Self knowing: the truth of yourself

[Phaelyn]

Originally Posted by JustBe

Looking at yourself as the source of all seeing, is a wonderful way to make peace with what is.

Another way to say something similar.

Looking at yourself as habitual, biological, conditioned non-sense and thereby, ignoring yourself and finding peace. Noise from others, noise from yourself, both ignored.

Originally Posted by Gem

Vows of morality are taken prior to any formality of practice because Buddhism rests on moral foundations. I start by talking on morality because that's the way things are done in Buddhist contexts.

In context of the 8 fold path, right speech, right action and right livelihood are the moral facets. Being truthful with yourself about of the motives driving thought, speech and deed is the essence of moral conduct. If we don't know what the mind is doing we 'know not what we do' and fly without a compass. One has to be self aware to maintain a moral foundation.

The topic goes deep, but this opening merely sets an ethical precept for discussions to come.

Be happy.

Gem, I thought of you here:

http://www.spiritualforums.com/vb/sh...d.php?t=133252

Bless

Jl

[JustBe]

Originally Posted by Phaelyn

Another way to say something similar.

Looking at yourself as habitual, biological, conditioned non-sense and thereby, ignoring yourself and finding peace. Noise from others, noise from yourself, both ignored.

It’s a way of course. I suppose I’ve used the source of all you’ve shared to build peace. I’m more interested in being peace as deep as this mind/body contained tells me otherwise.

I notice myself in it rather than ignore it. If I’m reacting, I choose to cut the reigns loose in every way of my peaceful self, that way I’m the dissolved of all containment in me.

Then I can be in it all (as the world turns)and not give a hoot around others drama, but hold my presence in peace. Of course that’s a supportive presence in the midst of others in turmoil..�

[BigJohn]

Originally Posted by JustBe

It’s a way of course. I suppose I’ve used the source of all you’ve shared to build peace. I’m more interested in being peace as deep as this mind/body contained tells me otherwise.

I notice myself in it rather than ignore it. If I’m reacting, I choose to cut the reigns loose in every way of my peaceful self, that way I’m the dissolved of all containment in me.

Then I can be in it all (as the world turns)and not give a hoot. ��

You have a peaceful way of expressing yourself.

[JustBe]

Originally Posted by BigJohn

You have a peaceful way of expressing yourself.

That’s a ‘telling’ from my being.

Thankyou for sharing Big John. I notice your geniuine openness to share in this way of your ‘feeling’ self all around the board. It’s lovely to witness.

[Gem]

Just to know what's going on with oneself is important, and I know in my life, intending to do something can bring up life issues I am powerless over. The impressions of self can be known to be untrue, but they are affective and determine how one acts.

To suggest that 'free will' has any influence over this and one can just choose to have some other sort of self-impression is naive, and life issues are called 'complexes' for a reason.

I know in a Buddhist forum we are impelled to put on a Buddhist act and attempt to make impressions on others as we form impressions of them, which creates a relationship between imaginary personas, and we are very sure those impressions are 'right' - and even when we know our own self impression is wrong, it affects our lives as though it is true, and we manufacture a self fulfilling prophesy and operates as kamma.

If you think to yourself, what is my perfect life? There are things you want, that I want, that each one wants, but it does not come about because there are hinderances to self-expression. Maybe a few of you are perfectly purified and have no hibitions, but most of us are tied up in knots, and there is no way to have the perfect life because of those tethers that hold you back - and there is no way to untie them.

We are rushed headlong by desire to 'get what we want', but sometimes one has to take a few steps back and take the first step first. It's like you want to make a wonderful meal, but you can't because the kitchen is a mess, and you have to not launch into making the great meal - you aren't capable of that yet because you have not tidied up the kitchen. You have to clean the cookhouse first, and then you will able to make the wonderful meal.

The pertinent question is, what stops you from 'cleaning the kitchen'?

Maybe you can clean the kitchen once, but it soon degenerates into a mess again. Why does it become such a tendency and go around and around? What deep lying self impression continually regenerates these messed up circumstances, what is being feared and avoided that makes you generate such limiting conditions over and over?

What has this got to do with Buddhism? What does Buddha say about all this? Nothing, but its very real in human lives and there is no answer in dusty old books.

It is your life and you have to find out what's going on. Even when you do realise what you're doing, how you are tying the knots and inhibiting yourself, it doesn't mean you can resolve the issue. The types of procrastination we have are another level of prevention - and you might say that you have to something about it, but then you don't - you just carry on as you were doing before.

[BigJohn]

Originally Posted by JustBe

That’s a ‘telling’ from my being.

Thankyou for sharing Big John. I notice your geniuine openness to share in this way of your ‘feeling’ self all around the board. It’s lovely to witness.

Gee....... I really appreciated that!

[Phaelyn]

Originally Posted by Gem

It is your life and you have to find out what's going on. Even when you do realize what you're doing, how you are tying the knots and inhibiting yourself, it doesn't mean you can resolve the issue.

This bus keeps moving me away from my home.
Even when I realize this, I keep moving away from home.
So I get off the bus. I then realize I was always at home.
The bus was in my mind.

[Gem]

You can think of one thing you want your life to be, and that wish can reveal the underlying reasons that you do not have a life like that, or IOW, the impediment to that aspect of free self-expression.

Even if you detect it, and understand the mentalities that prevent such free expression, you still can't choose it to be other than it is, of if you can, not easily, and recognising it is not true, but only a thought or a way of thinking, you can see how such ways of thinking are not easy to change even though you recognise the futile and defeating nature of them.

At least you know what holds you back, and that which holds you back is entirely self-generated within the self-image. There are actualities, like you don't get younger, and because you were born you will inevitably die. There is a destiny to meet which noone has a choice in, and if death is 'perchance to dream', the afterlife or next life will be the collage of your belief, just as this life is, and most particularly, the belief pertaining to ones self.

In one sense you could choose and believe differently by affirmation, and that means you do not want to believe what you do now, probably because current beliefs are self-defeating, and you want to believe a better, more worthy and lovable persona to be, which will be more productive even though fundamentally untrue - because if you are real, you can't be what you think you are.

[Phaelyn]

Originally Posted by Gem

Even if you detect it, and understand the mentalities that prevent such free expression, you still can't choose it to be other than it is, or if you can, not easily, and recognizing it is not true, but only a thought or a way of thinking, you can see how such ways of thinking are not easy to change even though you recognize the futile and defeating nature of them.

At least you know what holds you back,

I'd disagree with that, though I'm not entirely sure what you are saying so I could be agreeing with you. But from my experience, you can choose it to be other than it is. Ways of thinking can certainly be changed. One may think they know what holds them back, but if they are still being held back, maybe they think they know but really don't know.

Let's say you are talking about patterns of thought and thinking. You want to be liberated and free of this stuff. The problem is not the patterns, not wanting to be liberated, the problem is the focus of the attention being in the room and you want to be out of the room. The next chess move there is asking How? How do I do it? Well guess where the attention is, still in that room. No matter how you think and reason, you are still thinking, the attention is still on thought. But see we really don't want to take our attention off of our content, because that's where we get identity and purpose. That's where we have built our castles that makes us important, better, wiser then others. Like, hey I meditated for 10 years, obviously I know more than the guy who just partied for 10 years...

Dropping the content has to be 100%. That means religion is dropped as well as everything else. Belief and opinion is dropped. In the current moment, one withdraws from identifying with our content, the content built up by years and decades of thinking and experiencing and all the rest.

So one can be totally new and free, the downside is you can't be carrying any thing from yesterday. When you drop the content from now, it is all gone...or none.