Topic: No Path

[Gunslinger]

Tommy:

You asked if I would expand on the idea of simultaneous lives.  You also asked if I would define with a bit more detail what I mean by "nature".  So I'm opening this thread to answer.  I'm next going to copy and paste a recent post of yours that I think is a pretty good summary of what you already understand.  I hope that is not assuming too much.  Anyway it's a good place to start.

[Gunslinger]

Tommy said:

The Fine Art of Self-Centeredness


Assertion:  To initially approach No-Self, the Self must be utilized.

“Self” defined as what you realistically view in the mirror and not to be confused with ego states.

“Realistically” defined as the awareness of the possibility of yourself having a deluded or semi-deluded habitual viewpoint of being alone or isolated from all other people or energetic qualities.  i.e., you “put yourself down” on a regular basis, whether consciously or not, and are trying to learn to deal with this situation for the purpose of self/no-self improvement.

“No-Self” defined as the spiritually-intact energy form which is not limited to, but possibly confined within, the human body/mind principle.  I am referring directly to an energy form which we all are but are basically unaware of being.

So, enough of this “definition” thing, already.

My ultimate goal, as a spiritually-energetic body or soul, is to escape the seemingly eternal cycle of physical birth/death/rebirth.  I go about approaching this goal by making my best attempt to drill permanently into my consciousness that I am an eternal life force and must use the powers present in my physical body/mind principle to learn all that is needed to achieve this endeavor.  In other words, “physician, heal thyself” first, so that “The Work” of spiritually progressing can occur.

Now, how do I go about tending to my spiritual self?  Just knowing it and letting my Intent “play out” on its own accord?  Is that enough to allow the evolutionary process to come about for an eventual “enlightenment” or release from this aforementioned cycle of physical life after life process?  Is “just letting things happen as they” enough to eventually become enlightened” or is much more involved?  Is there Work that needs to be done to become “enlightened”?  i.e., is Intent functional without Will?

I am purposefully a self-centered person but, at one time, was not.  I spun my wheels, or at least thought so, searching via this or that supposed spiritual/esoteric practice. 
I literally immersed myself into the details of several “Ways”, hoping to find “the One Way” to spiritual liberation.  And, honestly, I didn’t know what I was looking for but a fire within me drove me on, anyway.

And I have thus learned that this is very typical of the humankind, no matter what the century or particular ethnic background of the “searcher”.  And, Ooops!, here come another (and hopefully the last) definition, as in “searcher”, here described as someone who is not totally satisfied with the religious/spiritual practice “handed down to them” in whatever way or form.
You know what I mean here.  I practiced my parents’ religion until I made my own decision on what to spiritually practice.
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Now I will cut to the chase and ask the question, “Is “the search” ever over?  Or, is there actually a total enlightenment? You know, like the Buddah purportedly experienced.

I assert that any path with heart IS Nirvana.  And as a lay Buddhist priest, I define laughingly that this Nirvana, this Heaven is a house which we all build, us soul bodies, through the centuries.  It is the bridge between self and no-self.

So, how have I personally “utilized self”?  i.e., How have I been self-centered?  First of all, how do I describe, “Make myself available to the Spirit.”?  Does this require focus or not?  Is self-discipline involved or even necessary?  Or is “just laying back”, taking a serious chill pill just flowery words for being lackadaisical?  Is utilizing self actually focused Will?

When I found my mind opening up some 30+ years ago I became a sponge in this “immersion” of myself into several different Ways.  T.M., the Yogas, Zazen, prayer, Reiki, drug-induced states of mind, study of Vedantic scriptures, Buddhist retreats, communing with gurus and asthetics, martial art studies, heck, I could make this list a lot longer here.  And where did it get me?

Actually, I “became” something.  Yeh, that’s right.  I turned into a complete circle of rational faith, an entity without title, without a designation or goal.  I became something like a fresh coat of paint.  I am now constantly restoring my awareness to a state of self-acceptance so that living in the present is as fulfilling as it is possible. 
I learnt that I needed to view my entire current life as one whole unit.  And, thusly, it has become much more realistic for me to accept my “real self”, my no-self, as an eternal and divine energetic soul body.  Yes, one unit, one whole incomprehensible life which I construct throughout all known realities which I learn to experience.

And, remarkably, it seems I’ve only just begun.  Everything I’ve done is what I had to do at that particular time in my current life.  I followed my instincts and learnt not to repeat mistakes made.  I let my common sense decipher what worked for me and what would eventually fall to the wayside of my path.  And then, maybe, I’ve just been lucky.  Who knows what’s “meant to be” until after it’s already happened?

The essence of living “my life” is immortal.

And just how do I live my “Self-Centered” life?

I avoid passing judgement, for it reflects the level of my self-acceptance.  I remind myself that struggle comes from my own defenses.  I do not impose my past upon my present.  I listen to my bodys’ responses of emotional or physical stress and choose my behavior accordingly.  I keep my attention on the here and now through meditation, exercise and art forms, and my personal relationships.  I do not struggle against things or situations.  I remind myself daily that the world “out there” is a reflection of my world “in here”.  I pay attention to my inner life and follow my intuition.  I do not contaminate my mind and body with “toxics”.  I live and think healthy.  I judge my worth by myself.  And I always look for reminders that the physical world is a reflection of a deeper, purer and more-balanced higher Good.

All of these points direct me towards a wholeness which I know I ultimately share with all humankind and our universe.  It is my road to freedom, my Friends!


Respectfully, Tommy Two Feathers, 02/26/-7

[tommy2]

Go for it, Yo!

[tommy2]

Just One Step Back ?


In my own reasonings, practicing “non-attachment” is seriously attempting to live a life quite rid of most outside influences which tend to overshadow my real self.  And I am sure you guys remember how I have defined “my real self” here in earlier postings. And this sense of non-attachment isn’t something which I think my culture taught me.  You know, Mom, Dad, school and church teachers, work associates and bosses.

I professionally “grew up” in the modern world of business and industry where a pretty high value has been placed upon being committed, deeply involved, passionate, etc.  At those times, starting some 30 years ago, I didn’t realize that such qualities were not opposite of the non-attachment I am here attempting to define and surely was, even then.

And also on the personal level these same qualities of commitment and passion, applied to a one-on-one relationship as an example, surely means to have enough love and understanding for that “other person” to be what and who they want to be.  And being passionate about your work means to me to be willing to give myself the creative and resourceful space to approach my work tasks from many angles in order to discover always new perspectives and directions.  What I posit here is that these new opportunities of work and personal connections can surely only come from my innermost creative core.  Yes, I refer to that which I am able to contact only if I am immersed in and usually overwhelmed by the details of my spiritual “work”.

As a side note here, I am assuming that you are realizing that my “work” can and does directly relate to all of my separate and distinct loves of nature, wife and children , work professionalism, art forms and my spiritual endeavors.

The seemingly paradoxical event I am heading towards describing in this writing is, of course, getting the most passion from my life by teaching myself to be able to stand back and be myself.  What I allude directly to here is self-worth, fulfillment, dedication and even love and passion ……. All born and raised in my true self.  They are qualities of the self which are blossoming whenever I free myself from narrow attachments, even in meager attempts. 

Finding my freedom was and is necessary and it involves slowly but surely a letting go of expectations, preconceived outcomes and my constant egotistical points of view.    As an example of illustration, please attempt to consider the following scenario which I heard once in a self-help seminar years ago, OK?  There are two mothers in a crowded supermarket trying to handle an upset child crying loudly and drawing much attention.  And as those of you know, who are or have raised children, when a child is upset IT IS UPSET.  There are no two ways about it.  You also know that a childs feelings are their total world, and “making a scene” in public means absolutely nothing to them at all. 

So when Mommy commands, “All right, stop that.  I mean it!”, the child knows within their true self that his or her feelings aren’t being heard or allowed to even exist.  This particular Mommy just wants results, right?

Now the second Mommy, on the other hand, sees her child is truly upset and is not concerned how her situation is observed or how it is affecting her, because she is truly feeling for the child and wants the child happy again.  So she says, “Why are you upset?  Mommy is right here.”  Even a caress here will work, surely as much as the warm words.  The childs “real self” now detects that his or her feelings have been heard and understood and there is no longer a threat. 

Do you see what’s happening here?  Can you picture how a gradual re-orienting to my true nature, my divine and eternal self, instead of my self-image, is slowly becoming part of a healing process for me?  I, just like the second Mommy, am approaching any fearful situations logically and directly.   Or, at least, I am trying very hard to.

The egotistical self is all about feelings and our supposed “needs”, right?  If a person can consider their basic human needs as already fulfilled then this egoself has no action to live in.  Does this make any damn sense at all?  I am suggesting that a person merely step back and observe, for strictly appreciation sense, what is happening in any given situation, especially those of a stressful nature.

On a personal level, when I practice this form of non-attachment, I become much more “present” in my body with my mental activity and even my breathing I have found to be much more defined.  Personal threats are replaced with more feelings of “belonging”.  And from such a climate gradually emerges more self-acceptance, don’t you think?

Things and events “out there” begin to seem more connected to me instead of just my personal thoughts and feelings.  As people like to quote so called Toltec images on forums like this, my “awareness expands”.  Yes, my wonderful Assemblage Point slowly settles into a more permanent and realistic position.  A position of more personal power.

Is such a definition of unity lies also maybe a close semblance to a “working” definition of Love herself, that something which is much, much more secure than the emotional thing that seemingly comes and goes so easily in our short and narrow lives, when we say we’re “in love”?  You know what I mean.   The difference between a feeling and a state of being.  Or maybe more exactly,“That state which I personally am in fuller contact with my true self.” 

Think about it.  Isn’t THAT what we’re all trying to do here, on one level or another, for ourselves?  Aren’t we really trying to find this very thing together?


Gladly, Tommy Two Feathers/0312/07

[tommy2]

THIS OR THAT !


Musing human relations ………. 


How do we become and stay at ease with ourselves and others? 
A desirable relationship, I sense, is a simple and direct connection, for sharing kindness and humor and maybe even a little something which inspires. 

Can such a relationship with another be this without first having this same relationship with oneself?

And I wonder, are there certain principles to guide us in achieving this small, but wonderously, fulfilling phenomenon?  How can we humans be easily enabled to be stronger and perhaps less afraid of those around us?  But isn’t the psychology of our human relations more about just what is it that drives us to do the things we do? 

With all of the many, many factors contributing to any one given human situation or event, shouldn’t maybe something quite unconventional be used as an idea on how to approach some kind of rational explanation as to what “makes us tick”, when dealing with people and events in our daily lives?  In other words, what is the source of our problems in the adult world?  Is it something us Humankind just haven’t discovered yet?
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Cultural conditioning applied to the unconsciousness ….. i.e., ways we have learned to avoid the underlying fears we harbor for whatever reason …….  Is this the main culprit involved or are current mind sciences missing the point entirely?  What I mean is, what about forces like maybe imprints from previous lives, many of them compounded upon each other, truly making us “what we are” today, this moment?  i.e., is the unconscious/subconscious over-emphasized when analyzing us humans and why we do things?  It’s maybe like when I am looking for something that I have told myself “definitely is” in the living room but really ain’t at all..  That’s exactly where I “know” I left the damned thing, right?!  And so my search is limited to just there until the thing is found later where someone else “definitely must have put it!”  Isn’t that JUST what we can catch ourselves doing, mentally, if we were to take some serious looks at ourselves from time to time?

Where am I heading with this, is that there is a value of kindness, a fundamental goodness inside of us which shares commonality with all of life.  Is looking for this commonality, this certain “something”, which we must re-teach or remind ourselves of, which maybe has been forgotten over the generations of our lives?  And do we have to make a concentrated effort, through our mental habits, to re-orient ourselves TO our true selves, so that meaningful human relationships can be sustained?  And by this I have also meant specifically the relationship which we have with our own self.  The two relationships surely fit hand in hand, don’t you think?
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So, thusly, I will state now that I am in the process of “training myself” to be happy.  Yes, I am trying to live contrary to the Christian ethic which I was raised into, that the personality Tommy T. exists as being incomplete in all my sinfulness. That’s the way I was taught.

Or, in a similar vein, how about not needing to struggle at all in order to be a whatever- warrior or a this- or- that aesthetic?  And what I mean by “training myself” is that, instead of just focusing my mind for the pure sake of focusing it, I am learning to draw closer to my spirit through my intellect and heart by observing these two tools more than just purely for the sake of observing them.  I am in the process of transforming my outlook and approach to living.  I guess I am coming to terms with mortality.  I have found that I have been comparing myself to others and even comparing situations to each other and, yet further, people to other people.  I have even, worst of all I fear, been comparing my current self to my past self.  What I mean is, I tell myself up to this moment that I have changed, that I have grown and matured and grown wiser.  But I have been still judging.  I have fed my ego into a state of “out of control”.  i.e., I have to this day told myself and others how much I have my shit together, and this is not so at all.  I am all alone with my true self and wondering if I have been doing the right things to cultivate this very spiritual entity.  Yes, my soul.

 I guess that the flow of this writing got started after I recently returned from a “wake” or “viewing” of a deceased man in our community.  Yep, old Dale died and was only two years older than I.  His sister, Janice, I went through all twelve grades of school together and have stayed good friends to this day.  So have a lot of other folk I have known, up and died.  My Dad Glenn, my the Great Spirit keep at rest his dear and departed soul, told me again and again over the last several years of his life that growing in age has the serious downfall, even the agony, of carrying with it the realization that the number of friends and loved ones who have passed away before him suddenly becomes larger and larger in a seemingly short time. 
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But I have been doing this thing, facing myself and accepting, for over 15 years now.  Especially the last few years as I watched my Dad and Mom’s life slowly ebb away.   Yes, I am becoming really, really glad I am not burned and disfigured or paralyzed or something.  Yes, being thankful and sharing with an open heart the remarkable realization how wonderful my life has been just because of the simple things.
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Isn’t our moment-to-moment happiness more determined by our outlook than the absolute condition we find ourselves in?  Try 5 or 10 repetitions daily of, “I am really glad that I am not a ………”.  You fill in the blank.
Really do it right now.  I know you got a minute or so.  Do it with some effort, my Friends.  Say it and mean it, then let it soak in.  Once you do, if you haven’t already, you’ll know exactly what I am talking about.
So just don’t shrug this off.  Try it.  Do it until it’s a habit, like I always say, right?
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What I am trying to say with all this is that our tendency to make comparisons strongly influences our feeling of contentment and happiness.  And not all comparisons are so bad.  It depends on the energy of the comparison, the Intent participated in, right?
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And if I do this, as I say to do, can I, can WE set aside religious and spiritual aspirations and just deal with happiness of the beauty we find around us each day?  Like saying, “Hello!!” to ourselves, in a serious and intended wake-up call way, in order to constantly jar ourselves back to a “reality” that is logical and a lot less ego-laden?

As an example, this woman I work with is always fretting over some new change or policy or directive.  She gets herself all knotted up over anything and seems to refuse to acknowledge me when I ask her, “Angie, can you change the new rule? And if you can’t, what is your point in all this bitching?”  She just tells me to shut up and walks away in a huff.  How much potential spiritual energy is she missing by exerting such force on something totally beyond her control in the first place?  I know that you know someone like this.  Is Angie, or whomever, just blowing wind for lack of no other way to draw attention to herself?  Or is there something much, much deeper going on which us humans are totally missing in our short and often very unhappy life?
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Yes, should we continue to draw our own attention to ourselves, greedily, through the pure ignoring of our true selves, or is there another way?  Can’t we just say, “Hey, I’m O.K.”?  Yes, “This is the way it is, so grow the hell up!  Smell the damn roses or something!!!!!”
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As an antidote to this malady, I have stopped trying so darn hard to accomplish something, anything.  Now I try to just content myself with looking at what I am doing or what situation I find myself in and then just be logical about any unhappiness or incompleteness I think that I sense. 

Ha! And aren’t these qualities really just what I have decided to accept?  Just like the people I relate to or not?

I’ll guess I’ll just have to wait and see, now, won’t I?

Pleasantly, Two Feathers