Why, why, why? How does it all work? These questions can be explored; the story of the exploration of these questions arises all the time. There's nothing wrong with it. Perhaps the difficulty is that the answer to these questions is what the individual believes will bring relief from suffering. Suffering, after all, must be relieved.Live your life. Live it. That is what you are doing. There is no way to get it wrong. No matter what the quality of life, or its apparent circumstances, or how much it is plagued by internal, thought-bound activity, you cannot fail to live your life. The goal is met; existence is accomplished.
It doesn't matter that it isn't in perfect balance. Such a judgement is subjective anyway. It doesn't matter if you "fail" to be "selfless". Selfishness, or the appearance of that circumstance, and the firing neurons and belief systems and interaction with the environment that give rise to the judgement "I am not selfless enough" is just another story we tell ourselves about ourselves, with no more substance than the ghost of Christmas past. (All of Scrooge's ghosts were the embodiment of guilt.)
It doesn't even matter if your life is one, big, chaotic, unmanageable mess. There might arise some new revelations about your circumstances, and what blocks are in place that keep you running from reality (the "now"), whatever form the running takes: actual geographical change, working too much, reading too much, taking mind-altering substances, neglecting your responsibilities, or protecting yourself from engaging with others. There can be revelations, and a reckoning, and the healing of your ego, new risk-taking, meeting your responsibilities head-on, looking at your past nakedly and without the stories you've been telling yourself about yourself, and those stories losing their power over your behaviour. This is how the story can unfold. But these apparently momentous happenings, whilst making for an easier, less guilt-ridden, more efficient, and happier life story, are not the be-all and end-all. Beneath and beyond and infused with every happening, is simply what you are, untouched by the story, whatever that story may be; the story, of no import, is also the point. Whatever is happening, that is the point: simply that it is happening.
What you are is what you are. No matter what.
And Woody, life IS like this!
47 comments:
Funny mind, involved in every kind of drama, some sweet, some tragic. But when I look to see what it is going on really i don't find anything much of substance. Its just like a good play on the screen. They say you only get crap on the telly, but I find some of it quite entertaining.x
Two parrots sitting on a perch. One says to the other...."Can you smell fish?"
Calm and wise words-thankyou.
Hi Julian, you're welcome!
"The goal is met; existence is accomplished."
Indeed, that about sums it all up. :)
Much love Suzy.
Sometimes I wonder what goes through one's mind just before posting to a blog. I take them all so personally, and I always want to know more, don'tcha know? Getting ready to check out your Yoo-Toob channel.
Love, Peace, & Chicken Grease!
Hi Nicholas, much love to you too my lovely.
Hey Mike,
Presence, Now and Holy Cow!
Good evening Suzanne,
I enjoyed your interview by Renate on ConsciousTV. Many other persons are enjoyable there, talking about the same obvious mystery, each in her or his own style, and each one brought often friendly smiles on my face and sometimes even great laughter. Can you guess why ?
Thanks for that.
Bernard
Hi Bernard, either it was the cosmic joke, the irony and absurdity of it all etc., or else some impish member of your household was tickling you!
That's my best guess.
I've learned (finally) to see "why" questions as red flags indicating that the discussion has entered the realm of ego.
"What" questions might be more interesting, as in "What is this?"
And, as someone said last night, when we see the *what,* then we can also see the *how.*
I love, love that scene from Annie Hall!
Oh Suzanne! I read the title and had to spend the day working up the courage to read the whole post. OK... now I need triple ginger chocolate cookies to cope with what the chaos hath rendered. Perhaps blogging and baking cookies will become a whole new form of denial in the annals of diagnoses? I love the UTube snippet: here I am teaching a course in the Story of Moi and you pull out the real moi to say I know squat! LOL & LOVING it!
Hi Barry, any questions that come up are as choiceless as anything else.
And I love that scene too...Woody had the comedic courage to break "the fourth wall" and talk to the camera quite a lot.
Hey Genju, or Lynette,
It's funny, isn't it, what presses our buttons, raises fears and begets resistance...very revealing of the ego's traits.
But the ego's traits don't really exist! Fun to explore that little illusion though.
"Why, Why, why, Delilah?" as Tom Jones said, but I always thought "Why not?".
GB, you have unlocked the secret of life!
what to comment,nothing going to add or subtract.since i watched u in conscious tv,everything u say make sense to me.
i just love that being.n love reading or listening whatever coming out of that being.
love u:))
Love right back atcha Nirdosh sweetie.
Excellent - lots of resonance here! ;-)) Thank you, Suzanne.
Hi Mary, wink double smiley back to you too!
Being down with the kids arises is awareness. Grooviness as well.
Why, why, why? How does it all work? These questions can be explored; the story of the exploration of these questions arises all the time. There's nothing wrong with it.
## Yes, questioning is a very good thing. Better that people seek higher wisdom than remain in ignorance, pain and confusion. Seeking should be encouraged.
Perhaps the difficulty is that the answer to these questions is what the individual believes will bring relief from suffering. Suffering, after all, must be relieved.
## Disidentification does seem to bring relief from suffering. Don’t you agree? Isn’t that a worthy goal?
Live your life. Live it. That is what you are doing. There is no way to get it wrong. No matter what the quality of life, or its apparent circumstances, or how much it is plagued by internal, thought-bound activity, you cannot fail to live your life. The goal is met; existence is accomplished.
## Yes way to get it wrong. Yes it matters the quality of life. These are important parts of the relative aspect of consciousness. The unfoldment of consciousness doesn’t finish with realization of the transcendental aspect of consciousness. The relative aspect of life isn’t for no reason. It has meaning and purpose – it is God too. The relative aspect of enlightenment is important.
It doesn't matter that it isn't in perfect balance. Such a judgement is subjective anyway. It doesn't matter if you "fail" to be "selfless". Selfishness, or the appearance of that circumstance, and the firing neurons and belief systems and interaction with the environment that give rise to the judgement "I am not selfless enough" is just another story we tell ourselves about ourselves,
## Selflessness is an expression of our own inherent divine personality. When we act selfishly – as if we are separate from the rest of creation – then deep down we know we have made a mistake and we suffer for it. The transcendent aspect of us has no personality, but the immanent aspect does. The more we evolve, the more our divine, immanent personality is revealed. That is why really enlightened people have superior, saintly qualities in their personality and conduct.
It doesn't even matter if your life is one, big, chaotic, unmanageable mess.
## I don’t know anyone who would be happy with that situation. The life in us wants to move towards peace, happiness, order, harmony, balance and love. Of course, the transcendental aspect of Brahman is unmoved, but that doesn’t mean disharmony doesn’t matter.
Beneath and beyond and infused with every happening, is simply what you are, untouched by the story, whatever that story may be; the story, of no import, is also the point. Whatever is happening, that is the point: simply that it is happening.
## While it is true that from the absolute view the story is unimportant, to act as if it is unimportant is a mistake. I call this “Papaji’s Mistake.” Papaji told Ramana that he didn’t need to escort his family out of Pakistan because they were just a concept/maya/not real/not important/meaningless. Ramana sent him to get his family anyway.
Hi Andrew,
Seeking, or not, isn't a choice in the way we understand it. Whatever is chosen, is oneness, in another guise; or another face of God.
Disidentification does seem to bring relief from suffering...but not from pain. Many seekers hope to float about, blissful and untroubled by life, detached. There is no guarantee. Life is everything. All goals are "worthy".
Yes, when examined, the relative aspect of existence is important. When freed from the need to get the story "right", paradoxically, the story seems to go "better". A life eked out of sheer acts of will, with a determination to decide what is right, have the right goal in hand, and, with conscious deliberation, work to meet that worthy goal, is fine, but is necessarily narrow and confined to what the imagination can opine is the right thing. The "right thing" may be entirely counter-intuitive or shrouded by ego-fears (the fear of "hell" or getting the consequences of getting it "wrong"). We often don't know what is "good" for us. We are unwilling, perhaps, to go through pain, or make a choice that seems counter to our belief system, even if that choice will, in the denoument, give a "better" outcome. And that outcome is often difficult to see. That is the trap of willful, blinkered adherence to a belief system. Of course, if adherence to a belief system is what is happening...that, too, is a perfect expression. It's ALL a perfect expression.
Selflessness, in our stories, is rare. Most acts are somehow "selfish", even the most ostensibly selfless ones. We help because it feels good to; we sacrifice because we get fulfillment from living a "good" life, where sacrifice is valued. Even if such ego-concerns are moot, again, it is difficult to truly ascertain what the "right" thing to do is; it may not be obvious. However, intuitively, without poking it too much with the old mind-stick, choices can be more effortless. Yet again, if mind-stick poking is what's coming up, there is a "reason" for that in the story of life that will only become clear after a passage of "time".
Disharmony, chaos, are often the case; but without disharmony, there can be no harmony. If all were happy, peaceful and harmonious, we would not be human, going through our struggles, sometimes finding meaning, sometimes not. It is the struggles of duality that are the spice of life, its fulcrum, its clashing of twoness within oneness, the fire, the energy, the nothing being something.
When there are less, or no, ego-concerns, then selflessness often seems to be what is manifested. It is effortless. Without the ego in the way, life is lived more intensely and directly. Again, even in that apparent life circumstance, a selfless act may seem to be a selfish one on the surface; quitting a job as a volunteer co-ordinator with a charity that benefits many because the stress of the job is overwhelming, for instance. These choices may seem problematic; but only if what happens in the story is held to a certain formula. Those saintly, "superior" qualities are not always self-evident.
Thank goodness Papaji was there, making that mistake; otherwise you wouldn't have that anecdote available to make your point! Such is the tangle of life. And these familial concepts, to "my" perception, are living, breathing, energetic, crazy, enlightened-in-their-mere-existence miracles. They are only concepts in some detached wilderness...yet the arising of such perception is not a choice, it unfolds, or seems to.
The kind of existence you espouse, Andrew, seems to be the kind of unfolding that is the story of "my" life; however, the less "I" try to make it so, the more it seems to happen. That, I suppose, is what I'm getting at.
Thanks again for having something to say Sweetie! Much love to you, my much valued, very worthy fellow blogger.
Theres only some point in discussing it if you think that there is a right and a wrong idea, or that by doing so some progress towards greater life and freedom is being made. If you don't of course, the conversations will still arise as part of the many expressions of the One reality.
Hey Julian, don't forget the most important thing of all...the conversations are fun.
Hi Bernard, either it was the cosmic joke, the irony and absurdity of it all etc., or else some impish member of your household was tickling you!
That's my best guess.
:-) fine guess Suzanne. My 10 year old nephew came to visit yesterday and he loves to tickle Uncle Bernie.
The cosmic joke is not always so funny.
You changed your face yesterday at noon. You look great, before and after ! I wish to write later very serious comments about some serious topics such as "Does anything really exists, or not ?" But I have to peal some potatoes right now and prepare some fries for the tickling nephew.
Love,
Bernard
Hi Bernard. Obviously, "you" have the "right" "idea".
Suzanne,
I do have the right idea of course.
No need for "quote marks".
But no relevant word to express it either.
It's merely an idea by the way.
Oh Lord !
It does exist ! It burns my heart
and crushes my bones.
It's love, it makes me want to cry,
it makes me dream awake.
I usually have coffe for breakfast,
then some more when at work.
This morning, just tea, and I'm trying
to resist. Here's the result...
Bernard
Bernard, for Christ's sake, have the damn coffee!
#### It doesn't even matter if your life is one, big, chaotic, unmanageable mess.
Phew, well that's a great relief then, LOL!
Im obviously doing really well as chaos is my nature.
I used to have a friend with a cat called Chaos! Great name for a cat,
I made the mistake of calling our goldfish, Phishnu after the Hindu god of the sea and he is the indestructible fish who continues to make me feel guilty because changing his water is a real hassle. Weirdly he has lived longer through being neglected than most of their friends goldfishes. Kids, goldfish and chaos... go together dont they. Love to you.
The small domesticated pets that arise in awareness...don't get me started!
yes we also have a hamster Cyril! he's escaped a few times once for 6 weeks.... I think Ive got over feeling guilty for not being a 'good enough' pet owner, LOL!
Ive bought him two hamster wheels over the years as he wore the other ones out!
Hi Suzanne ...It so funny for me to read my posts wittering away about the kids pets. My, how ironic... During all the years I spent in India in the early 1990's I never went to Lucknow to visit Papaji because at the time I thought he was too ordinary....... ah the irony of the spiritual journey.... the ego (especially the spiritual ego!!!) and it's arrogant nonsense, yes that one has come back to bite me. Ouch!
all good fun.....
Yes, good fun now.
I had coffe after lunch. I will try not to have any tomorrow,
I realized I was suffering of addiction !
One has to meditate over the incredble effect of
(or absence of) some beverages
on the body mind :
you may believe reaching Nirvana having fresh sparkling water
with ice cubes and a lemon slice after 20 miles
biking by a warm sunny summer day !
Or ...
with a nice glass of old Islay Scotch Whisky, at home
by a cold and damp winter night.
Coffee just gets you going like an automat.
I don't remember who wrote :
"Coffee is a beverage that makes you sleep
when you don't have any".
Is there any beverage that could make me write something
sensible about the real topic of your blog ? About my life ?
My quest for freedom ? Hell on earth, loneliness, Love, Heaven ?
I'll try vegetable soup.
Bernard
Hey Bernard, what on Earth would be the point of writing something sensible?
That said, try Tang. Drink of the astronauts!
Frankly, the point of writing something sensible would be double : I could appear as someone clever and interesting and it would force me to look for some inspiration, open myself to the mystery of the universe, wander through the cosmos without any heavy space suit. For instance, yesterday night after my veg' soup, I went out on the porch and looked at the naked apple tree, the frozen garden in the misty night, and just for the few seconds of a deep sigh, the I-bubble was dissolved in this simple marvellous reality. Isn't this lovely ? I would say there was an authentic zen flavour to this instant. It is something like instinctual animal fright that rebuild the bubble, or just a second thought, I don't know... a bad habit ?
I read what you wrote last Saturday :
"Seekers of something other than what is are convinced there must be some extraordinary difference in the quality of experience other than that which is already known; the flavour of reality must change..."
[...]
"These expectations are what keeps the apprehended world from being, to our perception, something other than the miraculous whole it is"
...from which my logical and miraculous mind deduces that seekers are not mistaken to believe there is a difference in the quality of experience, since it should appear to their perception as "the miraculous whole it is".
Does the belief that the water will end up boiling in the kettle could prevent it from happening ?
:-) Bernard
Hey Bernard, put less wordily, it's just always there. It IS perception.
Whatever is perceived.
Wow what an informative site and I love the artwork! I myself am foraying into the world of 'nondual' pointers and it is a lot of fun isn't it! Would be charmed if you could have a butcher's at my bloggiwoggi: http://awareconsciousness.blogspot.com I'd love to exchange links with you. Well I guess that's all. On with this living business I suppose...cheerio!
Hi Tom, thanks for stopping by. Will definitely look at your bloggiwoggi!
Hey Bernard, put less wordily, it's just always there. It IS perception. Whatever is perceived.
Absolutely. B.
As long as you realize that there is no one doing what is being done and there is no one suffering the consequences, what is the problem? You might as well enjoy the show.
Hey Mulla...for real.
I'm sitting here with not a word to say, but somehow something came out of this keyboard! :)
<3 Suzanne
Hey liberatedself, is that symbol a heart or boobies?
definitely a heart haha.
The heart is for you my dear! :)
Thanks, love the heart, could use some boobies though! Gravity apparently functions.
well, i wish i could help you on the boobie front but unfortunately i don't think what i have would make a difference. :P
Silly ol gravity. ;)
Actually, they're holding up well. In the unfolding story, not bad for 45!
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