without judgement preferable to judging? What do all those things at their root have in common that you want? 

It would have been fine if there was no awakening at all. But awakening to Love and losing it after a few days has kept me in this loop to chase after that. 

[mandyjw]

1 minute ago, VincentArogya said:

It would have been fine if there was no awakening at all. But awakening to Love and losing it after a few days has kept me in this loop to chase after that. 

What was different at its core about the awakening compared with now, rather than how you felt? You're chasing for a feeling, but you are feeling all along. Nobody wants anything at all, they want it because of the way it makes them feel. But they are feeling, all along. 

So we chase for love, but then there again, we only want love because of the way it makes us feel. 

Don't worry about gauging anything, just pay attention to how you feel. Or better yet, just feel. 

[VincentArogya]

3 minutes ago, mandyjw said:

What was different at its core about the awakening compared with now, rather than how you felt? You're chasing for a feeling, but you are feeling all along. Nobody wants anything at all, they want it because of the way it makes them feel. But they are feeling, all along. 

So we chase for love, but then there again, we only want love because of the way it makes us feel. 

Don't worry about gauging anything, just pay attention to how you feel. Or better yet, just feel. 

Perhaps you're right. I am chasing after the feeling of love and ecstasy. And there's no difference between then and now. What I got to knew then, the insight hasn't changed but feelings did.

[mandyjw]

@VincentArogya Go deeper, the feeling isn't an end product. 

You don't have love but you are an open door to love. When I use the word feeling, we think of a product of some kind, we think of the word feeling as a noun, a category of which there are several types, love, boredom, sadness, etc.  But you are always feeling, as in the verb. That never changes. There is no difference between what you are and feeling, (this is what is meant by the pointer "you are Love") so we don't even need to distinguish between nouns and verbs anymore. 

The illusion is that we can ever close the door of feeling. The door is made of Love/Feeling itself, it cannot truly be closed. 

This is where the pursuit of Truth comes in and becomes one and the same with the pursuit of Love. 

In the same way memory works, you do not have memories but you are an open door or pathway to memory. Each is created anew, even when it seems we remember the same event or person thing, etc. I can remember my dead Grandmother and how amazing she was and feel amazing or I can remember that she is dead and gone. I can do the same with my awakening. There's a big difference in how those two memories feel. So if I pay attention to how I feel I can align with feeling by paying attention to what thoughts feel good and which do not. By using feeling as a gauge I align and "remember" that the door is always open. 

Edited October 1, 2020 by mandyjw

[VincentArogya]

26 minutes ago, mandyjw said:

@VincentArogya Go deeper, the feeling isn't an end product. 

You don't have love but you are an open door to love. When I use the word feeling, we think of a product of some kind, we think of the word feeling as a noun, a category of which there are several types, love, boredom, sadness, etc.  But you are always feeling, as in the verb. That never changes. There is no difference between what you are and feeling, (this is what is meant by the pointer "you are Love") so we don't even need to distinguish between nouns and verbs anymore. 

The illusion is that we can ever close the door of feeling. The door is made of Love/Feeling itself, it cannot truly be closed. 

This is where the pursuit of Truth comes in and becomes one and the same with the pursuit of Love. 

In the same way memory works, you do not have memories but you are an open door or pathway to memory. Each is created anew, even when it seems we remember the same event or person thing, etc. I can remember my dead Grandmother and how amazing she was and feel amazing or I can remember that she is dead and gone. I can do the same with my awakening. There's a big difference in how those two memories feel. So if I pay attention to how I feel I can align with feeling by paying attention to what thoughts feel good and which do not. By using feeling as a gauge I align and "remember" that the door is always open. 

Thank you for sharing this. 

The breaking down of noun and verb was a powerful insight.

I would love a little more clarification on this:

45 minutes ago, mandyjw said:

By using feeling as a gauge I align and "remember" that the door is always open. 

 

[mandyjw]

48 minutes ago, mandyjw said:

By using feeling as a gauge I align and "remember" that the door is always open. 

 

So you are feeling itself, but we experience specific feelings. When we feel something that doesn't feel good, we can either,

A. Go straight to the source of feeling itself and just FEEL (that's why meditation and meditative forms of living are so effective)

B. we can examine what thoughts we are thinking, and what beliefs (patterns of thought) are in place.

Both those options disidentify from being the one who is sad, or the one who is happy. One utilizes thought and gets very curious about itself and one drops thought. There is a process of flipping back and forth and "knowing" (really feeling,) which to do when. You get better and better at it, but still you're only ever just feeling which you were always "doing" (spoiler alert, you're not doing it) all along. 

 

[VincentArogya]

59 minutes ago, mandyjw said:

 

So you are feeling itself, but we experience specific feelings. When we feel something that doesn't feel good, we can either,

A. Go straight to the source of feeling itself and just FEEL (that's why meditation and meditative forms of living are so effective)

B. we can examine what thoughts we are thinking, and what beliefs (patterns of thought) are in place.

Both those options disidentify from being the one who is sad, or the one who is happy. One utilizes thought and gets very curious about itself and one drops thought. There is a process of flipping back and forth and "knowing" (really feeling,) which to do when. You get better and better at it, but still you're only ever just feeling which you were always "doing" (spoiler alert, you're not doing it) all along. 

 

Thank You!

[yetineti]

You will know.