Re: Invitation to start here:
Posted: Tue Sep 11, 2012 12:13 pm
Hi Dennis, much shorter, and better answers to questions.
To the question of why you keep seeing patterns and thoughts about patterns and choice, the very short answer, which you can ascertain for yourself by simply looking, is that consciousness has the habit of imprinting patterns on itself.
Mind looks for the pattern, the linking threads.
We find them restful and interesting, and certainly useful. Music has patterns that repeat with variation, for instance. Harmony in design and appearance enjoys some symmetry and some repetition of form or theme. And people are happiest when they can discern an honest or reliable person, one with stable patterns of behaviour :-)
Predictable, in other words. What we can predict, we can feel is within our control, and can be exploited.
You are asking about our need for control, to think that a chooser is real.
Your answer references this:
3) What is liberation?
It is seeing through that illusion. The illusion of the separate self. When really looking at what we've believed to be true all those years without questioning, one can find out that truth. By investigating one finds there is no 'self', only happening. Happening, constant change, flowing, and this body/mind is interwoven with that. All is connected and the idea that one has control, or needs to do things, is seen through as part of that same illusion.
So this needs, and thank you for bringing it up, a little more looking.
As you walk about today, turning left and right, hand reaches for the phone, you stop and pick up groceries, you get the car washed....look for a separate self, an entity, in the thoughts or anywhere else, that is separate from the day. Is a you part of the whole happening? Rain or shine, dirty car, your dad told you that a clean car was essential to a good person's image :-) you are picking up a girlfriend who you want to impress because you've been noticing women (or men) for some time now, which is something that evolved to drive you towards the great bother of acquiring a car and a cool job and an education and possibly a family and.....how far back can you trace the decision to wash the car?
Did a you make every decision back to (I'm not kidding) choosing parents who could give you the means and the motive to wash a car?
To make an apple pie, first create a universe....
Has Dennis ever been separate?
Has anything ever happened that should not have?
Is there any way to choose? Or just label?
GREAT question...now give me your answer, what you see when you look at your day. Does this make life smaller or bigger?
To the question of why you keep seeing patterns and thoughts about patterns and choice, the very short answer, which you can ascertain for yourself by simply looking, is that consciousness has the habit of imprinting patterns on itself.
Mind looks for the pattern, the linking threads.
We find them restful and interesting, and certainly useful. Music has patterns that repeat with variation, for instance. Harmony in design and appearance enjoys some symmetry and some repetition of form or theme. And people are happiest when they can discern an honest or reliable person, one with stable patterns of behaviour :-)
Predictable, in other words. What we can predict, we can feel is within our control, and can be exploited.
You are asking about our need for control, to think that a chooser is real.
Your answer references this:
3) What is liberation?
It is seeing through that illusion. The illusion of the separate self. When really looking at what we've believed to be true all those years without questioning, one can find out that truth. By investigating one finds there is no 'self', only happening. Happening, constant change, flowing, and this body/mind is interwoven with that. All is connected and the idea that one has control, or needs to do things, is seen through as part of that same illusion.
So this needs, and thank you for bringing it up, a little more looking.
As you walk about today, turning left and right, hand reaches for the phone, you stop and pick up groceries, you get the car washed....look for a separate self, an entity, in the thoughts or anywhere else, that is separate from the day. Is a you part of the whole happening? Rain or shine, dirty car, your dad told you that a clean car was essential to a good person's image :-) you are picking up a girlfriend who you want to impress because you've been noticing women (or men) for some time now, which is something that evolved to drive you towards the great bother of acquiring a car and a cool job and an education and possibly a family and.....how far back can you trace the decision to wash the car?
Did a you make every decision back to (I'm not kidding) choosing parents who could give you the means and the motive to wash a car?
To make an apple pie, first create a universe....
Has Dennis ever been separate?
Has anything ever happened that should not have?
Is there any way to choose? Or just label?
GREAT question...now give me your answer, what you see when you look at your day. Does this make life smaller or bigger?