Taoist quote
 

From ancient Chinese master Sima Chengzhen, taken from Zuowang lun (Discourse on Sitting in Oblivion), 647-745 CE.

For me, this describes the moment our consciousness shifts and creates an opportunity for real change. It is in this moment, if we grab it and hang on, we can learn and change so much about ourselves for the better. if we do not grab it, the moment will pass and we will continue on in projected reality unaware. Projected reality being the reality created by the human half of us our brain VS the other reality around us we can choose to experience through our heart center.

"Still if you practice observation with a mind attached to projected reality, you will never be aware of bad feelings within yourself. Only when your mind is utterly detached from projected reality can you observe the phenomenal world and truly understand right and wrong. In fact, you are just like a sobered man. Freshly awakened, he can now see the evil he did while he was drunk, deeds of which he was completely unconscious before."

Thanks.

Brian

the funny thing about that is that life is designed to give us those moments... it is one thing given to everyone absolutely for free. but by using our own strength of will we try to nullify them out in favor of some vanity or another. Flaming sword does exist and it is *very* hard to see through it I guess. But anyway hence you get teachings about subtracting from what you are doing instead of adding.

but it isn't a picnic either, to behold yourself without all the vanity...

thanks for the reading list, it seems I'm starting a new phase of life and that may come in handy...

Agree the work can be gut wrenching at times, very humbling, but worth it to get to the other side. Thanks. Brian

depends on what the other side is I guess... but personally my own best guess right now is I'm best served by assuming everything is on the same side and not trying to find out the 'difference' between where I am and where it is I want to be... which isn't to say either that I'm not moving at all, just a nod to the understanding that if I play see-saw with a goal of going to ground, someone heavy is eventually going to get on the other side and lift me up again...

Let me be more specific. For me the 1st step is is having the 'moment of observation' Sima speaks of. Step 2 is exploring that awareness within myself, discovering what the new awareness is about myself. Usually it is something within my personality/psyche I have been unconscious of before. Step 3 is accepting the truth of the awareness. Looking back at how I hurt myself and/or others in how I played this out. Could be something I experienced I did not accept the truth of before. Many things. I think this is what Laozi is speaking of when he speak of finding the root. Going back and remembering when it happened the first time, the origin of the experience. Forgiving myself and asking forgiveness of others. Step 5 releasing the energy of the experience. Going through this process for me is getting to the other side of it. A lot of these for me involve past life experiences I have carried with me lifetime to lifetime unresolved.

Take care.

Brian

That's such an amazing quote and so true. Love the drunk metaphor as well. Describes the reality very well. Since the mind is attached to projected reality, this delusional reality becomes "known" experienced truth, thus real truth or non-projected reality can't be seen or found. Everything is routed through the false patterns, repetitions, of the projection. The current moment becomes filtered through the past, the habitual repetitive pattern of delusional thought and thinking, false assumptions and conclusions.

Well said. Think of it, from the moment we took on human form, we have been accumulating human experiences. If we carry these unresolved experiences with us from lifetime to lifetime, think how much 'stuff' we carry around with us, in our subconscious. Good news is we can find it, if we choose to look for it within.

Thanks. Brian

and of course if you take suppositions like that too seriously, you've committed exactly the same thing you are railing against :smile:

when I was reading your other post, and now this, I was remembring my chagrine when I realized that my responses to what I was finding were themselves obscuring other things I could find.

I followed the quotes and teachers you posted and have been reading where they led. Lot's of good stuff.

From the Heart of Daoist Meditation:

But if we go back and look at originally what is taught in the Laozi and Zhuangzi, everything is meditation—walking, sitting, standing—and when we begin to realize this, then that is true meditation. There is no longer a distinction between non-meditation and meditation. (Shi 2007, 8).

As Shi Jing says: Zuowang is to sit and forget. What we forget is the thing we hold most dearly: self, with all its opinions, beliefs, and ideals. We can be so caught up in the concept of self that we only see the world as a place to fulfill personal ambition and desire. (2006, 11; see also Rinaldini 2009, 187)

http://albanycomplementaryhealth.com...meditation.pdf