To think about thinking… Is there anything else we can do while doing it? See while seeing, hear while hearing, smell while smelling, taste while tasting, feel while feeling…

“A simple enough process seems to be in the present and take it as it happens. This though easy to state, is not as easy when it comes to the practice of it.”

The reality is that we are always in the present.  In that sense there is no try it already is. It’s an illusion that the thoughts of the past or the future happen in the past or the future. They occur in the present and we deal with them as we deal with all things as it happens. The practice isn’t to make it happen but to accept it’s how it is.

Hi No-thing

It sounds like you are in a lot of pain. If I’m reading you correctly the anger and frustration your holding has to do with the problem of justice. Lots of books written on that subject and still the idea is not understood.

I get it. Everyday we watch as people that hurt others remain oblivious, untouched and or simply seemingly uncaring about the harm they do. We want them punished. Something about life is wrong and we want to fix it and condemn it.  I get it.

The reality is life is not going to change. The choice then, remain angry and spend your life self-righteously shaking your fists at the heaven’s and all the wrong you see around you demanding Life be different, demanding Life conform to your expectations… or… let it go…

Be the change you want to see, it’s the best anyone can do. (the reality is we always are weather we consciously choose it or not) Stand up when you see injustice but detached (not indifferent) from outcomes.  Life’s will, will be done. How other people experience that is their fate to face how you experience yours is yours. Its one of the few choices we get to make so choice wisely.

Hi Nothing. (from nothing comes all things)

You ask some really good questions.

“All I teach is suffering and the end of suffering.” – “Life is suffering” – yet the Buddha was not arguing for the end of life or, in my opinion, the disengagement from Life though for some that is a path. (most of us are not called to be monks or hermits but to engage with life)

In general: We see life as we are (karma) not as it is.  As we become more conscious – “enlightened” – the opposites fade and we experience Life as it is, which is as we are. Life is a wonder; we are a wonder which includes suffering. We say Yes to life and engage fully with it, Joyful suffering… Have you noticed that the experiences that becomes deeply meaningfully because they are bitter sweet.  The experience of pain and suffering transformed…. Which yes, raises many more questions.

I am not a Buddhist so the following may be off the mark but maybe it will help.

The purpose of the various practice of Buddhism is greater awareness. Consciousness arises from the tension we experience when confronted with opposites.   We don’t become conscious of the experience of cold without having the experience of hot.

Perhaps the first confrontation we all experience is the knowledge of good and evil which is different from knowledge of what is good and what is evil. Knowledge “of” is not the same as knowing “what is” so we suffer. What I experience as good one minute is in the next experienced as bad. What I experience as good you might experience as bad. How can that be? How can one thing be at the same time both? Not Two?

We “awaken” to the problem of opposites, becoming conscious through struggle. In general, we experience struggle as suffering so you might say that the price of consciousness is suffering or, the price of life is suffering.

When we look to nature, we become conscious of the fact that Life lives off Life.  Life requires the sacrifice of Life.  Our life comes at the cost of life and the tendency is to repress that truth = we suffer. I would argue that the question behind all religions is in my opinion how are we to respond that truth. Yes, No, or We can Fix it. Interestingly most religions can be interpreted in any of these ways.

If we answer No, that Life should not be, get me off this ride. We dissolve the ego, no ego no suffering because there is nothing that can be touched. Begs the question, what is the ego and what role does it play in consciousness? Many interpret the goal of Buddhism this way.

If we answer life was good, but we broke it so must fix it. Well, I suspect you know that just creates allot of suffering although it’s a good way to experience suffering as meaning and purpose.

If we answer Yes, we enter into the flow or life as it is, that we are one, intimately part of Life, its wonder and suffering. We Suffer however our relationship to suffering changes and becomes not suffering.

I would argue that the Buddha, as was Christ, were showing the path to say Yes to Life As It Is. Each moment of life a moment of “birth – death – resurrection/reincarnation” – not opposites but intimately connected and interwoven that we are to enter into freely.

Which brings us back to the problem of opposites, suffering, consciousness and ‘enlightenment’.  As we awaken, we realize that opposites are illusions of our own making. Not that the experiences aren’t real but that they aren’t separate, aren’t opposites. Good and Bad exist together as one, as the All is one. Joy and suffering are not opposites but are one as the All is one. This is a different kind of consciousness and being.

• Objective consciousness:  Object and Subject or separate. This is our relationship to the outer world where “real” equals those things we experience through our 5 senses.
• Subjective consciousness: Object and Subject or separate. This is our relationship to the inner world, how we feel and think about what our senses reveal to us.
• “Dream” consciousness: Both Object and Subject arise from the self.  You are both Object and Subject. The division between Object and Subject disappear. Object and Subject no longer opposites.
• Consciousness enveloped by unconscious: conscious of the unconscious…. Add silence and you have the sound of “one hand clapping” the sound of the Universe, the sound of Life, ‘Oum’.

So, what am I saying?

As we engage in the practice we will eventually be confronted with the problem of opposites. As we practice, contemplate and meditate and allow the levels of consciousness to arise (cycle) the opposites of object and subject merge and the experience of opposites dissolves. As the opposites dissolves the questions of good and evil, joy and suffering dissolve and so our relationship to Life and relation to ego transforms to something that is transparent to the transcendent . In other words, beyond the limitation of words. We return to where we started but see it for the first time.

Its not just woman who find themselves in the same situation. I fear I am also a member of the club.

My mother once warned that the older a person gets without entering a committed relationship the less likely they will.  Her theory being that entering into such relationships required a level of innocents,  blind ‘faith’ and ability to leap into the unknown.  The wide-eyed wonder of youth.

I wonder sometimes if she was right.  I know as I have gotten older taking a leap of faith has become much harder. To be candid its been so long that I wouldn’t know where to start.  As INTJ I think to much and trust myself to little…  so, in my case I am getting in my own why.

I agree with Valora though. I think for people like us we need to meet that person who is patient and that won’t panic when asked to move slow so that we might create that safe place.

Hi Thalia

My own experience with the concept of ‘passion’ is that their is so much noise concerning the subject that the search for passion turns out to be one of the things getting in the way of the experience of feeling passionate about what you do.

In the end Passion isn’t something you find, its something you allow yourself to experience, what every you end up doing. Even exploring the “everything” you find interesting can be Passion

Jealousy isn’t something someone does to us, its something we do to ourselves. In some sense we choose such experiences so a path to healing involves taking responsibility and asking yourself why you spend so much time comparing yourself to others…. what value does this experience have for you? Does it allow you to stay stuck?

All Emotions serve a purpose and I suspect jealousy points to areas in our lives that we need in to integrate. By either letting go or setting goals.

“Our wounds are often the openings into the best and most beautiful part of us.”

“In the hero stories, the call to go on a journey takes the form of a loss, an error, a wound, an unexplainable longing, or a sense of a mission. When any of these happens to us, we are being summoned to make a transition. It will always mean leaving something behind,…The paradox here is that loss is a path to gain.” ― David Richo, How to Be an Adult: A Handbook on Psychological and Spiritual Integration

Your awareness to the problem of Jealousy is a door to self discovery. It has served its purpose, so you can let it go.  I know easier said then done… or is it….

A place to start might be a practice of mindfulness. When you become jealous of someone’s beauty, the issue is not their beauty but that you don’t feel beautiful. Begs the question of what is beauty? How do we measure such a thing? As a species we love to measure and label, but the reality is we suck at it. A authentic practice of mindfulness will eventually lead to jumping off this judgment and measuring ‘train’.

We work for that which no work is required. Accept yourself as you are as you challenge your self to grow, to do better as you learn better, without labels or unnecessary judgment. Who can ask more of themselves or others?

Hi Susan

I totally relate to the problem of not being able to envision the road ahead as I approach the final third of life.  The problem as I experience it comes from a place of isolation.

I suspect the solution lies in service, engaging life by joining groups that help others. Everything I’ve read points in that direction however I tell myself maybe when I retire. …

I guess I’m not being much help here… I can tell you that you’re not alone in feeling as you do.  So many of those I meet that live alone and are approaching retirement are in the same place. I’m convinced the solution involves finding and engaging in community. However, the problem is that the longer you live alone the more difficult it is to push oneself out of the comfort zone and engage/create community.

If you find away I’d be interested in hearing what you did. The only advice I do have is to avoid creating labels and identifying the self with those labels. ie. The label of wasted life = I am a waist… which is likely attached to misunderstanding of concepts of meaning and purpose that one imagines others are living out.  They aren’t… at least not in the ways we imagine they are. Meaning and purpose are not something we create  and hold on to forever, but a something experienced in a moment. For example a moment with a friend or child can be filled with purpose and meaning. The truth we give life meaning, life does not give us meaning, so every moment is meaning and purpose we only fail to notice most of the time. I think because we make the assumption that meaning and purpose must be grand and recognized as being such… by others…

Hi  Rocco

Its sounds like you may have connected these past experiences with your sense of self. Its important to remember that You are not your thoughts or you actions, past or present.

With regards to Guilt and Shame:  guilt is the feeling that you’ve done something bad, while shame is the feeling that you are bad. While you work through your past its important to recognize that some shame is deserved however most shame we feel and hold onto is undeserved.

Based on what I read I suspect the shame you feel and are holding onto is undeserved. You were a confused and young and if there was something that required ‘making right’ and forgiveness it seams you have been forgiven. The next step then is for you to forgive yourself and let it go.

I like what Lewis Smedes had to say about Shame (recommend his book Shame and Grace)

“Shame is heavy; Grace is light…. Shame says that because I am flawed I am unacceptable. Grace says that though I am flawed I am cherished. “

“The lightness of grace does not lift all the sandbags that drag the spirit down. It lightens life by removing one very dead weight in particular—the weight of anxiety about being an unacceptable person. It extracts the internal threat of healthy shame. It gives us courage to track down the sources of unhealthy shame, see it for the undeserved pain it is, and take steps to purge our lives of it completely. It sets loose the lightest feeling of life; being accepted; totally, unreservedly accepted…” – Lewis Smedes

• This reply was modified 5 years, 6 months ago by Peter.