An unspoken thought

When children come of age, they do judge parents for acts of omission and commission they feel impacted adversely on them, for no seeming fault of theirs. The cross a parent bears is the knowledge that the burden of sentence pronounced is borne equally if not more by the child who pronounces it. In terms of alienation and emotional dilemmas.
Such judgment has, over the last 4 years, devolved us to nothing more than a blood relationship in name only.
One can't wish away the past. But whats done, can't be undone either.
You seem intent on letting memories fuel your judgment....To what end? I have already lost everything. Have you gained anything by trying to purge me, or the memory of me?..Think about it!

Experience - as a Tourist or..explorer

Me - When you journey to the unknown using road maps prepared by others, you are traveling as a tourist would. Constantly looking for sign posts to reassure you that you are on track. A true journey into the Unknown is like exploration. The true essence of exploration for the explorer is discovery. The newness of the experience of Experiencing the unknown.
Yet, everything discovered seems to have no meaning until it has a relational reference to what you know. But once you seek to relate discovery to what you know, you are once again putting yourself in the dilemma of whether you are a tourist or an explorer, in this journey.

Experience the Unknown. Don't attempt to know it. Just Know it exists and explore it....
Its not for nothing that they say that experience is the best teacher. Explore to experience to learn to know...that you can Know. Ignorance is the basis of that experience
Raman - Great Dropping all concepts of experience gives direct experience, irrespective of the taste. Else all experiences become tasteless because of dressing of concepts upon them...and one remains deprived of one's original taste.

Humor and happiness

A sense of humor is good to have. A rare gift...Then again, when you see life for what it is, each moment is just this lightness of being. Emotion independent. Its just this....


The search for happiness is itself the main source of unhappiness.
Happiness is felt spontaneously in Life's moments, if one allows oneself to discover Life, as it comes.

The energy of Patience and Silence

Raman - Patience and Silence are two most powerful energies. Patience makes you mentally strong and Silence makes you emotionally strong.
Me - My view - Patience is the emotional strength to observe and not involve oneself with What is happening. Silence is the intellects response to What is observed as happening

Respons-ability

One's Response-ability determines and clarifies the burden of responsibility and conscience that one oft perceives. Fixing responsibility for What Is only tells us who or what contributed to it. It doesn't change anything.
If one can spell out how much is enough on every front, one gets answers to what one can as well as what one should do..
Respons-ability!!

How much is enough

Arun - There are moments in our lives when we find ourselves stuck at a psychological impasse. Inside we are in turmoil, yet we are unwilling to admit the problem to ourselves, let alone discuss with anyone else.
Me - One's Response-ability clarifies the burden of responsibility and conscience that oft impact one's psyche. How much is enough, answers both what one can as well as what one should do.

What is...was meant to be

Me - To Be, one needs to understand the basis of the choices that created What Is. Despite which there seems to exist an alternate reality as What Should be.
My state of being depends on knowing how and What I Am and Why I Am that. Is my life dependent or independent of the me that created it. If I am to Be, is it because of or inspite of my choices that stare at me as What Is. If What Should be keeps getting placed out of reach by the binding constraints around choice, then What Is, is but a Hobsons choice of What Should be. And there never will be an alternate reality so long as one presumes binding constraints regulate choice.
To Be, you first need to feel free to choose!
Arun - If you had free will, you would never say, What Is...was meant to be.
Me - It is because I didn't have it then that I now know that What Is...was meant to be. And What will be, will be in exercise of my free will, as it is meant to be.

Hypocrisy perspectives

Arun - If hypocrisy is the bridge between what we are and what we should be, I feel everyone is a hypocrite.
Me - Hypocrisy is not the bridge between what we are and what we should be. Its a convenient palliative that seemingly justifies why what we know just doesn't manifest itself to be. Hypocrisy is the delusion that What Is is not a part of What should be. Hypocrisy is the use of separate lenses to view the same reality. Hypocrisy is using variables to chase a constant.

Faith

Raman - Happiness keeps you sweet. Trials keep you strong. Sorrow keeps you humane. Failure keeps you humble. Success keeps you glowing. But only Faith keeps you going.
Me - Equanimity, undisturbed by the fickle onslaught of emotion, is the basis for realising that Its Just this....A realisation that What Is....was meant to be... is an article of Faith

The Why - For What mantra to peace of mind

Me - One needs to know Why one is doing What one is doing. Keep asking Why to each answer you come up with, and honestly answer. When there are no more Whys that crop up....You Know Why...Now for each intent that crops up, ask For What. And you wil gradually find middle ground...from which the paths less travelled are more accessible.
The Why - for What mantra to peace of mind.
Arun - I think it all ultimately boils down to pursuit of pleasure or escape from pain.
Me - In other words either become a sybarite or a zombie? All sense, no sensibility??

Pleasure and pain are the resultant of the ability or, inability to do, what one wants to. The degree of pleasure and pain, a factor of how strongly one wants what one wants. The life position one settles into reflects the worth one attaches to what one wants.
Abdication from an ideal can be a conscious and worthy compromise or...a reflection of futility belief!
Arun - Either you accept What Is, or keep hankering after What Should be. Both have their share of pleasure and pain.
Me - What Is...was meant to be. Shaped largely by your attempts to create What Should be, as per you, as What Is. The black and white clarity of your Should bes fuels a need to distill the grays of the wish frames of other dependent variables that make up What Is. The pleasure and pain flow from these efforts.
Acceptance is but the realisation of ones ability to juxtapose ones black and white clarity on the grey wish frame that seems to pervade What Is. If peace of mind is but a sensory state, then What Should be is just a lighter shade of pale of What Is!

Arun - Coming to terms with What Is...Realisation or failure?
Me - An acceptance that its just this actually. Realisation or failure is in the eyes of the beholder...A mind game.

Me - If I could....I would.
But I can't....so I wont.
When I can...I will.
Till then....I'll take a chill pill.
Wishful thought or compromise?
Realisation or failure?..or
Resilience
Arun - Sounds more like a laid back and defeatist attitude to me.
Me -
Consider
Happenings
Intellectually
Loath
Lovingly

Patiently
Interpreting
Lifes
Lessons

If you find that defeatist and laid back, then your learning curve has plateaued!
Arun - You may be right. What I am learning now is that all that I have learned till now doesn't work in the perceived world in which we live. The perceived reality is what forces one to set priorities. If we set them by the so called Real Reality, one is trying to steer life by armchair philosophy. I cannot live in this world setting the parameters according to the Other world.
Me -What you have learnt till now was with the objective of showing you that the perceived world is just that...a perception. The lessons are rooted in the experiences from/of this perceived reality.
No one forces one to set priorities. It's usually informed choice. If we set them based on perceptions, one is accepting that one's learning is nothing but armchair philosophy. Survival of the fittest applies to the evolutionary process of learning too. The lessons are meant to help you Adapt, Grow, Evolve out of this habitat to a new reality.....Or perish
Arun - I think I'm on the way to perishing
Me - The monk drinking on the street metaphor works both ways. So have a blast on your way out. You have nothing to loose but your perceptions!

Variables as constants

Raman - Time and Smile are two crucial things in our life. Sometimes Time makes us forget to Smile and sometimes someones smile makes us forget Time.
Me - Time is a constant and Smile a variable. Variables are dependent on constants while constants are usually overshadowed by variables. If we make the variable constant, then the constant will never be seen as variable.....
And crutches like fate, destiny and all the wishes and fears attributed to the unknown will disappear.

Boil to a cool

Raman - Reflection cannot be seen in boiling water. The same way that truth cannot be seen in a state of anger....So always be cool.
Me - Reflection cannot be seen in boiling water, but reflection on the lack of reflection is the only way to know that Truth always reflects coolly and clearly. So boil to a cool.

Raman - Visit www.mooji.org. You'll enjoy it
Me - OK..
My understanding framework relies heavily on experiencing. Spiritual literature including Mooji is insightful and helps develop the framework for understanding. But at my level, I soon find the reading to be too abstract and unconnected with what is, in my here and now experienced reality. Understanding comes from first hand experience and, the need to know builds from that.

What is

Raman - That...that the thought is seeking, is the thought itself and that is the nature of thought...That...that what is, seeks nothing as it knows, it already is everything.
Me - If seeking is the attitude then...the nature of thought is the futile chase of That.
That What is are just images reflected on the mind, seeking nothing, Knowing nothing.

SMILE

Raman - Smile is the Cooling system of the Heart, the Sparkling system of the Eyes. The Lighting System of the Face and the Relaxing ystem of the Mind.
Keep Smiling so that all Systems remain activated.
Me - Systems Make Instinct Less Efficient. So Mechanical Is Life Eventually. Spontaneity Means Intellect's Loafing Elsewhere. So just SMILE when you please, not systemically.

Perception

Raman - A single moment of Miss Understanding sometimes is so poisonous that it makes us forget the hundred lovable moments spent together, within a minute..
Me - An lol at the end of a message oft clarifies intent. With the constraints of an SMS though, one just presumes that if the context of the message is misread, the messenger isn't shot dead. After all...
lol - lots of luv
lol - lots of laughs.
In the end, its all in the eye of the beholder. The intent he/she attributes is the intent he/she perceives....

Illusory illusions

Raman - I drew a cube on a paper as we used to do in school...Now however intently I look at it, there seems a cube with hollow space on the paper only. Am unable to see straight and slanting lines which constitute it and neither can I see them as different squares drawn by different lines. Nor can I differentiate paper from the cubes or from lines....When this illusion is so difficult to realise, imagine the difficulty of realising the illusions of life....lol.
Me - On the contrary, you have consciously created an illusion that you cannot now perceive as anything but real. And that is the very nature of life's illusions. We consciously create them and then intently perceive them as real.
If one can attempt willfully to capture a 3D object in a 2D space and still perceive it in 3D, you don't need specs to see Avataar in 3D.

Its Just this...

Observation - a sensory recording of as many of the elements that make up a whole. When the state of the whole gets altered, one can see which element(s) contributed to it.
The whole becomes Whole when the elements that make up the whole recognise that the here and now is...What is. What was, was once What is that begat What is. Just as What is will beget What will be as What is. This transition/change is the only constant in life.
How one attempts to manage the elements of one's whole determines whether one accepts the Whole to be What is or, futilely keep attempting to understand What is, in the context of positioning ones whole, one's managed self, for symbiosis with the Whole.
Its Just this...

Nature of pursuits of the mind

Pursuit is not the nature of the mind. Intellect evolves from natural sensory input guided by the objective of survival of the living being it is part of. Once the basic security, social and self esteem needs are secured, the mind then seeks to self actualise. It is at this stage that active pursuit starts. What use does a beggar worried about his next meal have for an understanding of nothing vs no-thing. He has no-thing which is nothing.
So...it it really very obvious! The nature of things!

Perceiving nothing

I hope you got the message in my blank message in reply to your message that started this conversation.
It is so easy to perceive as nothing when you see nothing. If you let it trigger questions like intent, motive etc then, the quest for the meaning behind nothing starts, and soon muddles up your instinctive perception of what nothing is. nd you start objectifying nothing!

The Way

How do we know that we can Know.
What is to be known.
If it is to be Known then can there be an unknown.
Or is it just need for a purpose that manifests as wordplay.
Nothing as No-thing

And we get entranced in the dances of consciousness. Sublime, subtle, balancing....All in a tiny fragment of one's real world.
To nothingness we descend. To be or become nothing, we shed all the baggage we carry. Yet, to achieve nothingness, we try to ascend to levels of consciousness on the wings of thoughts. While always desperately seeking thoughtlessness.
Because it has been written, we follow others experience. Rarely giving a chance to ourselves for virgin exploration that may just be, or lead to the way, known as, The Way.

Knowing is No-thing

Raman -How can nothingness be thought of, simply because it is nothing....A thing can think either of itself or of other things....think is the other word of thing....that, that conceptualises a thing is a thought which is, a mere reflection/subtle part of thing itself. So, the thought can only think of the thing, be it the solid thing as an object or subtle thing as a thought. But it no way can think of no-thing....the thought can only conceptualise no-thing as something to think about it. Similarly nothing cannot think about anything because thinking itself is a thing....So in between there is subtle knowing...between the thing and no-thing. This knowing can only come alive when there is a very fine balance between thinking and no-thinking... Because else when one is, the other is not...not that they are two but because they are actually one, thus inseparable...the nothing exists as thing and thing disappears as nothing....knowing this as is or as a play is what is realisation or simply knowing... And once this is known...all is known...because when you know one thing completely you know all things and once you know nothing completely, you know the whole of nothingness....and when you know this, you know yyourself as a knower and when you know this totally you know yourself simply as knowing.

What is ..as..What Should be

Arun - No matter how much one tries to accept What Is, its always What Should Be that beats it! Thats the WHOLE problem.
Me - Why is it difficult to accept What Is when you Know you have consciously created it, through expedient choices. Willfully compromising on What Should Be, that you Know to be an achievable reality! The problem is that compromises erode one's faith in oneself.
Why let What Should Be batter you. Accept it as a reality that could have been, that you have had to choose not to live. And.. maybe can..or will.if you choose to..some day.
What Is coincides with What Should Be through conscious choices, not expedient compromises.
Keep the faith. What Is...Is Just this.

Toil - an end or a means..

Me - You toiled....for an end....A beginning.
You toil....for an end to beginnings.

Toil....An end that once was the means to a beginning. Now, its just What Is...No beginning or ending!

Know al!

Raman - To understand the in breath and the out breath completely is to understand all cycles of nature completely.
Me - Is that really necessary. Do I need to know how and why I know. Its quite enough for me to know that what I know, is not all that is to be known. If i know all, then thats just what i am...A know all!

Q & A

Must ther be a question for there to be an answer. Do answers only emerge through questions. Questions facilitate a focus on the obvious. For once known, the answer is always obvious.

Cest la vie

Me -Silences could well be the ultimate acknowledgment of Being. Communicating a reality without embellishment or comment. The lack of warmth and curiosity but a reflection of the superfluousness of feeling, in the acceptance of What is.
We evolve and grow yet, the template of expectancies guiding observation of behavior are, from who we were and wished to be.
One checks understanding by seeking understanding, that demonstrates that one is understood. But when all attempts to understand are met with generic Cest la vie (Thats life) responses, one begins to feel an outsider in a relationship. Not sure where one stands in it anymore.
The known begets acceptance. Tis the unknown, created by knowing, that triggers doubts that encroach on and disrupt the equanimity frame.
Then again...One realises that those templates built around who we were and thought we would be, have helped make me who I am. More Thoughtless than thoughtful, detachment coming easily, in making my peace.
The template, in hindsight, relied exclusively on the sensory. Evidence gathering, the basis for relieving insecurities. Though it recognised that comfort in silence was the ultimate in relationships. It needed exclamations of that to give it meaning.
Updationof the templates sees one as uncaring. To each their own, in rare moments, maybe sharing.
What was evolved to this unimagined What is. And the realisation that...Its Just this.
Silence! Cest la vie.
Arun - My silence only implies my utter dissatisfaction with What Is., and, death of my SPIRIT, as you can see. Thats all I have to say.
Me - You sound as if you have put yourself beyond salvage. What purpose the spiritual understanding then if the SPIRIT succumbs so easily in the face of What Is?
Arun - I have not succumbed easily, but the fact of the matter is that I Have.
Me - If you have succumbed, why go on floging a framework that only pulls you to the extremities but creates the mirage of putting you on the middle pathh. Stop reading and sleepwalk through life. Thats the attitude in sync with the helplessness in succumbing.
I know thats harsh bro. ut if you are gonna be so defeatist, then face the reality that enriching the mind, while drowning in the cesspool of matter is no lifeline or, light at the end of this sewer. Seems like continual self flagellation for the failure to Be. Is it just this?
Arun - Rather than enriching my mind, I am trying to empty it of concepts.
Me - Given the conceptual frame you have developed, your mind is akin to the Gordian knot. The only way to disentangle the proverbial knot is to slice through it. Emptied at one stroke!!

Know that...We are

I know that change is the only constant in life. And paradoxes like that tend to be the basis of all great truths. If I choose to let my reality be enriched by someone else's experience, I'm receptive to learning and my moments are good.
Thers no grand design to my life, no purpose or reason. And its the realisation of that, that makes each moment, paradoxically, so precious yet redundant. For when thought gets triggered by perspectives that others see, I risk loosing sight of What is, in the maze of what was or can be.
I know that I'm just another nobody in the billion. No desire to be recognised as one in a million.
And How or when I need to cope is based on my choices. Just as knowing How much is enough helps resolve the paradox of the end as the beginning.
So cherish all your moments. Feel blessed as who you are. For in every moment, here and now, we are.

What is...was meant to be

Attributing -ves and +ves to states of mind is the shallow search for the so called feel good posture. Yes, thinking is but experiencing and accepting that...what is..was meant to be.

Keep the faith

At the end of the day, we have to live with ourselves. So long as one does what one feels and knows is right, there are no conscience calls and apprehensions of consequences. If you don't trust yourself enough to know and do what you feel is right in your environment then, you'll be constantly unsettled by it.
The right vs wrong war is subjective. Faith in yourself is the key. First, to survival and then the knowledge that you may loose a few battles in order to win the war. Thats a perspective to consequences that knowing and doing whats right gives u.

4 Project Lotus

What is meant to be...will be.
For What iswhat you make it.
All the best for whateva you want this...and your life ahead...to be.