Thoughts
some ramblings about thoughts by vince
John Squabbler
Sometimes when we’d talk about pay-off experiences like satori and the sort of thing I’d feel left out. You know, people might say it’s very subtle, and in the next utterance describe some mind-blowing experience, so what the hell, right? How are we defining “subtle” exactly? I thought I wanted that mind-blowing experience. It was Angelo – who’s one of the main mind-blowers – who told me to relax and stop chasing sudden non-ordinary reality experiences, and that landed powerfully. He told me to try Fetters 4/5, and move on to 6 when ready. (Ready is too late – it’s an Also/And gig.) I found Pernilla that way, and Kevin S. I enjoy listening to this group. You’re all very supportive of each other – no Zen stick whacking or Nondual Terminology Police. Very much from the heart – completely authentic. To say “no thinker” is not to say no thoughts – not necessarily, anyway. There’s a ton of thoughts sometimes, and sometimes there don’t seem to be any at all, and between these there’s no real difference. It’s like today it’s raining, or maybe it’s sunny, or maybe it snows. We call all of it “weather.” Thoughts are like that. Can’t stop the rain. So, no thinker is like having no “inner voice” nagging all the time – commenting about how nice it would be it it weren’t raining, or whatever. It’s not like there was a thinker and now there isn’t. The “voice” didn’t vanish – it was never there, and nothing vanishes if it were never there to begin with. If I remember experiencing a very loud, judgmental inner voice for most of my life that wouldn’t shut up and was driving me round the bend, that memory is a story. The voice is a story. The thinker is a story. It doesn’t “come back” because there’s a noticeable thought. The closest I know to “bliss” is the silence of no inner voice – nobody reading every single thought that comes through the pipe as if it’s vital information that Jack and Sue are having an affair or the universe is expanding or contracting or blowing bubbles. There is no inner monologue or play-by-play or color commentary. That’ll do – it’s mind-blowing enough. Subtle but not TOO subtle – ha ha. It’s like typing this comment – thoughts expressing is all it is. Not weird at all – completely natural. As they say in Texas, Happy trails!
All IS One
BEing the music
The exercise: Uprooting Unconscious beliefs in Self
The exercise might require some patience. You will need to wait until it seems there is a sense of self or ‘I’, and when you notice that sense of self arises in a particular moment at some point in the day, try to stay with it at the level it’s arisen and ask yourself if there is a belief that you are that &/or that it is you?
If the answer is yes, the second part of the exercise is to look more closely at what this sense of self is made up of.
If the answer is no, make a note of what that sense of self was made up of, and go back to looking and see if you can find any other sense of self that you would answer yes to the question above, and if so then proceed to the second part as above.