Showing posts with label Philosophy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Philosophy. Show all posts

Monday, October 19, 2009

Random Sparks of Nonduality - Part One (of Many)




From time to time thoughts arise that point to the bare awareness of reality. Here are some of them.






Wholeness does not arise gradually.
Practice does not make perfect - it only manifests the perfection that was already present in absolute awareness.
No one ever becomes realized because no one exists in realization.
Nothing changes after realization because there was nothing before and after realization.
You appear to be seeking for what is already present.
The seeking is the separation - liberation is not at the end of the search, it is at the end of the searcher.
Anyone who says that they are liberated or realized is speaking falsely - all they can say is that realization is in the awareness of everything happening as it is.
No one can change their nature - they can only give up the idea that they have one.- The divine nature is not separate from human nature - how can it ever be separated, for it is life itself?
Our consciousness is more like a river than a lake - all flowing from and to the same source.
We don't say "I am a body" - we say "I have a body" - why?
We speak of our body as having a brain, legs, arms and hands. If we are not those things, or in any of those things, what are we? Where are we?
We say that we come into the world - but actually nothing comes out of the world and pretends to be something.
Some say that the world was created out of nothing - because before there was anything there was nothing, but nothing was created because nothing has not stopped existing, and if nothing exists then there cannot be anything.
We cannot move toward perfection for perfection is not a gradual attainment - perfection is only found in completeness.
At what moment does a thought become an action? Isn't action always a response to a thought in the past? But everything we do happens now when we do it - so the past has no reality other than in our thoughts.
We are not what we appear to be, but what appears is all there is.
In the public world of Advaita there's always room for one more, but, in the true sense of Advaita there's no room for another.
Non-duality doesn't require our belief. It only requires our death.
Realization is the dance between "me"-ing and "be"-ing.
To be realized is to be content with not knowing that you are.
The Self wants a solution that is only found when it stops wanting it.
The idea that we are on a journey to become a better version of ourselves is an illusion. We are already that.
You can't become anything other than what you already are, until you stop trying.
Awareness occurs at the moment before thoughts occur.
Trying to outrun thoughts - it is impossible!
We do not create our thoughts - our thoughts create us.

Monday, June 22, 2009

The Power of Watts







Alan Watts (1915 - 1973)










"The facts, the reality of our existence, is that we are both the natural environment, which ultimately is the whole universe, and the organism playing together. Why don't we feel that way? Why, obviously because this other feeling gets in the way of it. This socially induced feeling which comes about as a result of a kind of hypnotism exercised upon us throughout the whole educational process has given us a hallucinatory feeling of who we are, and therefore we act like madmen. We don't respect our environment; we destroy it. But you know, exploiting and destroying your environment, polluting the water and the air and everything, is just like destroying your own body. The environment is your body. But we act in this crazy way because we've got a crazy conception of who we are. We're raving mad."

- Alan Watts, Ego, Vol. 8 of "The Essence of Alan Watts."

I remember the first time I heard Alan Watts on the radio, back in the early '70's. He speaks exactly how he writes - with powerful, well-chosen words, in immaculate English.

I think I have always been a fan of Alan Watts - (my wife calls me a "Wattie") even after I met someone who knew him well and described him as a "confused and troubled man."

When I first heard Alan's friend say that about him, I was very disappointed, and in my immaturity at that moment, felt that it destroyed my image of him as the wise mystic. Now I look back and ask - who among us would be the first to admit that we haven't been "confused and troubled" at least once or twice in our lives?

Alan's wisdom always hit to the core of any self-righteousness dogmatic posture and shattered the security of so many inherited beliefs. Not the least of which, would be the idea that a spiritual person always has it "all together." I can really relate to that.

Tonight I was browsing the web - "Googling" - and I came across some great YouTube clips of Alan that various people had put together. See below......

Take a few moments to listen (and watch) these:



Alan Watts - thanks for being!