NON-DUALITY
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Here's a teaser for you. What is awareness?
My answer: That is the Big Question that really has no verbal answer. But let's play along...LOL Awareness is everything. There is nothing that is not awareness. And yet no thing is awareness. I AM that awareness and always have been. The illusion happens when awareness identifies with the contents of awareness. Awakening happenings when awareness is aware of itself as Itself.
Who Am I? Awareness.
Who or What Experiences this moment? Awareness
What is Awareness? Of course all definitions fail to answer because awareness is the one reading the definition regardless of the definition.
It's an answer that must be experienced, which paradoxically we all ALWAYS are.
I added: I love this question, just trying to answer this unanswerable question was a really nice little experience. If awareness has a location (which ultimately it does not) but if it did, it FEELS close to the heart
Peter answered: Ha, ha you can't think your way there!
I responded: Your response really made me laugh for no reason. Awareness is laughter. That is my final answer ==> laughter..lol. This is all a big cosmic joke and we are the punchline.
Peter answered: Yes! You've got to stop thinking to laugh! Suddenly we see the absurdity of the cosmic joke we play on ourselves.
I replied: Maybe that is a good way to define it, when thinking and thoughts cease, Awareness is best understood/experienced.
I added: I read this powerful and share-worthy quote of Bodhidharma in Zen, Christianity and a lot of Bull. "When a thought begins, you enter the three realms. When a thought ends you leave the three realms."
-Bodhidharma
Where do you go when there are no thoughts? (makes for a good koan).
Peter Answered: 🤣 Where does anything go? If it can go some where, then It had to have a beginning and of course it had to be created and thus another mind puzzle to attempt to solve. The mind only knows beginnings and endings. I really love these dialogues, since each time the mind hic-ups we get a taste. And a person doesn't have to believe anything to play this game. The game trashes all thinking leaving us with the "ah ha!" that dissolves the illusion and leaves us laughing at the joke.
I replied: Where can we go indeed? And what can we possibly do? Did you find preceding Waking Up that the mind resisted letting go like my Chihuahua resists a bath? Why do we hold on so tight to this illusion?
I was reading in "Zen, Christianity and a lot of Bull" when you say it's better to have sweet dreams than nightmares, to be good person rather than a bad one, etc, yet DREAMING IS STILL DREAMING. My sense is the Big AH-HA of Waking Up, becomes an even bigger HA-HA when we REALLY get the punch-line
But for now I am relishing getting in "line" and imbibing Peter's spiked "punch" - the Punch Line ..lol..(and the hic-ups are the best part) .
Peter answered: It delights my heart that you're reading what I "really" wrote. 💓
My answer: That is the Big Question that really has no verbal answer. But let's play along...LOL Awareness is everything. There is nothing that is not awareness. And yet no thing is awareness. I AM that awareness and always have been. The illusion happens when awareness identifies with the contents of awareness. Awakening happenings when awareness is aware of itself as Itself.
Who Am I? Awareness.
Who or What Experiences this moment? Awareness
What is Awareness? Of course all definitions fail to answer because awareness is the one reading the definition regardless of the definition.
It's an answer that must be experienced, which paradoxically we all ALWAYS are.
I added: I love this question, just trying to answer this unanswerable question was a really nice little experience. If awareness has a location (which ultimately it does not) but if it did, it FEELS close to the heart
Peter answered: Ha, ha you can't think your way there!
I responded: Your response really made me laugh for no reason. Awareness is laughter. That is my final answer ==> laughter..lol. This is all a big cosmic joke and we are the punchline.
Peter answered: Yes! You've got to stop thinking to laugh! Suddenly we see the absurdity of the cosmic joke we play on ourselves.
I replied: Maybe that is a good way to define it, when thinking and thoughts cease, Awareness is best understood/experienced.
I added: I read this powerful and share-worthy quote of Bodhidharma in Zen, Christianity and a lot of Bull. "When a thought begins, you enter the three realms. When a thought ends you leave the three realms."
-Bodhidharma
Where do you go when there are no thoughts? (makes for a good koan).
Peter Answered: 🤣 Where does anything go? If it can go some where, then It had to have a beginning and of course it had to be created and thus another mind puzzle to attempt to solve. The mind only knows beginnings and endings. I really love these dialogues, since each time the mind hic-ups we get a taste. And a person doesn't have to believe anything to play this game. The game trashes all thinking leaving us with the "ah ha!" that dissolves the illusion and leaves us laughing at the joke.
I replied: Where can we go indeed? And what can we possibly do? Did you find preceding Waking Up that the mind resisted letting go like my Chihuahua resists a bath? Why do we hold on so tight to this illusion?
I was reading in "Zen, Christianity and a lot of Bull" when you say it's better to have sweet dreams than nightmares, to be good person rather than a bad one, etc, yet DREAMING IS STILL DREAMING. My sense is the Big AH-HA of Waking Up, becomes an even bigger HA-HA when we REALLY get the punch-line
But for now I am relishing getting in "line" and imbibing Peter's spiked "punch" - the Punch Line ..lol..(and the hic-ups are the best part) .
Peter answered: It delights my heart that you're reading what I "really" wrote. 💓
![Picture](/uploads/4/5/1/6/4516117/published/365196867-3017036545098531-2271230740525647041-n.jpg?1691948490)
Peter Asked:
What if the world you see is only the mirror of your thoughts? How would that make you feel?
My First Answer: It would make me feel like I want to Wake Up...lol. It is a humbling feeling, knowing that everything in my life is my own reflection and what I have created is my own doing. It really emphasizes that I must take 100% responsibility for everything in my life (and not blame others). Easier said than done sometimes.
I have been contemplating dreams at night and it is odd that each night with different dreams and different scenes and seemingly different roles, I feel like I am a separate person even in my dreams. When I wake up and "reflect" on it, I realize that the "I" in the dream and all the dream characters were all in my consciousness. Why can't I see the obvious..lol.
This waking state/physical realm is a denser, longer and much more detailed dream, but I recognize it is still dream (conceptually). But I cannot say I really SEE IT yet, except for little delightful glimpses.
I sense REALLY getting This (everything is You and only You), one would feel empowered, expansive, free, at peace and perhaps a flood of other now unknown feelings. I look forward to that Moment where I can truly see through the illusion.
I added: Peter I was reading Zen, Christianity and a Lot of Bull the other night, and this passage really struck me:
"A mirror, much like a still pool, simply reflects what comes before it. When the object moves away, the mirror is not sad, nor does it pine for the object. It simply reflects as it did before. If it is empty, then you can simply say, 'It is empty'."
While awareness is both the mirror and that which is reflected 'not 2', this passage is very puissant in depicting "Just This" (as much as words can as a pointer). The big import is regardless of what movie is playing, which people come and go, the passing of the seasons, the passing of lifetimes, it is always Just This, Awareness. The images come and go, but the nondual mirror/screen remains even when it is empty like in dreamless sleep. And Thou Art That!
Little by little I am "getting it" more and more. Why do I cast my heart out on an appearance, however lovely (like Michelle)?
Something I also read in this great book of yours provides the balm to this problem.
Focus on the Seer, that which experiences. This is the True North that can never lead us astray.
I love how you say, "When we focus on the seer, the seer expands - consciousness grows."
Then you continue to the effect saying that while it first appears small, like a grain of mustard seed, WITH ATTENTION, it grows large and powerful enough to swallow the heavens!
"Show Me What Swallows the Universe" was the first koan you shared with me. It seems you don't need another koan than This.
I think this is now my favorite book of yours and you've had a lot of great ones!
What if the world you see is only the mirror of your thoughts? How would that make you feel?
My First Answer: It would make me feel like I want to Wake Up...lol. It is a humbling feeling, knowing that everything in my life is my own reflection and what I have created is my own doing. It really emphasizes that I must take 100% responsibility for everything in my life (and not blame others). Easier said than done sometimes.
I have been contemplating dreams at night and it is odd that each night with different dreams and different scenes and seemingly different roles, I feel like I am a separate person even in my dreams. When I wake up and "reflect" on it, I realize that the "I" in the dream and all the dream characters were all in my consciousness. Why can't I see the obvious..lol.
This waking state/physical realm is a denser, longer and much more detailed dream, but I recognize it is still dream (conceptually). But I cannot say I really SEE IT yet, except for little delightful glimpses.
I sense REALLY getting This (everything is You and only You), one would feel empowered, expansive, free, at peace and perhaps a flood of other now unknown feelings. I look forward to that Moment where I can truly see through the illusion.
I added: Peter I was reading Zen, Christianity and a Lot of Bull the other night, and this passage really struck me:
"A mirror, much like a still pool, simply reflects what comes before it. When the object moves away, the mirror is not sad, nor does it pine for the object. It simply reflects as it did before. If it is empty, then you can simply say, 'It is empty'."
While awareness is both the mirror and that which is reflected 'not 2', this passage is very puissant in depicting "Just This" (as much as words can as a pointer). The big import is regardless of what movie is playing, which people come and go, the passing of the seasons, the passing of lifetimes, it is always Just This, Awareness. The images come and go, but the nondual mirror/screen remains even when it is empty like in dreamless sleep. And Thou Art That!
Little by little I am "getting it" more and more. Why do I cast my heart out on an appearance, however lovely (like Michelle)?
Something I also read in this great book of yours provides the balm to this problem.
Focus on the Seer, that which experiences. This is the True North that can never lead us astray.
I love how you say, "When we focus on the seer, the seer expands - consciousness grows."
Then you continue to the effect saying that while it first appears small, like a grain of mustard seed, WITH ATTENTION, it grows large and powerful enough to swallow the heavens!
"Show Me What Swallows the Universe" was the first koan you shared with me. It seems you don't need another koan than This.
I think this is now my favorite book of yours and you've had a lot of great ones!
![Picture](/uploads/4/5/1/6/4516117/published/365463983-3017817478353771-7637479431135101721-n.jpg?1691948967)
Peter Posted
A little game I play when I'm travelling. I see what is moving as stationary and what is not moving as movement. Driving on the highway, I see the road and scenery moving toward me as I see myself as stationary. The ancient sage Sosan, said; "see the stationary as movement and movement as stationary..." For me, this has revealed a deep sense of stillness which I believe is the cause of an ongoing sense of timelessness. Alter the common idea of the identity that it is the body/mind which sees from our normal conditioning and one becomes aware of the awareness that never changes. Only what doesn't change is real. Now, here's a trick question, is it possible to "not" be aware?
I answered: I like this exercise of seeing yourself as still and the world moving around you. While I have only had small glimpses a part of me really "get's it", even if the mind is confused..lol. Since the bull/mind/energy and awareness are "not 2", it can make sense in a nondual way that movement is stationary and stationary is movement, depending on which perspective you are pointing to (relative: there is nothing but change /absolute: is changeless). But when the world disappears and the bull vanishes is there then only stillness? I guess that must be experienced to be truly understood. My bull is still alive and kicking .
But How can there not be Awareness? I guess that depends on the definition. But the great masters I have read say the Self (the One Self which I take as awareness) ever IS. It is the one thing that does not come and go even in deep sleep, even after death and even when the universe disappears. So even if it's still a conceptual answer, logically to me awareness never disappears, therefore it is not possible to not be aware (even if we are unconsciously aware). The screen always remains, right? I mean where could it go?
Peter responded: You in another quote quoted Bodhidarma, the three realms of waking, dreaming and sleeping are all awake. As is death. When content is gone, awareness remains. The human challenge is simply one of identity. That's why I find "neti neti" so revealing. Not this, not that until all the masks are gone, "...and the sudden cry, Ah this!" Nothing is missing. Right now cannot be more perfect, nothing to do, nothing to find. This! And with every "this" the curtain pulls back a bit more. 😍
I answered: Thanks for this pregnant response, full of Presence.
Just This! Those two words have given me several little glimpses.
Neti Neti all of a sudden makes more sense. Wipe away the screen of all dreams and Awareness Alone remains (even the sweetest of dreams).
Ken Wilber wrote a couple paragraphs about Just This I felt inspired to share:
---
JUST THIS! by Ken Wilber
Behind it all, and all along there is Just This. In the simple feeling of being, you are the world. Look, It's Just This!
Just this, has not changed, will not change, will never change, because it never enters the corrupting stream of time with all its tears and terrors.
You never enter or leave it, you have always known it, and one day, sooner or later, you will admit it, and the Great Search will be undone. And then you will see any states that can be entered is not One Taste. Emptiness through all Eternity, Fullness to all Infinity. And that is Just This, only This!
It cannot be more obvious which is why it usually takes lifetimes to see. Too close to be grasped, too effortless to be reached, to present to be attained. The Buddhas never attained This, sentient beings never lost it.
JUST THIS! 🙌🙏💙
Peter Responded: Oh! That's so good!!! And "It cannot be more obvious which is why it usually takes lifetimes to see..." It is THIS!!!! Which makes it all so laughable.
I answered: Ah This! Nothing more needs to be said (when we REALLY "get it") 🙏💙🙌
Peter Responded: It is strange that it seems elusive, because it is our primary experience to which all else appears. The ego colors it with bells, whistles and special powers. In making it special it hides it. And it is in finding it that all specialness flees. Just this! The peace beyond all understanding that has never been amiss. 🙏💙
Peter Added to this post: We all know awareness. Even being aware of being unaware of certain things. Which is still awareness. All that's left is just being aware knowingly, which has nothing to do with body, mind or any objective reality. Ask anyone "Are you aware?" They will answer, "Yes". All creatures, if they understand the question will say "Yes." You ask the question, then they pause and answer "Yes". Awareness manifests in the pause. Awareness is always there as the universal backdrop to everything. All creatures drink from the same pool of awareness. Awareness has no start or finish.
Even while dreaming we are aware of the dream. In deep sleep we are aware of emptiness and no mental content. Waking we are aware that we are experiencing this, that or even aware of forgetting or not seeing something. Awareness is always there being aware of itself.
A little game I play when I'm travelling. I see what is moving as stationary and what is not moving as movement. Driving on the highway, I see the road and scenery moving toward me as I see myself as stationary. The ancient sage Sosan, said; "see the stationary as movement and movement as stationary..." For me, this has revealed a deep sense of stillness which I believe is the cause of an ongoing sense of timelessness. Alter the common idea of the identity that it is the body/mind which sees from our normal conditioning and one becomes aware of the awareness that never changes. Only what doesn't change is real. Now, here's a trick question, is it possible to "not" be aware?
I answered: I like this exercise of seeing yourself as still and the world moving around you. While I have only had small glimpses a part of me really "get's it", even if the mind is confused..lol. Since the bull/mind/energy and awareness are "not 2", it can make sense in a nondual way that movement is stationary and stationary is movement, depending on which perspective you are pointing to (relative: there is nothing but change /absolute: is changeless). But when the world disappears and the bull vanishes is there then only stillness? I guess that must be experienced to be truly understood. My bull is still alive and kicking .
But How can there not be Awareness? I guess that depends on the definition. But the great masters I have read say the Self (the One Self which I take as awareness) ever IS. It is the one thing that does not come and go even in deep sleep, even after death and even when the universe disappears. So even if it's still a conceptual answer, logically to me awareness never disappears, therefore it is not possible to not be aware (even if we are unconsciously aware). The screen always remains, right? I mean where could it go?
Peter responded: You in another quote quoted Bodhidarma, the three realms of waking, dreaming and sleeping are all awake. As is death. When content is gone, awareness remains. The human challenge is simply one of identity. That's why I find "neti neti" so revealing. Not this, not that until all the masks are gone, "...and the sudden cry, Ah this!" Nothing is missing. Right now cannot be more perfect, nothing to do, nothing to find. This! And with every "this" the curtain pulls back a bit more. 😍
I answered: Thanks for this pregnant response, full of Presence.
Just This! Those two words have given me several little glimpses.
Neti Neti all of a sudden makes more sense. Wipe away the screen of all dreams and Awareness Alone remains (even the sweetest of dreams).
Ken Wilber wrote a couple paragraphs about Just This I felt inspired to share:
---
JUST THIS! by Ken Wilber
Behind it all, and all along there is Just This. In the simple feeling of being, you are the world. Look, It's Just This!
Just this, has not changed, will not change, will never change, because it never enters the corrupting stream of time with all its tears and terrors.
You never enter or leave it, you have always known it, and one day, sooner or later, you will admit it, and the Great Search will be undone. And then you will see any states that can be entered is not One Taste. Emptiness through all Eternity, Fullness to all Infinity. And that is Just This, only This!
It cannot be more obvious which is why it usually takes lifetimes to see. Too close to be grasped, too effortless to be reached, to present to be attained. The Buddhas never attained This, sentient beings never lost it.
JUST THIS! 🙌🙏💙
Peter Responded: Oh! That's so good!!! And "It cannot be more obvious which is why it usually takes lifetimes to see..." It is THIS!!!! Which makes it all so laughable.
I answered: Ah This! Nothing more needs to be said (when we REALLY "get it") 🙏💙🙌
Peter Responded: It is strange that it seems elusive, because it is our primary experience to which all else appears. The ego colors it with bells, whistles and special powers. In making it special it hides it. And it is in finding it that all specialness flees. Just this! The peace beyond all understanding that has never been amiss. 🙏💙
Peter Added to this post: We all know awareness. Even being aware of being unaware of certain things. Which is still awareness. All that's left is just being aware knowingly, which has nothing to do with body, mind or any objective reality. Ask anyone "Are you aware?" They will answer, "Yes". All creatures, if they understand the question will say "Yes." You ask the question, then they pause and answer "Yes". Awareness manifests in the pause. Awareness is always there as the universal backdrop to everything. All creatures drink from the same pool of awareness. Awareness has no start or finish.
Even while dreaming we are aware of the dream. In deep sleep we are aware of emptiness and no mental content. Waking we are aware that we are experiencing this, that or even aware of forgetting or not seeing something. Awareness is always there being aware of itself.
![Picture](/uploads/4/5/1/6/4516117/published/363801065-3018536038281915-3054591573907450061-n.jpg?1691951002)
Peter Posted: We've come to the point on our circle where our ambitious, self-willed and aggressive energies are dissolving. In the corresponding Zen Bull picture, the bull has faded and only the person is left. Can you feel these energies dissolving in your life?
Peter Added: All the steps are part of the circle. Identifying the bull, getting hold of the bull, getting on the bull, riding the bull, taming the bull, going home on the bull, disappearing the bull (seeing no separation with the dynamic energy -unity) and more... There is no wrong place to be on this circle. Each time we go round the circle, there's a subtle refinement as the illusion fades a little more.
Peter Added: All the steps are part of the circle. Identifying the bull, getting hold of the bull, getting on the bull, riding the bull, taming the bull, going home on the bull, disappearing the bull (seeing no separation with the dynamic energy -unity) and more... There is no wrong place to be on this circle. Each time we go round the circle, there's a subtle refinement as the illusion fades a little more.
I answered: I can feel some of my attachments softening, and beautiful little glimpses abounding.
I think I am still at the point of taming the bull, but he is mellowing out..
But I feel we are riding in the right direction!
Peter Responded: As objective identities lessen, consciousness shines brighter. Thus the bull fades. Since this is an analogy, it is useful in tricking the mind to catch a reflective glimpse of what cannot be mentally held on to. The bull and man are all in the dreamer's mind. There is no bull to tame, nor any man to ride it. However, working with the dream can cause us to flip back and question who is the dreamer, who am I? And suddenly exclaim, "I am nobody going nowhere!" Free at last!!!
Peter Added: The belief in an independent being, independently existing in a separate world is simply the main character of the dream in which anything can happen. Once the bull has vanished, this becomes an awakening realization. But can remain a mental concept for the moment. Soon that all changes. Returning again and again to Presence, to realizing one is already aware and awake, the dream breaks and reality appears.
I added: Thanks Peter for the enlightening words. Much gratitude and some golden nuggets to ponder. 🙌💛
Peter Added: All the steps are part of the circle. Identifying the bull, getting hold of the bull, getting on the bull, riding the bull, taming the bull, going home on the bull, disappearing the bull (seeing no separation with the dynamic energy -unity) and more... There is no wrong place to be on this circle. Each time we go round the circle, there's a subtle refinement as the illusion fades a little more.
Peter Added: All the steps are part of the circle. Identifying the bull, getting hold of the bull, getting on the bull, riding the bull, taming the bull, going home on the bull, disappearing the bull (seeing no separation with the dynamic energy -unity) and more... There is no wrong place to be on this circle. Each time we go round the circle, there's a subtle refinement as the illusion fades a little more.
I answered: I can feel some of my attachments softening, and beautiful little glimpses abounding.
I think I am still at the point of taming the bull, but he is mellowing out..
But I feel we are riding in the right direction!
Peter Responded: As objective identities lessen, consciousness shines brighter. Thus the bull fades. Since this is an analogy, it is useful in tricking the mind to catch a reflective glimpse of what cannot be mentally held on to. The bull and man are all in the dreamer's mind. There is no bull to tame, nor any man to ride it. However, working with the dream can cause us to flip back and question who is the dreamer, who am I? And suddenly exclaim, "I am nobody going nowhere!" Free at last!!!
Peter Added: The belief in an independent being, independently existing in a separate world is simply the main character of the dream in which anything can happen. Once the bull has vanished, this becomes an awakening realization. But can remain a mental concept for the moment. Soon that all changes. Returning again and again to Presence, to realizing one is already aware and awake, the dream breaks and reality appears.
I added: Thanks Peter for the enlightening words. Much gratitude and some golden nuggets to ponder. 🙌💛
Peter Posted:
A little game I play is I imagine everything I see as being inside my head. You don't have to believe it to play this game. Try it and tell me what you notice.
I answered: I was just reading Ramana last night echoing this very idea. As does quantum mechanics. I have been contemplating dreams at night how we can instantaneously create a whole world inside our head each night. But the waking state is not really different, we are instantly creating a whole world every morning we wake up.
Practicing THIS just now for 10 minutes, looking out at the pond in my back yard and tbe partial cloudy blue sky, hearing distance traffic and random bird songs (quiet in the neighborhood), it was a very expansive, freeing and peaceful feeling (at least for a moment). The Head becomes seemingly very large or like Douglas Harding taught, you become headless (the world becomes your head). Great exercise 💙🙏
Peter Responded: Thank you! Yes, this is actually a very old technique. But, the key is playfulness. I giggle when I do this, because this seems so normal for me. Another one I'm always engaged in is feeling like a floating ghost moving among people and changing scenery. I feel substance-less or bodiless most of the time. A little bit like wearing a glove on an invisible hand.
I responded: Nice, I like the floating ghost 👻😆
I have heard some nondual teachers refer to appearances arising in "Just This" like a "wisp of smoke" - An almost insubstantial phantasmagoria!
I love how you say everything here Peter, great "pointers". its almost like your words are ghost-like, like a wisp of smoke BUT containing a wondrous perfume 💨🙏🙌💙.
A little game I play is I imagine everything I see as being inside my head. You don't have to believe it to play this game. Try it and tell me what you notice.
I answered: I was just reading Ramana last night echoing this very idea. As does quantum mechanics. I have been contemplating dreams at night how we can instantaneously create a whole world inside our head each night. But the waking state is not really different, we are instantly creating a whole world every morning we wake up.
Practicing THIS just now for 10 minutes, looking out at the pond in my back yard and tbe partial cloudy blue sky, hearing distance traffic and random bird songs (quiet in the neighborhood), it was a very expansive, freeing and peaceful feeling (at least for a moment). The Head becomes seemingly very large or like Douglas Harding taught, you become headless (the world becomes your head). Great exercise 💙🙏
Peter Responded: Thank you! Yes, this is actually a very old technique. But, the key is playfulness. I giggle when I do this, because this seems so normal for me. Another one I'm always engaged in is feeling like a floating ghost moving among people and changing scenery. I feel substance-less or bodiless most of the time. A little bit like wearing a glove on an invisible hand.
I responded: Nice, I like the floating ghost 👻😆
I have heard some nondual teachers refer to appearances arising in "Just This" like a "wisp of smoke" - An almost insubstantial phantasmagoria!
I love how you say everything here Peter, great "pointers". its almost like your words are ghost-like, like a wisp of smoke BUT containing a wondrous perfume 💨🙏🙌💙.
![Picture](/uploads/4/5/1/6/4516117/editor/world-dream-day.jpg?1691955774)
Peter's Posting About the World as a Dream... and My Dilemma
Peter Added: I think many folks overlook an obvious feature with dreams. In a dream we are always placing ourselves as a character in the dream. Yet we forget that we are NOT in the dream, but the observer of the dream. Herein lies the secret. The waking state is exactly the same as the dream state, except we add more vividness by including a better sensory experience using the senses. Because we now have technicolor instead of black and white, higher fidelity sound etc... it is easier to lose ourselves in our movie. In an "awakened" state we move through the movie and interact with the other self-created players "knowingly". This means the quality of the experience is as if we're floating through the different scenes. No matter what happens we can't be hurt because we're creating and watching what we've produced. Awareness is knowingly itself. I hope I've explained this clearly enough. But, I'd be happy to dig deeper.
I answered: Yes it is explained well. When I ponder my dreams at night, I recall that I think I am one of the dream characters and other characters are separate from me, like the waking state. It seems I "feel" I am still bryant, but less bodily enclosed (more of a watcher). I remember for example, meeting my (beautiful) friend Jenny in Whole Foods in a dream at night and it was a very vivid dream as far as dreams go. I was so clearly me (a dream body), and Jenny was Jenny (another body). When I woke it struck me how convincing even in dreams that we create subject/duality albeit a subtler one.
As you mentioned it is not in technicolor in dream sleep, but still the illusion persists (for me). When I wake up, (if I remember the dream) I can see that it all was an illusion because the whole thing was happening in my head (like today's exercise). But this is clear only upon Awakening in the morning!
So who is this "I" that keeps attaching itself to one dream body after another (instead of just observing)? Who or what is experiencing all these dream scenes? That is the big question that as you said the other day, I cannot think my way to answering .
I guess the difficulty is when we Wake up (aka Enlightenment) from the vivid 80 year dream called life in a dense physical reality, there is not another body we are waking up TO, unless you attach to an astral dream body again, but that is going deeper in the illusion, like dreaming at night, only without a physical body and a physical brain (however that works...I guess we still have our Sahasrara -LOL)?
I am tired of all these damn dreams! . I want to Wake Up to pure consciousness/Awareness (where Awareness is Knowingly Itself)! Hence why I am taking (and LOVING) this course! So be it!
I added my current dilemma in the dream: Something struck me today, I am re-reading Zen Christianity and a Lot of Bull, and where you talk about how we cast our heart out onto people, places and things of the world which creates a separation that does not exist. And you talk about reeling the heart back inside. While I was looking out my back yard imagining everything to be inside my head, it struck me (especially with Michelle right now), how I am casting my heart out and chasing this pretty lady. When you paint the image of a pack of male dogs chasing a women dog in heat, I burst out laughing (at myself).
If All that exists is Just This/Awareness and when she is not here, she doesn't exist. Whether I am with her or not, it is Just This, the screen of awareness. Just like a dream, we identify with a dream body and see various characters in the dream, but when the dream characters are not there do we mourn their absence? No. But in physicality we create more of sense of separation and duality (a yearning to be with your beloved).
I want to break this attachment because even the insight doesn't fully remove the desire. Whether it is Michelle or another pretty face (lol), the delusion behind the casting of my heart out is the same. She is just a powerful attachment at this point in my life that is making all this (PAINFULLY) obvious. I guess as you have suggested before, just be aware of all that is arising and it is awareness Itself that loosens, softens and ultimately breaks all attachments and we bring our heart home to the Heart!
Peter replied: That's a great realization and it becomes quite freeing. The more we inject playfulness into our dream characters, the lighter the play becomes. It is in reeling the heart back in that the bull is tamed. You know the analogy of the musk deer who goes all around searching for the source of the perfume it smells never realizing it comes from a gland near his hooves. When we feel passion or love we think it comes from afar, when all that need be done is to reel the heart back in and notice the perfume comes from us. It is super powerful to realize all our feelings are self created. Not two. As you've heard me say often, this is about falling in love with yourself for the very first time. ❤❤❤
Peter Added: I think many folks overlook an obvious feature with dreams. In a dream we are always placing ourselves as a character in the dream. Yet we forget that we are NOT in the dream, but the observer of the dream. Herein lies the secret. The waking state is exactly the same as the dream state, except we add more vividness by including a better sensory experience using the senses. Because we now have technicolor instead of black and white, higher fidelity sound etc... it is easier to lose ourselves in our movie. In an "awakened" state we move through the movie and interact with the other self-created players "knowingly". This means the quality of the experience is as if we're floating through the different scenes. No matter what happens we can't be hurt because we're creating and watching what we've produced. Awareness is knowingly itself. I hope I've explained this clearly enough. But, I'd be happy to dig deeper.
I answered: Yes it is explained well. When I ponder my dreams at night, I recall that I think I am one of the dream characters and other characters are separate from me, like the waking state. It seems I "feel" I am still bryant, but less bodily enclosed (more of a watcher). I remember for example, meeting my (beautiful) friend Jenny in Whole Foods in a dream at night and it was a very vivid dream as far as dreams go. I was so clearly me (a dream body), and Jenny was Jenny (another body). When I woke it struck me how convincing even in dreams that we create subject/duality albeit a subtler one.
As you mentioned it is not in technicolor in dream sleep, but still the illusion persists (for me). When I wake up, (if I remember the dream) I can see that it all was an illusion because the whole thing was happening in my head (like today's exercise). But this is clear only upon Awakening in the morning!
So who is this "I" that keeps attaching itself to one dream body after another (instead of just observing)? Who or what is experiencing all these dream scenes? That is the big question that as you said the other day, I cannot think my way to answering .
I guess the difficulty is when we Wake up (aka Enlightenment) from the vivid 80 year dream called life in a dense physical reality, there is not another body we are waking up TO, unless you attach to an astral dream body again, but that is going deeper in the illusion, like dreaming at night, only without a physical body and a physical brain (however that works...I guess we still have our Sahasrara -LOL)?
I am tired of all these damn dreams! . I want to Wake Up to pure consciousness/Awareness (where Awareness is Knowingly Itself)! Hence why I am taking (and LOVING) this course! So be it!
I added my current dilemma in the dream: Something struck me today, I am re-reading Zen Christianity and a Lot of Bull, and where you talk about how we cast our heart out onto people, places and things of the world which creates a separation that does not exist. And you talk about reeling the heart back inside. While I was looking out my back yard imagining everything to be inside my head, it struck me (especially with Michelle right now), how I am casting my heart out and chasing this pretty lady. When you paint the image of a pack of male dogs chasing a women dog in heat, I burst out laughing (at myself).
If All that exists is Just This/Awareness and when she is not here, she doesn't exist. Whether I am with her or not, it is Just This, the screen of awareness. Just like a dream, we identify with a dream body and see various characters in the dream, but when the dream characters are not there do we mourn their absence? No. But in physicality we create more of sense of separation and duality (a yearning to be with your beloved).
I want to break this attachment because even the insight doesn't fully remove the desire. Whether it is Michelle or another pretty face (lol), the delusion behind the casting of my heart out is the same. She is just a powerful attachment at this point in my life that is making all this (PAINFULLY) obvious. I guess as you have suggested before, just be aware of all that is arising and it is awareness Itself that loosens, softens and ultimately breaks all attachments and we bring our heart home to the Heart!
Peter replied: That's a great realization and it becomes quite freeing. The more we inject playfulness into our dream characters, the lighter the play becomes. It is in reeling the heart back in that the bull is tamed. You know the analogy of the musk deer who goes all around searching for the source of the perfume it smells never realizing it comes from a gland near his hooves. When we feel passion or love we think it comes from afar, when all that need be done is to reel the heart back in and notice the perfume comes from us. It is super powerful to realize all our feelings are self created. Not two. As you've heard me say often, this is about falling in love with yourself for the very first time. ❤❤❤