Enlightenment: The Ego, what is it? How to transcend it.

[Grizz Griswold]

Posted by greybeard (here)
"If it is not about me I lose interest" I thought that I was interested in lots of things, nothing to do with me, but I get it now. Its my opinion about XYand Z Im actually interested in.
Absolutely everything is judged by the mind (me) That's what it does and its oh so subtle.

Hi Chris, We could hear someone say an event happened on planet Jupiter,
the ego will use it and we become worried about how this is going to affect the I/Me/Mine/ My. The ego always looks for opportunity to take advantage.

That's the reasons for asking, what am I not?
When the answer comes, we find out.....

I'm not the thinker!
I'm not these thoughts!
I,m not even the body!

The witness/awareness/eternal sky/ocean/all that is.... is the space in which all these
transient things occur.

Everyday, awareness and timelessness is experienced ...while zoning out...looking out the window... not thinking at all etc etc

But the thoughts of me/my/i come and we become preoccupied because these things are "about Me"
Hedderman says these many thoughts are the glue that holds the illusion together.

When the Realization comes, You will truly recognize, even these thoughts are just passing events taking place in awareness....in that which you truly are eternally.
Like foam on the Ocean or leaves blowing across the sky, there is no effect on Ocean, Sky
or to the eternal awareness/true self.


With Love
barry

[Iloveyou]

I ME ME MINE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NvDHwVM-PJI

(please forgive this short interruption, I (!!!) have to poste this-)

[Wind]

The latest videos from Eckhart Tolle.

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=ztqZkpJ8IqE

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=U07k4-8AiKA

[Wind]

You say your spiritual sadhana is really paying off.
Every day you are becoming more and more peaceful.
You feel more kind, you have more space.
But you are who exactly?
Some people laugh, but still they don't get it.
Can you, this one you speak as, not also be perceived?
Often, it is right here that the biggest discomfort comes
as the bright light of inquiry exposes the false.
Now, if the mind does not catch you here, you are GONE FREE.
The biggest smoke comes out just when everything is about to vanish.
Strong doubt and fear may come, if not now,
then quite likely following any profound insight.
Paradoxically, you are simultaneously
right at your most seemingly vulnerable
and yet in the most powerful place of liberation.
The psychological serpent mind becomes
the pedophile of the spiritually naive being.
He will say, 'You’re safe here with me.
Don't go into the unknown without my protection.
Come and take some sweetie.'
Will you bite?
Your strength is in keeping quiet, empty and detached of identity whilst trusting in the grace of the Supreme Self.
Can you not see all this as phenomenal?
Just be without personal identity. Be empty.
Is this not all playing out right in front of You, the formless Self?
Can you be apart from the single Self? Who are You?
Consciousness walks along the edge of its own blade.
The blade of its subtlest projection, and yet none of this
really has any power without your interest, belief and identity.

~ Mooji

[Grizz Griswold]

Tony makes the statement that "there is no such thing as an enlightened person"
the person/i/me/my are just temporal things happening within consciousness.

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=7if7A99_Lpc

barr

[greybeard]

Men and women ---relationship in the spiritual search
Very hilarious and wise.

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=lgsiTJ3ihgw

[Wind]

Very often, when you are guided into the direct experience of the Self
the mind rises up for its biggest fight.
But just stay put and feel the turbulence without identifying personally.
You are likely to get annoyed with this advice
as you are still inclined to protect your relationship with the mind,
but try and follow my pointing and just observe with detachment.
Now is the time where you must discern what is the mind and what is You.
What is so disturbed? What is rebelling so much?
Is this your true Self?
At this point, many give up, because the mind becomes unbearable.
It rebels more on this path than on any other path,
because on other paths the mind is included not threatened.
But do you want to be spiritual or free?

~ Mooji

[Wind]

"I remember the first time I had this astonishing experience. I was fond of disappearing from London whenever the weather allowed and wandering alongside the river Thames in its more picturesque country parts. If the day was sunny I would stretch my feet out, lie down in the grass, pull out notebook and pen from my pocket--knowing that thoughts would eventually arise that would have for me an instructive or even revelatory nature, apart from those ordinary ones which were merely expressive.

One day, while I was waiting for these thoughts to arise, I lost the feeling that I was there at all. I seemed to dissolve and vanish from that place, but not from consciousness. Something was there, a presence, certainly not me, but I was fully aware of it. It seemed to be something of the highest importance, the only thing that mattered. After a few minutes I came back, discovered myself in time and space again; but a great peace had touched me and a very benevolent feeling was still with me. I looked at the trees, the shrubs, the flowers, and the grass and felt a tremendous sympathy with them and then when I thought of other persons a tremendous benevolence towards them."

~ Paul Brunton

[Wind]

You must get used to dropping your self-image.
Or more easy than dropping the self-image is to realise
that it is also observable. That is easier.
If you can observe it, find out who are you who is observing?
Don't make this a mental question.
The answer is there, but the answer does not need words or concepts.
The fact goes before the question even.
The self-image is seen. By what?
If it is seen, one of these two things must be phenomenal.
Come more and more into your right position as the pure Seer.
It is not a jerk into something more jerky, but if there is a jerk,
it is a jerk into total silence, stillness, serenity, peace and joy.
This Seer is not particularly interested in what is being seen.
A glimpse is enough.
If it takes a long time, there is still too much unspent sleep
as to require re-focusing and re-focusing and re-focusing.
Then, at some point, you naturally come to see that even the activity
of focusing and re-focusing is also phenomenal.
Contemplate.

~ Mooji

[Wind]

Visitations of grace

"When the feel of this unusual and ethereal presence suffuses the heart, the first duty is to drop all attention elsewhere and respond to it. This response is not only to be immediate, unhesitating, and unquestioning; it must also be warm, loving, grateful, and joyous.

These visitations of a higher presence may deceive him into thinking that he has reached a higher degree than he really has. If so, he may expect their light and strength to abide permanently with him. In that case he may plunge into emotional reactions of gloom and disappointment when they ebb. It would be better for him to receive them gratefully as well as to regard their passing as tests of his resignation to the higher self and of his trust that its inner working is not mistaken. It knows quite well what It is doing in and for him."

~ Paul Brunton

[Grizz Griswold]

I would like to recognize Chris for being a beacon of higher consciousness here on Avalon.
I hope that others can join me in gratitude to Chris for He truly is a teacher in his own right.
His true and loving nature comes through in His words and by His example. His comments and
posts have given many a leg up on their own spirituality. We learn by teaching and Chris has shown
His teaching comes from His true self.

Are there others?.... yes
Let us honor them also....as we do, we honor and have gratitude for our own true self.

Here's to you Chris

With Love
Bazz

[Shezbeth]

I often have my dispositional disagreements with Greybeard but I accede that he is a wealth of knowledge, perspective, insight, research, and above all peace of mind.

In short, he typifies the term 'exemplary'. I choose different examples, but that doesn't detract that he is one in fact.

<shudders at his own hypocrisy>

[greybeard]

Oh shucks what can I say!!!
but THANKS
Without the encouragement and contributions of many and guests visiting, this thread would have died a long time ago.
Its never thought of as my thread.
Keep it coming.---Im in hibernation--virtually.
Thanks to wind and bazz in particular for keeping this resource going.
c

[Wind]

Chris indeed has been a great teacher and mentor! He has always been a good friend and a calming voice of reason here.

--

The Self is not going to be an experience the person is going to have.
The true experience blasts the 'person' out of the picture all together
and what remains is only the Self.


~ Mooji

[Guish]

82.   Nothing Exists

Yamaoka Tesshu, as a young student of Zen, visited one master after another. He called upon Dokuon of Shokoku.

Desiring to show his attainment, he said: "The mind, Buddha, and sentient beings, after all, do not exist. The true nature of phenomena is emptiness. There is no relaization, no delusion, no sage, no mediocrity. There is no giving and nothing to be received."

Dokuon, who was smoking quietly, said nothing. Suddenly he whacked Yamaoka with his bamboo pipe. This made the youth quite angry.

"If nothing exists," inquired Dokuon, "where did this anger come from?"

[greybeard]

Anger exists, in duality, and all other things, thoughts included, come like waves on the ocean---they arise and subside but they do not affect the true Self, though it is aware of it.
Nothing is personal, however if the house catches fire, best to call the fire brigade.

C

[Guish]

Enlightenment does not occur when you live according to the moment. It occurs when you become the moment. Time loses importance, name holds no significance and the direction becomes irrelevant.

Yours,
Geerish.

[Meggings]

This earth symbolizes all that has been condemned, and heaven, all that has been desired. But I don't divide; to me, both are one. And the day will soon come for you too when you will be able to see that "this" is pregnant with "that." this world is just a womb for the divine; the earthly is just a cover, a protective cover, for the unearthly. The seed, the cell of the seed, is not against the tree, it is a protection. Matter is just a protection for the Divine.

Look, and always try to find the unity. In unity is religion, in disunity religion is lost. And avoid being against. If you are against, you will become rigid, hard, and the harder you become the more dead you will be.

I have heard that it once happened that a gang of robbers, by mistake, entered a monastery. They thought this house belonged to some rich man -- the monastery had a look of richness -- so they entered. But the monks gave them such a hard fight they were happy when they succeeded in escaping. When they met again outside the town, one of the robbers philosophized, "Not bad, we have a hundred rupees among us." The leader said, "You fools! I have always told you to avoid monks. We had five hundred rupees when we entered the monastery!" I also say to you: avoid monks. If you enter the monastery with five hundred flowers, you will have only one hundred when you come out. They are enemies, enemies of "this," and I say those who are enemies of "this" are bound to be enemies of "that" -- whether they know it or not.

Love "this" and love it so deeply that your love transcends "this" and reaches "that." That's what I mean: roots into this earth, and wings into that heaven.

-Rajneesh

[Grizz Griswold]

Paul speaks about mind/consciousness, the space in which all
temporary things occur in. We want to know ourselves as a noun
but the only way we can be ourselves is a verb.

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=FcVQtlSH6Ok

b

[Wind]

Sometimes I say to people, 'Keep quiet,'
but once the egoic identity drops away,
you will come to see that even this advice to 'keep quiet'
becomes meaningless.
There is nobody left to keep quiet.
When there is somebody there to keep quiet, there is noise.
When there is nobody left to keep quiet, there is Silence.

~ Mooji

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=tXQ5mAQs9U8