Those who read this site will find a LOT of concepts. Also lots of Sanskrit terms and Vedic references that have a specific meaning that may not be what you’ve seen elsewhere.
The key to understand this site is that these are ways of talking about abstract subjects that there isn’t always good English words for.
You may get the impression that this site is driven by concepts but it’s actually driven by experience which I then try to put into words. I don’t write to help you fill your mental baskets but to support people on the journey with some context and understanding. Hearing things described a different way can sometimes increase clarity and open doors.
You also may get the idea that collecting these concepts is good for your spiritual growth. It is useful to have some understanding and perspective of the journey but we don’t grow spiritually by using the mind. We can’t think our way beyond mind.
You may think I’ve memorized massive troves of obscure texts for decades, collecting catalogs of concepts. Yet a major part of my process has been unloading them.
Before I woke up, I ended up discarding what I thought enlightenment was and how the process works. It hadn’t matched the experience and the whole thing had become more a burden than a help. Only later did I return to some of it and discover what had not been understood before it was experienced. I then further adapted it to match what I was seeing in myself and others.
This happened again with the next major shift when all the experiences and understanding and awakening had to once again be discarded in order for Unity to unfold.
If you explore old posts, you’ll see how I used to explain things and saw the world – it has changed a lot over the years. You’ll also see a lot more on prior stages, like regular posts on the three-fold functioning of the ego.
In my own case, I have a strong intellect. It has been necessary to satisfy it before there was a willingness to surrender. Understanding has been key, but also holding that understanding lightly so it can fall to deeper insights.
It gradually became very clear to me that each stage brings with it its own reality and truth. This is entirely based on the stage of development. Seeking the One Truth is the game of a mind looking for certainty and control. That’s not how you find reality.
Enjoy the feast here but carry it lightly lest it become a burden.
Davidya
Last Updated on June 16, 2016 by
Yes, I agree with your perspective, that of using knowledge to understand spiritual experience in a broader context. It can be tempting though, for a seeker to find “comprehensive” answers to explain, for example, the role of consciousness in our lives, and then become attached to all of the concepts involved, chasing them down in books and teachers to solidify this “comprehensive answer”.
But spiritual life does not stay alive through ever more towering edifices of thought, reflection, and logic. It stays alive by itself, by continually transcending itself, and its deepest truths will *only* be found through experience.
Understanding all of this is key, though I have found over time that life itself makes such knowledge available according to the faintest desire for same, when the time is right.
So over the course of a householder’s spiritual journey there is not much need to seek after outside sources for answers; the books, seminars, tapes, teachers, satsangs, ceremonies, diet, etc., etc. Perhaps something like 95% to 99% experience, to a few percent of knowledge is an appropriate ratio.
Otherwise we can be in danger of weakening ourselves to believe that any lack within can be satisfied by an outside source. With our attention ever focused on the goal, life will simply and insistently let us know what is to be done next, inside or out.
Well put, Jim.
I fell into a bit of that myself and quite agree. Experience is the key.
When that is lacking, people are much more inclined to seek outside sources & authorities and build those edifices. Thus you see those complex philosophies and religions offering grand “answers”. But as the old saying goes, “knowledge in books remains in books”.
very well said.
Thanks, ZP
I may have been doing this myself. Whenever I wrote a piece, had a talk, or whatever it was, when it was done, it was done. Period. There was never any need to go back to change anything. At that point, as far as I was concerned, you could burn it.
Of course, if paused in the middle, we may continue at another time, but once a particular exploration was done, you just release it into the air.
If there was ever beauty in the act, that’s where it was for me. Not in the exploration, which holds its own charged particles that are lovely. But it was the letting go. That may have been my own process of ‘unloading’. Like cleaning the plate, preparing for the next meal.
But it is all so different for me now. Back in the old days, even though I didn’t notice much, it was a laborious process. So much energy required to get through inquiry. In a group setting it was easier, as we all share energy to some extent. But it always required strength. Gears, oil. Fortitude.
You would talk for an hour and eventually come to your point. Not that you had the end point from the beginning. You just found it. Then go home and sleep for 20 hours.
That is a distant memory now. What took so much power and focus before has become very simple; almost a throwaway in terms of energy. Like reaching your index finger for the bell on the hotel lobby desk. Little effort, depress the plunger, and release.
I don’t know what it is. And I guess, it doesn’t really matter to me one way or the other. If I happen to know the Sun is a ball of plasma comprised mostly of hydrogen, it is all fine. But it will never compare to the way I feel as its light touches my skin.
Hi Takuin
Thanks for the well put comment.
I would say there is several parts to the process. There is unloading our past concepts, things that colour the present seeing.
There is unloading the concepts that arise in life. Processing and completing the recent experiences. Like you used to do.
And then there is not taking them on in the first place. Perhaps catching them as they go by but never taking them on.
I find this with articles here. Something comes up and I write about it. And I go over the writing a few times to ensure there isn’t obvious errors (not one of my trained skills) and then I post it. 2 weeks later, I can get a question about the article and I don’t remember it at all.
Amusingly, this weekend I got questions from someone I met who was reading old articles, from back in the day you and I commented on each others blogs regularly. I had no idea what he was talking about. (laughs)
But I agree. It can take time for the momentum of holding to wind down so there is no resistance in the flow of life. Where releasing becomes second nature rather than a conscious process.
For so long, we tried to hold onto everything. This was both overt and very subtle. The last takes time to stop…