Getting to know youself

[Phaelyn]

Originally Posted by Gem

what (your breath) feels like is not an opinion

How about what raw cabbage tastes like? Or a ripe strawberry? The smell of fresh cut grass, the smell of a rose, or the smell of an oil refinery, or truck exhaust?

The feel of the ground under our feet? Another human being in our space?

To be alive. What does that feel like? This present moment? The sunlight streaming right now into my window after a rain?

What does now feel like? And who is ultimately reasonable for how it feels?

What does unconditional love feel like? Joy and peace?

To feel joy and peace while experiencing pain and loss. To feel love in intense suffering... now that is something!

[Phaelyn]

Originally Posted by Gem

Self awareness mainly means you are consciously aware of what is going on with yourself psychologically.

I'd define self awareness as when we are aware we are not whatever is there psychologically.

Originally Posted by Gem

There is the second category: the presence of awareness, but it defies description. However, it's quite obvious that awareness is present,

I'd not say awareness is present, I'd say I am present. I am awareness.. that at times surrenders to the human bodies reactionary, habitual and conditioned thought stream as my basis for truth, reality, and experience.

[Miss Hepburn]

Originally Posted by inavalan

then later Yogananda asks:

"Why does God permit suffering in the world? Should He not with His omnipotence do away with it at one stroke and ordain

Do you have where that was from? I'd love to read the whole thing...esp what he said next!
I think i have everything of his...and more...like, his close devotees from the 40-50s.
Thanks a lot.

[sky]

Originally Posted by Miss Hepburn

Do you have where that was from? I'd love to read the whole thing...esp what he said next!
I think i have everything of his...and more...like, his close devotees from the 40-50s.
Thanks a lot.

Not really much more to read but .......

http://anandapilgrimages.org/dialogue-ramana/

[inavalan]

Originally Posted by Miss Hepburn

Do you have where that was from? I'd love to read the whole thing...esp what he said next!
I think i have everything of his...and more...like, his close devotees from the 40-50s.
Thanks a lot.

Miss Hepburn, I found your reply by chance, because I've had unsubscribed from this thread. Browsing "new posts" I noticed that you replied to it, and checked it out.

I got it from here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4_ZleDVogJI

But you can find it in other places too, for example:

https://archive.arunachala.org/docs/talks-wsrm/106-108

I am not familiar with Ramana's teachings. Somebody posted the youtube link on another site, yesterday, and I found some of Ramana's answers to resonate with some of my beliefs.

A couple of days ago I made a similar discovery about Nisargadatta's teachings too. This is the quote:

from 63. Notion of Doership is Bondage

http://greatmaster.info/i-am-that/i-am-that-67/

M: There is only life. There is nobody who lives a life.

Q: That we understand, yet constantly we make attempts to live our lives instead of just living. Making plans for the future seems to be an inveterate habit with us.

M: Whether you plan or don't, life goes on. But in life itself a little whorl arises in the mind, which indulges in fantasies and imagines itself dominating and controlling life. Life itself is desireless. But the false self wants to continue -- pleasantly. Therefore it is always engaged in ensuring one's continuity. Life is unafraid and free. As long as you have the idea of influencing events, liberation is not for you: The very notion of doership, of being a cause, is bondage.

Q: How can we overcome the duality of the doer and the done?

M: Contemplate life as infinite, undivided, ever present, ever active, until you realise yourself as one with it. It is not even very difficult, for you will be returning only to your own natural condition.
Once you realise that all comes from within, that the world in which you live has not been projected onto you but by you, your fear comes to an end. Without this realisation you identify yourself with the externals, like the body, mind, society, nation, humanity, even God or the Absolute. But these are all escapes from fear. It is only when you fully accept your responsibility for the little world in which you live and watch the process of its creation, preservation and destruction, that you may be free from your imaginary bondage.

[Miss Hepburn]

Originally Posted by sky123

Not really much more to read but .......

http://anandapilgrimages.org/dialogue-ramana/

Oh I see, it's a conversation with those 2 - and so Ramana says,
'Suffering is the way for Realisation of God'.
Ok.
Thanks for being so fast!!!!!!

I wouldn't be where I am if not for suffering ---or rather being fed up with suffering...
a huge motivator suffering is ---to stop it, END IT!
Ha!

I have had friends ask me why I am the way I am - And I say ---
'You just haven't suffered enough yet...I had had enough!'
I started a thread on that yrs ago here ---that that is the only diff between yourself and a yogi -
You are putting up with... tolerating the suffering ...they wanted out of it! And did something ...
that's all and they know it!
They're not special, they just were very motivated.

[inavalan]

This is another informative quote from Nisargadatta:

(from 63. Notion of Doership is Bondage)

Q: People come to you very often with their worldly troubles and ask for help. How do you know what to tell them?

M: I just tell them what comes to my mind at the moment. I have no standardized procedure in dealing with people.

Q: You are sure of yourself. But when people come to me for advice, how am I to be sure that my advice is right?

M: Watch in what state you are, from what level you talk. If you talk from the mind, you may be wrong. If you talk from full insight into the situation, with your own mental habits in abeyance your advice may be a true response. The main point is to be fully aware that neither you nor the man in front of you are mere bodies; If your awareness is clear and full. a mistake is less probable.

[Miss Hepburn]

Ramana and Nisarg ---my buddies! I'm loving this thread.

[Gem]

Originally Posted by Phaelyn

How about what raw cabbage tastes like? Or a ripe strawberry? The smell of fresh cut grass, the smell of a rose, or the smell of an oil refinery, or truck exhaust?

The feel of the ground under our feet? Another human being in our space?

To be alive. What does that feel like? This present moment? The sunlight streaming right now into my window after a rain?

What does now feel like? And who is ultimately reasonable for how it feels?

What does unconditional love feel like? Joy and peace?

To feel joy and peace while experiencing pain and loss. To feel love in intense suffering... now that is something!

Well, I could list different things and ask what they are like, but particulars aside, the point is, you only know what it's like through paying attention (though I state the obvious). Hence you can walk around without knowing what your feet feel like or breath not knowing what breathing feels like or type without knowing what your fingers feel like, but if you pay attention you know what its like.

The reason I state the obvious is the same principle applies to knowing yourself. One has to pay attention to what's going on with themselves to know and understand.

[sky]

You don't listen, you just ' observe '