Some help please from other spiritual practitioners

Even if there is "silence" and such in meditation and in small, minute moments (not like Starman haha)

Then you engage and it's still yourself. It's habits, conditions, personality. It's the unplumbed stuff.

How does that ever change? Can you please help me with some perspectives here?

Thanks

JL

Choiceless awareness.

Focused techniques like mindfulness, mantra, candle gazing, etc... point at the Moon's reflection whereas choiceless awareness points at the Moon itself.

I find the Karma Yoga practice of Work as Witness a perfect compliment to choiceless awareness/do nothing meditation. As often as I remember throughout the day and no matter what I'm doing I "look" for that place deep in choiceless awareness and rest in it, Witnessing mind-body engaged in action, whether it's physical or mental.

I've posted these links before and I'll include them here as they are very pertinent, I think.

Nonduality and Mindfulness — Two Great Traditions that Go Great Together: https://deconstructingyourself.com/n...ndfulness.html

Escaping the Observer Trap: Free Yourself by Observing the Observer: https://deconstructingyourself.com/e...rver-trap.html

Do Nothing Meditation: https://deconstructingyourself.com/d...editation.html

[iamthat]

How does it ever change? Slowly, and it requires persistence.

To begin with, all we know are the habits, conditioning, personality. Then we discover those moments of silence, and we know there is something more. But resting in that silence requires vigilance in each moment, and it is human nature to slip back into that which is familiar and comfortable.

If we persist then inner silence slowly becomes our natural state. In fact, it has always been our natural state but we have become accustomed to living with our inner noise and drama. So there is an ongoing process of being willing to let go of our stories, our dramas, our small identity, our attachment to thinking. It is a work in progress.

I like the simple exercise of sitting quietly, eyes closed, resting in awareness, and asking myself "What is missing in this moment?" Of course, there is nothing missing. This moment is complete and nothing needs to be different to how it is. And in that completion there is silence.

Peace

Thanks so much, friends.

iamthat - thanks for the encouragement

JASG - thanks for being awesome, what you are.