Deep discussions on Buddhist philosophies

[sky]

Originally Posted by Phaelyn

If you label it as suffering, you experience suffering.
If you label it as happiness, you experience happiness.
If you label it as something you don't want, it is a "down."
If you label it as something you want, it is an "up."
But what if you don't label it at all?
Then what is it?

Wordless awareness.

[Phaelyn]

Originally Posted by Gem

the best one can do is cultivate mindful equanimity - the ability to keep an even keel in all circumstances.

Can you explain more what mindful equanimity is for you and how you practice it? If the mind has up and down days, does keeping an "even keel" basically mean not identifying with mind?

[Gem]

Originally Posted by Phaelyn

Can you explain more what mindful equanimity is for you and how you practice it? If the mind has up and down days, does keeping an "even keel" basically mean not identifying with mind?

For me, mindful equanimity is being consciously aware of what's going on without reacting to it, or IOW, equanimity is the absence of reactivity, and by 'keeping an even keel' I mean not becoming overwhelmed by the reactivity of the mind. This does also apply to identification in the sense that reactivity always regards me, my mine and/or I, and that we call 'ego' is like a construct of 'the one who reacts'.


To practice I merely remain conscious and intentionally cease to react. The main problem people face is they are conditioned to react and are habitually reactive, so when they intend to cease reacting, AKA just observe, they start to realise how much they actually react and how unsettled they really are. There is also a tendency to become distracted and swept away, in which case one isn't conscious ot their reactivity, but with practice one becomes increasingly aware and remembers to notice what's actually happening. When one is conscious as a detached, or unattached, observer then they are the one aware rather than 'the one who reacts', and because they are not the one reacting, there is no one who reacts, and therefore no reactions.


That doesn't mean there are no emotions or that there is a sense of apathy. There is a sense of neutrality, though, like space is neutral and things move in or through it, and that ability to have things moving through without the resistance, clinging nor other reactive tendencies is 'equanimity'.

[JustBe]

Originally Posted by Gem

I know we like to project as if we are spiritual and have overcome it all, but people have to be honest with themselves about what is true in their own life.


We can't even talk about the true things - e.g. how everyone has their ups and downs - because we pretend that we never have a rough trot. Dang! I have a rough trot often enough, good days and bad days; smooth sailing and hard times. I'm sure you know what I'm saying in reflection of your own life experience.

The truth in self awareness is that we’ve all developed practice in different ways. So as an example it’s easier for me in life now to just stay more present with what is, because I’ve used the external that activates my reactions as my life practice. For me its always been a moving aware practice in this way of being. All movements bridging my inner stillness and letting go process to become more open and clear. Using this means as an active meditation process. It’s the rough times whether mild or large that have got me to this place.

You have developed your awareness of being present with yourself in a meditative sitting practice.. It opens and clears the foundation to then meet life through that means. Your open and aware to make the lived experience then be the practice. I can say this because I know what you’ve shared of yourself over a number of years. Sitting alone allowing, becomes the bridge to sit in everything moving that opens a reaction in some form, of life around you. That in itself becomes the process of subtler and subtler layers being released to be in stillness of being and equanimity through all areas of your life.

My point of sharing this is that I’m aware it’s not all spiritual projections but the place where people have opened the truth of what is for them. The truth is felt in people through a more, consistent awareness of them. I think that speaks for itself.

[Phaelyn]

Originally Posted by JustBe

So as an example it’s easier for me in life now to just stay more present with what is,

Present = aware, listening, seeing, watching, understanding. Not reacting, judging, or ego centered interpreting.

The personal life deeply lived always expands into truths beyond itself. Anais Nin

[JustBe]

Originally Posted by Phaelyn

Present = aware, listening, seeing, watching, understanding. Not reacting, judging, or ego centered interpreting.

Yes it’s all inclusive in being ‘a presence’..

Your quote rings true, the constant turning of life as life is, becomes one with you in presence. I suppose even as their is others, others fade into that inclusiveness.

[Gem]

Originally Posted by JustBe

The truth in self awareness is that we’ve all developed practice in different ways. So as an example it’s easier for me in life now to just stay more present with what is, because I’ve used the external that activates my reactions as my life practice. For me its always been a moving aware practice in this way of being. All movements bridging my inner stillness and letting go process to become more open and clear. Using this means as an active meditation process. It’s the rough times whether mild or large that have got me to this place.

You have developed your awareness of being present with yourself in a meditative sitting practice.. It opens and clears the foundation to then meet life through that means. Your open and aware to make the lived experience then be the practice. I can say this because I know what you’ve shared of yourself over a number of years. Sitting alone allowing, becomes the bridge to sit in everything moving that opens a reaction in some form, of life around you. That in itself becomes the process of subtler and subtler layers being released to be in stillness of being and equanimity through all areas of your life.

My point of sharing this is that I’m aware it’s not all spiritual projections but the place where people have opened the truth of what is for them. The truth is felt in people through a more, consistent awareness of them. I think that speaks for itself.

I find it hard to seperate how self aware I am with how well aware I am with others - maybe because to be present is to know what's going on with me right now. My awareness of others is also the awareness of how I am affected by them and it all comes down to the feeling I feel in such relating, but I'm not naturally talented at relating and forming the closeness or rapport. That is a skill I work on.


The meditation is great because it helps one see all things as an opportunity. For example, if things are pretty rough then it's an opportunity to practice keeping an even keel in a stormy sea... and if things are going great... then it's a reminder that it won;t last long, so you don't get too carried away. Hence the ups and the downs start to even out a little rather than going in wild swings.


A more deliberate practice can be purposeful in going to the subtler levels of experience, and as far as I'm concerned it should be for that purpose. Then you can be with the experience as it is, but in a more acute way, be aware of the finer nuances and intricacies of it... at the feel level. This translates to regular life enabling a deeper self-awareness. You can remember to retune to the balance of mind that is deliberate in formal meditation practice.



I'm not saying that it's all perfect and there is no stress, because life is stressful, and as long everything is pretty smooth sailing it seems easier to be 'spiritual-like'. When it gets tough it's harder to maintain the 'facade' and you become more the person you are, show your real face, so to speak. To me spiritualism is mostly just being. Being as you 'already are'. Then you can 'look and see' instead to trying to be some other way.

[Phaelyn]

Originally Posted by Gem

I find it hard to separate how self aware I am

Can you go deeper into what self awareness is or means to you?

[Gem]

Originally Posted by Phaelyn

Can you go deeper into what self awareness is or means to you?

It's not particularly deep really, just being aware of what my mind is doing along with the feelings throughout the body, although at some level these seem to be much the same thing. It seems to me that any activity of the mind, thought, emotion, correlates with a feeling manifesting in the body, so self awareness is more like awareness of the mind/body, but there is another aspect of the presence of the one who is aware, though I get distracted sometimes.

[Phaelyn]

Originally Posted by Gem

It's not particularly deep really, just being aware of what my mind is doing along with the feelings throughout the body, although at some level these seem to be much the same thing. It seems to me that any activity of the mind, thought, emotion, correlates with a feeling manifesting in the body, so self awareness is more like awareness of the mind/body, but there is another aspect of the presence of the one who is aware, though I get distracted sometimes.

It probably is very deep, much deeper than we think. Seems like it would not seem deep to us though, because at some point the path becomes one of now awakeness and non-intellectualizing. If you are living your life while dis-associating from mind and thought, then it is very simple, simplistic. It's just this as it is, before I color it un-neccearily with mind and personal bias.

If one can become "aware or the mind" or of where my attention is, that means one can also be unaware of such things. That brings up the question "what am I when I an not "self" aware?" I'd say simply running on auto-pilot or habitually living like most do being bounced around by mind and thought into this and that experience of whatever is happening or being thought about. We feel the effects and live the live created by this "un-awareness."

I think you are describing something very deep, but the thing being described is beyond thinking and all of that, so what is there to say? Nothing really. It can't be described and the more you talk about it or think about it, the further away you are from doing it and living it.

Originally Posted by Gem

For me, mindful equanimity is being consciously aware of what's going on without reacting to it, or IOW, equanimity is the absence of reactivity, and by 'keeping an even keel' I mean not becoming overwhelmed by the reactivity of the mind. This does also apply to identification in the sense that reactivity always regards me, my mine and/or I, and that we call 'ego' is like a construct of 'the one who reacts'

Well said. The average person spends a lot of time reacting to or "experiencing" whatever their mind is thinking about. Really that's what moment to moment living is to most people, experiencing their minds version of things. It takes energy to emerge in a moment in time and to drop all of that. To give ourselves freedom and expansiveness now.