Catching the OX

[caspex]

as in making IT my normal state. So I can start taming it. You guys in later stages, please provide me with some advice. Thank You.

[Aaron p]

Be aware that there are false awakenings and true awakenings. Or deeper levels of true awakening at least.

Actually getting properly enlightened is extremeeeeely hardcore. And even a lot of people here will have a shallow enlightenment

[Nahm]

The Emotional Scale.

The scale is not about you, you are love and love does not need ‘work’ or ‘taming’. 

The scale is about emotions experienced, right now. Never in a past or future. Only now. 

Recognize it is not what anyone says, or ‘how the world is’, etc... which ‘throws you off the ox’...it’s what you’re thinking. 

In the recognition a thought isn’t resonating, isn’t feeling good...use the scale to choose a better feeling thought. 

Notice pessimism is a releasing, relieving emotion...in comparison, or relative to....frustration. It simply feels better to express, and then reach for the next higher emotion, by reaching for a thought in accordance with it. Might sound like “ok, I see, I’m creating frustration, by focusing on this thought which is pessimistic”.  

Then reach for a thought of boredom. This might sound odd initially, but feel it. Boredom feels better than frustration, and better than pessimism. 

Then reach for contentment. “Can I feel content with what is? With what is actual...with where I’m physically at right now, with just this which I am seeing & hearing, right now?  Feel satisfaction in recognizing contentment. 

Then reach for hopefulness. “If I can move up the scale anytime, to contentment...and I understand that I can do this...well...that makes it much easier to be hopeful, to focus on a thought about things working out.”

By choosing, reaching for the thought, and feeling hopeful...it is much easier to then choose an optimistic thought. “Maybe this will work out...I can let thoughts which don’t resonate go, and feel better, and do x, y or z about this”.  

Then reach for, move into...positive expectation. Because I can move up the emotional scale, because I understand this relationship between thought and inner being...I can believe it’ll work out, and that feels good. Since how I feel is always up to me, I can expect to be able to feel good. I can always use the emotional scale”.

“...Well, then it’s not such a big stretch to reach for a thought of being eager about my future to come, about this life and the experiences I’m creating. I get this. I got this. I’m enthused”.

“...and this sure feels like tapping into some passion!” “That makes sense now!” “I get how to move to passion...via choosing thoughts which resonate”. 

“...The experience of this passion...well...I can’t even tell the difference anymore between the thought and this great feeling, this inner being...and that, that which is always available, ever present, always right under my nose, which I know how to ‘get to’....sure feels a lot like this “joy” folks talk about”. 

“This joy is viscerally empowering, resonating in my mind and body. Perhaps this Joy is more than just emotion. Hard to say wether I love it, or it’s loving me. Doesn’t even matter really, in this joy, this love.”

”...I’ll be damned...it’s pretty easy to appreciate even the smallest of things in this joy and love. It’s empowering. I kinda wanna express this as much as I can, as often as I can”. 

“...and I can! because I can always move up the emotional scale!”

 

 

 

[VeganAwake]

2 hours ago, Swarnim said:

as in making IT my normal state. So I can start taming it. You guys in later stages, please provide me with some advice. Thank You.

Enlightenment is the recognition that there never was an individual to become/catch enlightenment. ❤

LOOK closely at who this YOU character is. Where is it? What does it consist of? Can you place a finger on it?

Edited January 11, 2021 by VeganAwake

[Consilience]

1 hour ago, VeganAwake said:

Enlightenment is the recognition that there never was an individual to become/catch enlightenment. ❤

Yes. And this recognition tends to unfold at deeper and deeper levels overtime. You start to see new ways attachment, craving, aversion, feelings of separation, (all of these are the constituents of identification with a "self") are operating, reasserting and constructing themselves. This is why practicing meditation, contemplation, silent reflection is so important.

Keep noticing this illusion, this false identification, what constructs it, how it starts to manifest the mirage of "self." Keep peering into the emptiness of this self though. That's the only way to catch the ox, is through patient observation of the actuality of being, moment by moment, in THE moment. 

[VeganAwake]

6 hours ago, Consilience said:

This is why practicing meditation, contemplation, silent reflection is so important.

Well it seems important to the seeker, but after it's recognized the seeker was just conditioned patterns of thought running rampid, it becomes laughable.❤

[zeroISinfinity]

8 hours ago, VeganAwake said:

Enlightenment is the recognition that there never was an individual to become/catch enlightenment. ❤

LOOK closely at who this YOU character is. Where is it? What does it consist of? Can you place a finger on it?

Awakening is more proper term. You are Love as Jed told. That's Enlightenment. Deepen your Awakening. 

[Consilience]

2 hours ago, VeganAwake said:

Well it seems important to the seeker, but after it's recognized the seeker was just conditioned patterns of thought running rampid, it becomes laughable.❤

The importance is relative yes. Clarity of the piercing nature of this illusion can flow up and down in intensity much like the sun rises, peaks, sets, and disappears into darkness. So too can the self's total baselessness shine through more or less. Ego death on psychedelics and sobriety don't change the Truth, but clarity, experience, and insight differ between states.

These practices are only important for the seeker yes. It's like tricking the trick into killing itself. But dying into truth and love so it's all good. Once the self is seen through, it starts falling away on its own. The "practice" of meditation starts to become spontaneous; meditation is life itself. Yet the energy of survival may still move Being into what we could call "formal meditation practice" which may inadvertently reinforce the intensity of this insight into the illusory nature of self. This is why in Zen they adopt the belief in practice as Enlightenment while simultaneously declaring Enlightenment to be when the distinction between Enlightenment and Non-Enlightenment fades away. At least, that's one way I've heard a true "Zen Master" describe Enlightenment. 

[tsuki]

13 hours ago, Swarnim said:

as in making IT my normal state. So I can start taming it. You guys in later stages, please provide me with some advice. Thank You.

I'm sure that you already researched the generic pointers, so you will need to provide us with a specific context so that we can give you specific pointers.

[caspex]

@tsuki

7 hours ago, tsuki said:

I'm sure that you already researched the generic pointers, so you will need to provide us with a specific context so that we can give you specific pointers.

I have alr got some good pointers through the replies, thanks.

[yangmilun]

find the Ox yet?