Self and the New Year [videos]

[Cramulus]

I've been reading a blog called Anti Teachings For Young People. There's a lot of great content there for people interested in stuff like western-zen, no-mind, ego-death etc..

Recently, they made a post indexing a bunch of videos about THE SELF. I've been slowly working through them, and finding them very enjoyable, so I'm sharing the link with you cats:

http://anti-teachings.tumblr.com/post/14987178227/self-and-the-new-year

Let us know if you find a video in there which is particularly interesting!

[Cramulus]

I went to bed last night pondering this video:


The Dissolution of Identity


He talks about a spiritual transition...

You begin [any spiritual quest] with Insight, Revelation, Epiphany, etc, that's the learning phase, the exciting part at the beginning when you're discovering your spiritual vocabulary.

But what happens after the revelation? He says that after you have this unique insight to the self and the spirit, there's another step... you have to become that person that you discovered. It's like I said the other day, shutting off the robot is only the first step. Operating without the robot is a lot more difficult, and as Adyashanti says in this video, it's not as flashy or exciting as the period of revelation and insight.


Putting this into more Discordian vocabulary:

The fun part is the moment when you learn to spot the bars of the black iron prison.
Once you see the obstacles you've created for yourself, you can figure out how to out-maneuver them, to escape them, to reinvent the self.

But you always end up in another prison cell, right? There's always another self...

As they put it in the movie Waking Life ----

The idea is to remain in a state of constant departure while always arriving. (It saves on introductions and goodbyes.)

What if there is a way to program the robot to operate in mindfulness mode?

I tried, for a while, tying a string around my finger. And every time I noticed it, I'd pause, quiet my thoughts, then return my attention to what I was thinking of. I was teaching myself to interrupt the endless chain of thought and response. I should note that I didn't do so well -- it worked for a while, but I eventually gave it up.

I wonder if there's a better way to keep that mindfulness meme at the front of consciousness.

[Roaring Biscuit!]

did you tie the string to your finger everyday?

I did something similar when I was cutting back on Things that Will Make Me Dead Faster intake a few months back, but I'd just write "Get Well Soon" on the back of my hand every morning.

I actually found this was really effective in getting me to think about what I was eating/drinking/smoking, and the other thing is that with something like that it's not just you that has to notice.  You're reminded every time you meet someone new, it's bound to come up in conversation, even with people who know what you're doing, they seem to remind you every time they notice as well.  The icing on the cake, is that (probably cause it's quite a novel behavior) friends and co-workers also notice when you forget to write it on!

As soon as read what you'd posted I thought I could start writing "Watch Yourself" on my hand, but maybe you should try it

[Cramulus]

I did the string thing for a few days, but it was really annoying (which, unfortunately, is the point), then I tried something else -- drawing a little circle on the web between my thumb and forefinger. I think some Buddhists do it that way, the circle is supposed to remind you to be mindful.

I stopped drawing the circle when it had become peripheral, something else that blended into my environment.


My current mindfulness activity is Fractal meditation. I'm the only member [to my knowledge] of a Fractal Cult. In the Fractal Cult, we treat the Mandlebrot as a symbol for the universe: infinitely complex, recursive, beautiful.

Every time I go to the bathroom, I fire up the fractal browser on my phone. I'll spend a few minutes diving into a fractal, noting the similar shapes at every level of magnification. That's a good centering meditation for me.

[Slurrealist]

I think repetitiveness seems to be the point of meditation.
You just do one action that keeps you mindful, and you do it every day. The more you will do it (in the chronological meaning: days, months, years, decades,) the more subtle will became the barrier between robotic existence and the awake state, till it finally will disappear entirely one day. In the end, it all boils down to will and perseverance, IMO.

I have read somewhere a comparison of spiritual development to the growth of grass - you don't notice, however it keeps growing. Another example of this are the words of the Dalai Lama, who said in some of his books that the result of spiritual practice must be revised after decades of work. You don't look at your progress in the perspective of a month, or a year, but in the perspective of a decade - something very close to this was written there.

[The Good Reverend Roger]

I think repetitiveness seems to be the point of meditation.
You just do one action that keeps you mindful, and you do it every day. The more you will do it (in the chronological meaning: days, months, years, decades,) the more subtle will became the barrier between robotic existence and the awake state, till it finally will disappear entirely one day. In the end, it all boils down to will and perseverance, IMO.

I have read somewhere a comparison of spiritual development to the growth of grass - you don't notice, however it keeps growing. Another example of this are the words of the Dalai Lama, who said in some of his books that the result of spiritual practice must be revised after decades of work. You don't look at your progress in the perspective of a month, or a year, but in the perspective of a decade - something very close to this was written there.

Well, that explains why I can't grow a lawn.

[Ari]

Thanks for the links Cram.
___________________

Mindfulness takes time to integrate into the doing.

When Adyashanti sais, "allow it to happen" at the end, it reminds me of a passage about 'push and pull' i read last year. Pushing with full force will only get us so far, but at some point we can enter a state where we allow the universe (for lack of better words) to pull us, or maybe we pull our selves? - simply by letting go and allowing it to happen; again simple doesn't mean easy.

And mindfulness is not a state of being for me, it's more of a state of doing, a certain type of attribute that can go with all doing. Continued practice makes it easier to attain, and longer to uphold.

[The Good Reverend Roger]

While I can see the attraction to "no mind", I prefer "no brain".  I've been in my version of Satori for about 10 years now, and it barely hurts at all.

[Cramulus]

I think repetitiveness seems to be the point of meditation.
You just do one action that keeps you mindful, and you do it every day. The more you will do it (in the chronological meaning: days, months, years, decades,) the more subtle will became the barrier between robotic existence and the awake state, till it finally will disappear entirely one day. In the end, it all boils down to will and perseverance, IMO.

I have read somewhere a comparison of spiritual development to the growth of grass - you don't notice, however it keeps growing. Another example of this are the words of the Dalai Lama, who said in some of his books that the result of spiritual practice must be revised after decades of work. You don't look at your progress in the perspective of a month, or a year, but in the perspective of a decade - something very close to this was written there.

Well, that explains why I can't grow a lawn.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

I did the string thing for a few days, but it was really annoying (which, unfortunately, is the point), then I tried something else -- drawing a little circle on the web between my thumb and forefinger. I think some Buddhists do it that way, the circle is supposed to remind you to be mindful.

I stopped drawing the circle when it had become peripheral, something else that blended into my environment.


My current mindfulness activity is Fractal meditation. I'm the only member [to my knowledge] of a Fractal Cult. In the Fractal Cult, we treat the Mandlebrot as a symbol for the universe: infinitely complex, recursive, beautiful.

Every time I go to the bathroom, I fire up the fractal browser on my phone. I'll spend a few minutes diving into a fractal, noting the similar shapes at every level of magnification. That's a good centering meditation for me.

Space Cowboy has a circle tattooed around one of his knuckles.

[Cramulus]

I've been watching some videos from this guy U. G. Krishnamurti.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YO6jVdUWwN0

In this video, the interviewer is asking Ug about how to help the poor.

U.G. FLIPS OUT at him. He accuses the interviewer of trying to exploit the poor for his own career. He turns the entire conversation towards the interviewer's selfishness and self-aggrandizement.

"Why do you want to use ME for your self-aggrandizement? You are not interested in the common man. You are not interested in humanity.  You are not starving. So why are you talking about the starving man? What are you doing to help him? You don't want to help them. You want to use him, to fly around the globe, and collect money."

This guy reminds me of one of Roger's past lives, the taoist teacher Lin-Ji. Lin-Ji enlightens people by shouting at them and beating them with sticks. U.G. has a firm grip on that stick. He pulls the rug out from under people who thought they were being altruistic.

They call him a "spiritual terrorist". 

[Ari]

Holy fuck Cram, this is a treasure trove. ..

Ug is just fantastic,
some of the videos made me either laugh my ass off
  or send me into hours of quiet contemplation.
Crossjumped to "Life's a videogame",
again I'm sitting there - rethinking, reprogramming,
  blowing my mind, then sucking it, then blowing it again.

This will take some time to read, watch, tear apart, digest, ???

[Dildo Argentino]

i started with Krishnamurti vs Newland, always the sucker for a good fight

the old fellow didn't strike me as a particularly pleasant man, but the reaction, or rather lack of, of the reporter was telling

it put me in mind of the man tolle, here's a bizarre introduction to his thought

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oORUehs4s7Q

and here's him pontificating likeably about death:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vWXpPGL55No

although this is worth taking into account:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fbq1trGHlCA

or is it?

there's a good few topics in there

as for me, i do take comfort in the occasional spiritual teacher who doesn't smile all the time

then i started in on RAW, but couldn't quite hack the coppenhagen interpretation and all that, so i clicked on to this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RTYA5wXfdCo

which is pretty close to what i call hi jinx

and ended up clicking some more until i found this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EMBUISw8wdY

which was utterly fascinating, all 105 minutes of it

thanks

once again, youtube = institutionalised serendipity

[Cramulus]

REAL SILENCE IS EXPLOSIVE

You can never understand the tremendous peace that is always there within you, that is your natural state. Your trying to create a peaceful state of mind is in fact creating disturbance within you. You can only talk of peace, create a state of mind and say to yourself that you are very peaceful — but that is not peace; that is violence. So there is no use in practicing peace, there is no reason to practice silence. Real silence is explosive; it is not the dead state of mind that spiritual seekers think. "Oh, I am at peace with myself! There is silence, a tremendous silence! I experience silence!" — that doesn't mean anything at all. This is volcanic in its nature: it's bubbling all the time — the energy, the life — that is its quality. You may ask how I know. I don't know. Life is aware of itself, if we can put it that way — it is conscious of itself."

- UG Krishnamurti

[Dildo Argentino]

REAL SILENCE IS EXPLOSIVE
- UG Krishnamurti

lovely, thanks