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

[greybeard]

Latest Conscious TV interview
Non Duality - Awakenings (loaded 22 May 2015)

Francis Bennett - 'The Key To Happiness' - Interview by Iain McNay (watch this programme)
http://conscious.tv/nonduality.html?...=4245096270001

Francis Bennett was a Roman Catholic, Trappist monk for a number of years. He lived in two monasteries of the Trappist Order in the US and was also a member of an urban, contemplative monastic community originally founded in Paris, France in 1975. He has lived in France at several monasteries, and in Canada at a small monastic community in Montreal Quebec. He received a five and a half year monastic/spiritual formation with the Trappists before he made his vows as a monk at Gethsemani Abbey in 1983. He has worked in ministry in the area of spiritual Care in the hospice movement, as a hospital chaplain and in spiritual care of the sick and dying in parish settings. In 2010, while in the middle of a Church Service in his monastery in Montreal, Francis suddenly experienced what he has come to call, "a radical perceptual shift in consciousness", in which he discovered the ever present presence of spacious, pure awareness. He came to see that this awareness is actually the unchanging essence of who he really is and always has been; the Supreme Self. He also came to see simultaneously, that this vast, infinite sense of presence at the center of his being (and at the center of the being of everyone else on the planet) is actually not at all separate from the presence of God, which he had been looking for during his many years as a monk and spiritual seeker.

[greybeard]

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[greybeard]

Well the thread just made the 300.000 visits mark and is over two thousand a week.
What is important is that there is an ongoing, increasing interest in spirituality and in particular, enlightenment/non-duality.
Thanks to all who visit and those who contribute, without whom there would not be this long standing thread.

With love
Chris

[Innocent Warrior]

Posted by greybeard (here)
Well the thread just made the 300.000 visits mark and is over two thousand a week.
What is important is that there is an ongoing, increasing interest in spirituality and in particular, enlightenment/non-duality.
Thanks to all who visit and those who contribute, without whom there would not be this long standing thread.

With love
Chris

Wow, brilliant! A big thanks to you, Chris, for creating such an inspiring thread. A haven of love and expansion.

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=oHs98TEYecM

[Guish]

Posted by greybeard (here)
Latest Conscious TV interview
Non Duality - Awakenings (loaded 22 May 2015)

Francis Bennett - 'The Key To Happiness' - Interview by Iain McNay (watch this programme)
http://conscious.tv/nonduality.html?...=4245096270001

Francis Bennett was a Roman Catholic, Trappist monk for a number of years. He lived in two monasteries of the Trappist Order in the US and was also a member of an urban, contemplative monastic community originally founded in Paris, France in 1975. He has lived in France at several monasteries, and in Canada at a small monastic community in Montreal Quebec. He received a five and a half year monastic/spiritual formation with the Trappists before he made his vows as a monk at Gethsemani Abbey in 1983. He has worked in ministry in the area of spiritual Care in the hospice movement, as a hospital chaplain and in spiritual care of the sick and dying in parish settings. In 2010, while in the middle of a Church Service in his monastery in Montreal, Francis suddenly experienced what he has come to call, "a radical perceptual shift in consciousness", in which he discovered the ever present presence of spacious, pure awareness. He came to see that this awareness is actually the unchanging essence of who he really is and always has been; the Supreme Self. He also came to see simultaneously, that this vast, infinite sense of presence at the center of his being (and at the center of the being of everyone else on the planet) is actually not at all separate from the presence of God, which he had been looking for during his many years as a monk and spiritual seeker.

I watched the first ten minutes. It confirms what I know. Being in the moment is the way of knowing god. He talks about a presence which brings peace. This is what we all long for but this is what our nature is before we get corrupted by our surroundings.

[Wind]

Congrats Chris, this is has been and is a truly great thread.

Don't try and stop the mind.
Trying to stop the mind is like trying to stop the wind dressed as a kite.
Don't fight with mind.
Because the one fighting mind has also mind inside himself.
Simply remain present as Awareness.
You are the space in which the flapping about of the mind is seen.
Now you may say ' But I cannot hold the attention in the Awareness' but even the attempt to hold attention in Awareness or trying anything at all to reach the Awareness is itself seen inside the Awareness.
Now, can it be this simple?

I wonder who gets this!

~ Mooji

[Wind]

When I see you, I see the light of God.

~ Mooji

[Guish]

Posted by Wind (here)
When I see you, I see the light of God.

~ Mooji

Even someone hurting you can be seen as an act of grace as it tests your inner peace. The story below was quoted by me before but it supports what I'm saying here.


The Buddha was sitting under a tree talking to his disciples when a man came and spat in his face. He wiped it off, and he asked the man, “What next? What do you want to say next?” The man was a little puzzled because he himself never expected that when you spit in someone’s face he should ask “What next?” He had no such experience in his past. He had insulted people and they had become angry and they had reacted. Or if they were cowards and weaklings, they had smiled, trying to bribe him. But the Buddha was like neither, he was not angry, nor in any way offended, nor in any way cowardly. But just matter-of-factly he said, “What next?” There was no reaction on his part.

But Buddha’s disciples became angry, and they reacted. His closest disciple, Ananda, said, “This is too much. We cannot tolerate it. He has to be punished for it, otherwise everybody will start doing things like this!”

Buddha said, “You keep silent. He has not offended me, but you are offending me. He is new, a stranger. He must have heard from people something about me, that this man is an atheist, a dangerous man who is throwing people off their track, a revolutionary, a corrupter. And he may have formed some idea, a notion of me. He has not spit on me, he has spit on his notion. He has spit on his idea of me because he does not know me at all, so how can he spit on me?

“If you think on it deeply,” Buddha said, “he has spit on his own mind. I am not part of it, and I can see that this poor man must have something else to say because this is a way of saying something. Spitting is a way of saying something. There are moments when you feel that language is impotent: in deep love, in intense anger, in hate, in prayer. There are intense moments when language is impotent. Then you have to do something. When you are angry, intensely angry, you hit the person, you spit on him, you are saying something. I can understand him. He must have something more to say, that’s why I’m asking, “What next?”

The man was even more puzzled! And Buddha said to his disciples, “I am more offended by you because you know me, and you have lived for years with me, and still you react.”

Puzzled, confused, the man returned home. He could not sleep the whole night. When you see a Buddha, it is difficult, impossible to sleep anymore the way you used to sleep before. Again and again he was haunted by the experience. He could not explain it to himself, what had happened. He was trembling all over, sweating and soaking the sheets. He had never come across such a man; the Buddha had shattered his whole mind and his whole pattern, his whole past.


The next morning he went back. He threw himself at Buddha’s feet. Buddha asked him again, “What next? This, too, is a way of saying something that cannot be said in language. When you come and touch my feet, you are saying something that cannot be said ordinarily, for which all words are too narrow; it cannot be contained in them.” Buddha said, “Look, Ananda, this man is again here, he is saying something. This man is a man of deep emotions.”

The man looked at Buddha and said, “Forgive me for what I did yesterday.”

Buddha said, “Forgive? But I am not the same man to whom you did it. The Ganges goes on flowing, it is never the same Ganges again. Every man is a river. The man you spit upon is no longer here. I look just like him, but I am not the same, much has happened in these twenty-four hours! The river has flowed so much. So I cannot forgive you because I have no grudge against you.

“And you also are new. I can see you are not the same man who came yesterday because that man was angry and he spit, whereas you are bowing at my feet, touching my feet. How can you be the same man? You are not the same man, so let us forget about it. Those two people, the man who spit and the man on whom he spit, both are no more. Come closer. Let us talk of something else.”

[Innocent Warrior]

I participated in an energy circle with 59 other people at a workshop today. We exploded a huge energy ball of unconditional love out to all living creatures on Earth.



Enjoy!

[truthseekerdan]

Useful information for my friends visiting here... Enjoy!

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=sLsqe8FDRt4

[Wind]

When you forget yourself, you find Him.
When you remember yourself, He hides.

~ Mooji

[truthseekerdan]

When you forget yourself, you find IT.
When you remember yourself, IT hides.

Much love and wisdom

[Guish]

Posted by Wind (here)
When you forget yourself, you find Him.
When you remember yourself, He hides.

~ Mooji

Be selfless.
Without Form, without attraction, without repulsion.
The door to heaven will open on its own.
The mind will quiet
The smile will be effortless
You'd leave others speechless.

[Guish]

1. Everything changes

“Suzuki Roshi, I’ve been listening to your lectures for years,” a student said during the question and answer time following a lecture, “but I just don’t understand. Could you just please put it in a nutshell? Can you reduce Buddhism to one phrase?”

Everyone laughed. Suzuki laughed.

“Everything changes,” he said. Then he asked for another question.

Explanation: One of the foremost teachings in Buddhism is that everything in life is impermanent. Suzuki Roshi (Shunryu Suzuki of Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind) is referring to this impermanence by saying “everything changes”. This is a very deep teaching, but I’ll attempt to sum it up in a way that can be understood and immediately helpful in a few words.

Because it encompasses everything, you can contemplate for hours on end and not realize the full magnitude of the principle of impermanence. You are impermanent, your loved ones are impermanent, your home is impermanent, even our planet is impermanent.

Why is this important? Because it teaches us that grasping onto things is one of the major reasons as to why we suffer. We need to live being aware of the ever-changing nature of reality and appreciate the present moment. It’s not about letting go, it’s really about not grasping in the first place. If we can learn to live in this way, we can find peace in everyday life.

[greybeard]

Another short.
No self, no problem.

Chris

[Innocent Warrior]

We're already creating flawlessly, seamlessly. So perfectly that we're unaware of it. We create effortlessly. We are masters of creation by nature, creating is like breathing. Awareness returns to us our ability to direct what we create.

[Guish]

Hehe,

IW, you started to speak the language.

[Grizz Griswold]

Posted by Guish (here)
1. Everything changes

“Suzuki Roshi, I’ve been listening to your lectures for years,” a student said during the question and answer time following a lecture, “but I just don’t understand. Could you just please put it in a nutshell? Can you reduce Buddhism to one phrase?”

Everyone laughed. Suzuki laughed.

“Everything changes,” he said. Then he asked for another question.

Explanation: One of the foremost teachings in Buddhism is that everything in life is impermanent. Suzuki Roshi (Shunryu Suzuki of Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind) is referring to this impermanence by saying “everything changes”. This is a very deep teaching, but I’ll attempt to sum it up in a way that can be understood and immediately helpful in a few words.

Because it encompasses everything, you can contemplate for hours on end and not realize the full magnitude of the principle of impermanence. You are impermanent, your loved ones are impermanent, your home is impermanent, even our planet is impermanent.

Why is this important? Because it teaches us that grasping onto things is one of the major reasons as to why we suffer. We need to live being aware of the ever-changing nature of reality and appreciate the present moment. It’s not about letting go, it’s really about not grasping in the first place. If we can learn to live in this way, we can find peace in everyday life.

I like this one Geerish,
But would add in time everything changes. To go another step, in time the only thing that
doesn't change is....Everything changes.
Enjoying Your posts!

With Love
barry

[Wind]

This is one of my favorite videos from Mooji, it's good and funny too. Watch until the end.

See What Cannot Be Seen

"What is here that cannot be abandoned? Leave everything for a while -
your thoughts, your feelings, your aspirations your memory or anything you can see in the objective world.
If all these things vanish, you will still know 'I am'.

What is 'I am' ? What is the 'I' that am? Am means 'to be'. Who is the 'I' to be?
Don't think. Feel and look. Let the question show you the answer."

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=bhOkbJ1TboE

[Guish]

2. Empty your cup

Nan-in, a Japanese master during the Meiji era (1868-1912), received a university professor who came to inquire about Zen.

Nan-in served tea. He poured his visitor’s cup full, and then kept on pouring. The professor watched the overflow until he no longer could restrain himself. “It is overfull. No more will go in!”

“Like this cup,” Nan-in said, “you are full of your own opinions and speculations. How can I show you Zen unless you first empty your cup?”

Possible explanation by Geerish: One views the world through one's perception. If one is negative, one would see negativity, one would create negativity and one would attract negativity. If one is positive, one would see positivity in others. If one goes beyond positivity and negativity, one would see the world in a different way. One would see realities created by the dualistic perspective of people. So empty your cup and feel the presence.