No thinking

[Mr Interesting]

I might humbly say that you're alright (silver!) your all right!

I don't see mind as an enemy either or the use of thinking to be unwise... just in it's place.

And, so far, the only way I've been able to get ego into it's place and have thinking at my discretion... is learning to quiet the mind.

I'm trying not to suggest that enquiry through words and thinking stop but that we might carry a bigger and more fuller awareness that hair splitting of detail is rather pointless.

And that if we have reached a higher stage of awareness of selflessness it might be incumbent on us to realise others are mining our words for their own seeking and be far less apt to argue the relative truths of the way we define what we may have acknowledged or accepted within our own lives.

Instead of the replies that go " I am enlightened and it means letting everything go and just realising I'm enlightened... and always have been coincidentally"

That we be more apt to do something like this ' just before I realised enlightenment I felt close several times then would seen unresolved fears pulling me back... those unresolved fears became....

As opposed to... " if you are enlightened then please specific in words the nature of your enlightenment so I can check it against mine to determine whether I might be more than you are...

Originally Posted by TzuJanLi

Greetings..

Hi Mr. I: It is my understanding and training that 'meditation' IS the Art of No Thinking.. and, much of my training is in the Discipline/Art of Tai Chi, sometimes described as 'Meditation in Motion'.. i am not an advocate asceticism applied to a mindfully functioning mind, i am an advocate, as you suggest, of offering assistance for those who are realizing that 'thoughts' are the distance between who you 'think' you are, and the 'you' that is doing the thinking..

Mind and Thought are necessary, and when understood, very beneficial.. understanding 'when and why' to engage the mind's functions is the key to a balanced and wholesome and holistic Life experience.. in a similar discussion, someone was describing how everyone would be so much better if we could 'stop thinking and rely on feeling', then.. i asked, would you suggest that to your surgeon, or to the commercial pilot with your family on board.. "To everything there is a season", a time for thinking, and a time for stillness..

Be well..

Post of the day!

[Silver]

I think I'm going to faint!

[Xan]

I'm not against thinking when it's simple and useful. It's the on and on excessive mental activity that blocks our awareness of the quietness of being.

As for feeling, it all depends on what you mean. Being involved with our familiar reactive emotional patterns has the same blocking effect.

By loosening our hold on the familiar ways we think too much and feel too reflexively, we may discover subtle ways of understanding without verbal thought, and subtle delicious feelings beyond emotion and physical sensation.


Xan

[blackraven]

Originally Posted by Mr Interesting

Increasingly, for me, the whole thing about being isn't about thinking.

It's about feeling.... only feeling.

Reasons, practices, ideas, beliefs and all the other stuff... even writing, just seems basically not at all important... at least as applied to my own realising of self = enlightening.

But where it is important (reasons, practises etc) is in communicating to others a little further away and still within ego, as I too am, but less constricted, and offering the steps necessary to get to 'not thinking".

So I'd like to see, within these forums, less of the hair splitting; which seems entirely inconsequential, and more of the awareness that if we're closer to enlightenment (and please don't pull that apart but just take it as it is) that we share what got us closer and far less of the un-awareness that has us trying to prove with verbosity how much closer we are than others.

It is un-enlightening to say "I am enlightened" and you're doing it wrong.

Therefore, my advice, is for all those still thinking, having thoughts about what is or isn't, to do as much meditation, in whatever style suits them, to slow and eventually cease.... thinking.

Mr. Interesting - I've been approaching life lately like I approach the game of pool. I don't over think each shot, I just shoot. When I don't over think, the ball usually goes in like butter; when I over think, the ball goes all willy nilly and I question my abilities. Life is like a game of pool; don't over think it!

Blackraven

[Swami Chihuahuananda]

Originally Posted by Mr Interesting

Increasingly, for me, the whole thing about being isn't about thinking.

It's about feeling.... only feeling.

Reasons, practices, ideas, beliefs and all the other stuff... even writing, just seems basically not at all important... at least as applied to my own realising of self = enlightening.

But where it is important (reasons, practises etc) is in communicating to others a little further away and still within ego, as I too am, but less constricted, and offering the steps necessary to get to 'not thinking".

So I'd like to see, within these forums, less of the hair splitting; which seems entirely inconsequential, and more of the awareness that if we're closer to enlightenment (and please don't pull that apart but just take it as it is) that we share what got us closer and far less of the un-awareness that has us trying to prove with verbosity how much closer we are than others.

It is un-enlightening to say "I am enlightened" and you're doing it wrong.

Therefore, my advice, is for all those still thinking, having thoughts about what is or isn't, to do as much meditation, in whatever style suits them, to slow and eventually cease.... thinking.

That makes me think about exactly what you mean by 'hairs' and 'splitting' them . I expect a well thought out response ; thank you

[I AM]

For me: Mastering the mind is the goal. I created it as a tool for further expanding my reality.

I need to be able to stop the mind and I can.
I need to be able to focus the mind and I can.
I like to watch the mind and I do.

The problem is that I forget that the mind (a very powerful tool of creation) is usually left running on auto pilot and left unchecked will create a reality that I am not aware is being created.

Then I awaken again and step back from the trance that the mind puts me in and remember that I am the one that creates it.

What a wonderful, powerful and sometimes dangerous tool.

Greetings..

Originally Posted by I AM

For me: Mastering the mind is the goal. I created it as a tool for further expanding my reality.

I need to be able to stop the mind and I can.
I need to be able to focus the mind and I can.
I like to watch the mind and I do.

The problem is that I forget that the mind (a very powerful tool of creation) is usually left running on auto pilot and left unchecked will create a reality that I am not aware is being created.

Then I awaken again and step back from the trance that the mind puts me in and remember that I am the one that creates it.

What a wonderful, powerful and sometimes dangerous tool.

Hi I AM: Nice insight!

Be well..

[Silver]

If only we could 'switch off' like C3PO or R2D2.

[Mr Interesting]

I'd like to say that I'm very pleased where this is going and some lovely insightful things, that are simple to understand, are being said... shared.

I really do think that people who are beginning to meditate and see the benefits of increased relaxation could easily see that having some control over the mind is the next step.

And that when the mind is controlled, quieted, this brings the emotional body into perspective and connections between the quiet self and that body are more easily felt with subsequent better control of emotional input...

That's all I want.... people able to see a way into greater spiritual lives that just requires simple techniques that lead to abilities they can have... with simple practice.

I'm not so good at explaining what goes on in me but I'm glad you're all better at explaining how it is for you. So keep going please.... pull apart my attempts as softly as you can and describe for those up and coming the way to find peace and a prosperity of heart...