When I ask a question...

What I mean by that is that everything that we see is filtered through our perceptions, which are colored by our thoughts and judgments. It doesn't matter what's really "out there" because our experience of it depends on the mechanism by which we see it.

We can hold philosophical discussions about what's really "out there" and we can even speculate about the absolute reality of it, or lack thereof. Maybe it's all a dream. And then someone else says "I see that too." But that someone may also be part of the dream. LOL!

Anyway, my desire isn't to speculate about this but rather to focus on the practicality of what I was saying earlier. When we see everything through the filter of our thoughts and level of awareness (which is colored by judgment) then it makes sense that it's not so much that we see "reality" but our version of reality. And if we experience difficulty and suffering then we may question not the effect but the cause of what we see, the cause originating in our own mind. Clarity and peace within brings clarity in seeing. Love mirrors love.

Well I do when I do. And I have learned that when I don't I only need to look to myself to correct this. Judgment, attachment and resistance always brings suffering, and these can manifest in very subtle ways. This is why it's helpful to closely monitor thoughts and emotions and the way the body responds to these. This will clue us in to underlying beliefs and judgments, and patterns of resistance, that give rise to suffering. Awareness brings freedom and release.

Just recently I experienced suffering, and upon closer examination I discovered a few beliefs that I'd been holding that were so ingrained in my mind I hadn't recognized them as beliefs until I took a closer look. The suffering offered the motivation. So with humility I was able to question and see what I didn't see before. One of the beliefs was that people should be nice. This was a big one. It had dominated my thinking and reactions for a long time, and brought me much suffering over the years when my experience didn't match up to my idea of what should be. What I realized was that, no, people should NOT be nice. Often they're not. That's the way it is. And even that view isn't entirely accurate. Whether or not people are nice is really a perception, a judgment. People are as they are. The stories I tell about them is my business. And when I tell the story "He isn't nice", I hurt. But I recognized that I can drop this story and the accompanying judgment. And I can say yes to reality as it is, because it is only that and nothing else. When I argue with what is, I suffer. So I changed my mind and because of this I saw something entirely different. What once appeared as "people aren't nice" now was seen as "life is always helpful and brings to me exactly what I need to see and hear in the moment". And I saw the innocense there, in that one that I had previously judged. And I could tell when I was no longer judging, because within I felt love and peace, and compassion and spirit of generosity for that one.

So who needed to change? Did I need to champion the cause of making all of "them" into nice people... perhaps through criticism and acting the victim of their meanness? Or did I simply need to change my mind about them. My experience is that changing my mind always brings peace and joy, and I can accept "you" exactly as you are, because it (life) is as it should be right now.

Now when I sense the ripples and stirrings of discontent within, I only need but look to myself. That's the grace of forgiveness.

 

You should doubt yourself more. Why shouldn't you suggest for anyone to change? Why shouldn't they take such suggestions on board?

I am your teacher, student, and I am here to impart one lesson: get yourself some ice-cream, and tell me how great it is.

I dunno, I asked you a few questions. It'd be nice if you answered them. Flattered though I am that you think I'm absolutely right about everything, you can't be right while asking a question (aside from the idea of asking the right questions). I didn't mean them rhetorically, I'm genuinely interested in your answers.

 

Ever been mugged?

I understand what you're saying, I just think it's a pretty selfish way of living. Maybe you can respond to a problem by changing yourself until you cease to be part of the problem (I think that's what you're getting at), but who does that help apart from yourself? Again, it's indolence. If you're a victim of crime, you can adjust yourself until... I dunno, I guess until you don't care that you were the victim anymore. And that's great if the whole universe and everything in it is just, like, a projection. But in the meantime, a crime has been committed, and probably will be again, probably against those who don't share your philosophy. You could have prevented it, but instead you decided it wasn't a problem. Lucky you.

Literally, that might seem to obviously be a different situation. But I think as a metaphor it has value. You seem to be describing something similar to solipsism, and all the problems that come with it. If you're right and I'm wrong, no big deal, because all my problems don't exist, and only my time is being wasted in worrying about them. But what if I'm right, and all my and everyone else's problems do exist?

 

This is very true. In this case "yourself" meaning the sense of a limited separate self. Doubting of this "self" is experienced as a state of not knowing.

I can't speak for "you". Maybe you should do exactly that, as long as you think it works and give you the result you seek. Does it work in your experience? I can only speak for my own. And in my experience seeking for someone else to change doesn't work. First it assumes that my perception of them is correct (often it isn't because I'm simply telling myself stories about them which aren't accurate). Second it assumes that I know how and why they should change, which I see as quite arrogant. Third, to seek the change in another puts me in a contracted resitant state in which I perceive that NOW is not OK as it is. This doesn't feel good, robs me of precious energy, and disempowers me. Fourth, I have learned from many years of experience that this doesn't work because unless someone is ready and willing to change they won't, no matter how much I attempt to bring that about. And such attempts involve manipulation, coersion, power struggle, game playing and story telling, and a host of other states quite unpleasant. No thanks.

Also I've noticed, again through experience, that when I accept someone exactly as they are and don't make them wrong for it, something miraculous happens. Not only do I feel at peace, but also if change were possible at all it happens in the space of this nonresistance and acceptance, quite naturally and without effort. It feels like a miracle because I realize that I'm not doing anything... it just happens. I've experienced this enough times to where I now trust this process. And when I compare the experience of seeking change versus accepting what is, the internal experience is so different that I know what makes sense and feels right. Now this isn't to say that I won't act. Allowing and accepting something doesn't mean that we become immobilized, but the action comes from first interally accepting what is, and then simply acting as inspired, not from making anything or anyone wrong.

Yes you are my teacher, and a great one at that. I have learned much from interacting with you. And of course the best and more priceless lesson of all.... "get yourself some ice-cream and tell me how great it is". No wiser words have ever been spoken. And this is what I have finally begun to get through my thick head. Nothing matters but experiencing something myself and then speaking of that, sharing how great that is. That is the only thing I can speak about. So that is what I'm doing now. I'm speaking of how great the "ice cream" is.... the joy I feel when I accept you as you are, the forgiveness I feel when I find the log in my own eye rather than look for the speck in yours, the miraculous way the world shifts for me when I realize that everything is a gift.

Please tell me what I haven't answered to your satisfaction, and I'll see what answer comes to me. I can only give you that and no more. It may still not be satisfactory.

 

I haven't experienced mugging per se, but perhaps we can substitute any experience of attack for mugging here, and so yes I've had the experience of being attacked. There are different ways to view such an experience, and what I'm about to describe may not be something that everyone would be able to see as yet, because it can easily be misinterpreted as guilt and self-blame, but that's not it at all. What I have come to know on a deep level is that we are not separate. We are all mirrors for one another. We are all mirror images of one "I". So when I see attack "out there" I recognize that it lives in me, and experienced as a projection onto another. Often I cannot accept this as being inside what I call "me" so the only way I can have this error of mind shown to me is through "another".

Having this experience gives me the opportunity to address the belief in attack within myself. The roots of this go quite deep. I have believed in attack. This belief rests on top of an underlying belief in separation. I have believed in my own weakness, vulnerability and victimhood. And so this belief draws to me the experience of attack, in order that I have the opportunity to correct the mind that is attracting such experiences. I notice that whenever I correct such a belief I no longer attract such experiences. And now the only experiences I attract are manifestations of peace and joy, or manifestations of unresolved errors. That's it. That's all there is. And what's interesting is that to someone else my experiences may seem aweful, but I experience them as joyful. Who's right? Who's wrong? The perceiver of course.

So is this selfish? Well let's see. Maybe it is maybe it isn't. What does it matter what we label something? Isn't it the effect that matters? Would my peace and joy separate me from others and render me uncaring? That's an interesting belief... and many people hold this one too. Errors in thinking are amazingly the exact opposite of how it really is. When I'm at peace and being joyful within I have the capacity for great compassion, love, and kindness for others. I would be MORE present, loving and helpful, not more separate, withdrawn, and uncaring. Inspiration always works to serve the needs of others and render help where needed. What is selfish when I recognize that mySelf includes you too, when I no longer see me and you as separate? It is Self-ish on a grand scale and doesn't leave anyone out.

Well don't believe me. Test it out yourself. Live your life and see what works. Let me know how the ice cream tastes.

 

Have to say, you don't have to assume those things. There's such a thing as an educated guess.

Well no, not really. I was referring specifically to actual mugging, not spiritual mugging or metaphorical mugging. There was a good reason to refer to the former and not the latter.

I was talking about literal, physical - rather than metaphorical - ice-cream as well. Your loss, I guess.

I was specifically asking how you know that you are not now looking through "storied" eyes. I now realise that you believe that you are, and as a result choose never to trust them and never to act on what they show you.

 

There's the space of silence that holds no story. Anything else is a story. Any forms... objects, thoughts, emotions, are all interwoven into a story. The story becomes increasingly happy and joyful as we change our minds and let go of suffering. The characters in the story ("you", "me", "he", "she") become more and more benign. As long as I see a story, this is what I'm starting to see... more and more. The story will continue until there's no longer a need for it.

I can toggle between silence/space (non-story) and form (story). Another way to say this is, I can have one foot in one world (non-story) and another foot in another world (story). And yet another way to say this is, "being in this world but not of it."

 

Would it not be more constructive to write a better story? That way the journey's over.

 

Yes.

And we choose what kind of story we write every moment. Events happen, forms appear, life shows up as "something". How we interpret it is the story we tell. Can we manipulate the events that life brings us? Well, life brings us different things depending on the energy pattern that we hold within. When we're in a contracted inner state of resistance {NOOOOOOOO!!! I DON'T WANT THIS!!!} then life mirrors that to us with further experiences of that which we "don't want". When we're in an open, gentle, loving state of acceptance {YES!} then life brings us more of that sense of "yes". Mirrors.

When our experience on earth changes from hell to heaven then there's no longer the need of the journey of learning how to be in heaven here and now, because we already are.

 

But better for what purpose? Better by whose standard? Can we really judge what is better or worse by any standard, let alone a universal one, without relying on such stories to inform our judgement?


I'm troubled by that last paragraph there though. Was your experience of Earth Hell? Because mine hasn't been. Even at my lowest ebb, I knew how much worse things could be but weren't.

 

I get to define "better" for myself by my subjective standards. As do you and everyone. It's all about the internal experience. "Better" is one way of seeing it. One could also say "the end of suffering." Is that better? We get to decide. No, we don't get to decide for anyone else, otherwise we're in someone else's business... and that invokes more suffering for US. The purpose is simply peace and joy. If we want it, we can access it NOW. That's it.

Any amount of suffering is hell. A little bit of hell is still hell. Often we don't even realize that much of our experience is hell, until something takes place that illuminates it. It's like someone who gets used to being sickly and operating on 20% capacity. After a while that seems normal. And then if suddenly they witness someone else operating at 100% the difference becomes obvious. Humanity is used to being sickly. Pain and suffering is the norm here. Insanity is considered sane. Welcome to the world of hell. Is it heaven for you? Then by all means, don't change anything.

 

I am somehow unsurprised that you have never been mugged. I wonder if it might change your perspective.

I don't consider any amount of discomfort to be hell. That would be absurd.

 

Hello Blue

To speak in terms of this and that, I don't think this really can be expressed in words, to 'others' it's always seen as something else to add on, something else to examine, to think about. There's this thing of complete identification with the thinking one that is within the (self), identification with the apparent other. Perhaps the best thing to do is to remove the ignorance and just

 

Hi kami

I understand the dynamic of the "thinking one" as it enters the picture, and am not oblivious to it when it appears. And yes, as you say, "this" can't be expressed in words... although it can be pointed to, yes? What it really comes down to is that I'm careful to share without agenda to convince, convert, or change anyone. If such agenda surfaces then the experience becomes quite unpleasant. Additionally, it is really not to my knowing what will or will not be received, when it will be received, or by whom. It could be that on the surface appears the thinking mind, but beneath something else is listening. Also it could be that the interaction is meant for someone other than the apparent receiver. And always, when I am present, it is for "me" in some way. Perhaps sometimes it is only for "me" and it's a blessing to share it just for that purpose alone, as I feel so wonderful just from the sharing itself.

My task is to listen, to tune in and feel for inspiration, and then to do its bidding. When I judge anything I cannot hear it. So when inspiration bids me to speak or write, I do so. And I notice that the interaction is complete in the moment it's shared. It arises out of peace and flows with peace and I receive it as I give it. And it's done. What happens afterward is not my concern, really. Often I don't share anything, because it's not flowing and it's as simple as that. When the flow stops is when the communication is done, at least in that form.

And if something is muddied and ego steps in then it's a learning opportunity for me.