For Your Consideration....

[Guest guest]

Dear Friends,

 

I'm addressing this to you mature, sincere folks out there who are

serious about this " realization " or " enlightenment " business and just

might happen to have your ears on right now, as you're reading what I

have to say. I am not addressing this to the hysterical neurotics, the

lovelorn, the sob sisters, the insecure, the angry, the know-it-alls,

the distrustful ax-grinders, the smiley guys, the " oh yes, life is

great, hallelujah " gang -- in other words, the general run of

mental-emotional basket cases, that we see so often in so -called

" spiritual. " circles. I hold out no hope for them.

They're busy doing whatever kind of nonsense they're about. If they

had half a brain to begin with they wouldn't be doing that in the first

place. Let's face it, this is not for everybody -- so let's move on.

 

Realization is for strong, secure, emotionally mature, clear-headed,

no-nonsense, healthy folks, people with both feet on the ground. It's

not brain surgery, all it takes is common sense and the unflinching

desire to understand, to uncover, to get to the bottom of the matter, to

look at the truth of who you are come what may. It requires the courage

to stand alone, because the ball lies entirely in your court. Let me

tell you -- and I can't stress this strongly enough -- there has been so

much nonsense promulgated about finding the truth of who you are in some

" other, " be it a lover, a guru, Jesus, or even some personal idea of

" God. " In other words, paying lip service to

some imaginary being isn't going to cut it! Discovering the truth of

who you are is not about playing emotional co-dependency games with some

sort of " other. " That said, let's go on.

 

On to the point: realization is about understanding, it is not about

making your life work out. That is the great misunderstanding. It is not

something " added " to your already existing circumstance or sense of

existence that you are trying to improve upon, to finally get that brass

ring or cream pie in the sky. This is about the utter failure of all

that, it is not in just allowing or coming to terms with it, but

actually marching right into it! You see your life is not going to " work

out, " not ever,

and that's exactly is the point.

 

Understanding is about loss, not gain. Please understand that! In

order to actually and really observe yourself and get at the truth of

who you are, and what you're doing, you first have to get clear of the

hope, the fear, that business of you trying to make your life work out,

from the time you wake up in the morning until you go to bed at night.

Whatever drives you, your so-called story, the tale of Dick or Jane --

it's simply not going to happen. Even if your prince, princess, or

Rolls-Royce does show up, that's going to come to an end. Nothing is

permanent and whatever goes up must come down. People die and even

Rolls-Royce's rust. You have to come to terms

with that, seriously, once and for all. That's all there is to it. In

other words, it's in stopping all that business that you play with all

the time, that you occupy yourself with, the whole " grass is greener "

business that you suffer continually. All that nothing but the activity

of suffering, if you would but see it! That's your entire identity, you

see., it's what makes you tick! It's very subtle.

Whether you're at your worst or at your best, it is still, at its

root, suffering.

 

So, the work, the " task " then becomes one of actually looking for

where it is that you're holding on, what you're still trying " work out, "

and simply letting it go. To bring this suffering to the surface, to

look at it, to make it concrete, palpable. This is by no means some sort

of psychotherapy, you don't have to analyze it and understand the " why "

of your holding on, to just to bring it up and see it, allow yourself to

feel it and let it go is enough. In other words, it's not about saying

" Well, it's because my mother hit me when I was a kid, poor me, " or any

number of events that might have occurred. The past is dead and gone,

drop it. And let me say something

else here, I am not describing a career or a hobby here.

Realistically, I'm referring to a couple weeks of serious intense

effort, for those of you who are mature and prepared, perhaps a few

months, but certainly no more than that.

 

My advice is simple: take some time for yourself, get off away by

yourself, let your life go, completely. Just get away and get into these

places where you're holding on and let go. I mean all the places where

you don't want to go -- you need to go there and stop avoiding them.

Face the fears that you have been hiding, even from yourself. Bring

everything up until you are absolutely, utterly heartbroken and be done

with it!

 

And that is when real self-observation begins and NOT before. In other

words, you have to get beyond yourself, so you can clearly see yourself

and what it is you are actually doing. It's like discovering that you

have been pinching yourself without realizing it, causing your own

suffering. And that's all your the illusion of separate identity

amounts to. However, as long as you're trying to make the story work out

one way or another, you can't really observe yourself because you *are*

the suffering activity you're trying to observe!

 

 

 

--

Happy Days,

Judi

 

http://www.users.uniserve.com/~samuel/judi-1.htm

TheEndOfTheRopeRanch

http://www.livingston.net/allison/sacred01.htm

 

Rev. Helen Hiwater, D.D. ...

" Straighten up and bow down! There's nooooo way around it! "

[Guest guest]

Nisargadatta, Judi Rhodes <judirhodes@e...> wrote:

> the hysterical neurotics, the

> lovelorn, the sob sisters, the insecure, the angry, the know-it-

alls,

> the distrustful ax-grinders, the smiley guys, the " oh yes, life is

> great, hallelujah " gang -- in other words, the general run of

> mental-emotional basket cases, that we see so often in so -called

> " spiritual. " circles.

 

Dear Judi,

 

The moment of truth. When I look at the mirror, I see some of my

qualities in your list. The question is, what do you see?

 

Hur

[Guest guest]

hurg wrote:

>

> Nisargadatta, Judi Rhodes <judirhodes@e...> wrote:

> > the hysterical neurotics, the

> > lovelorn, the sob sisters, the insecure, the angry, the know-it-

> alls,

> > the distrustful ax-grinders, the smiley guys, the " oh yes, life is

> > great, hallelujah " gang -- in other words, the general run of

> > mental-emotional basket cases, that we see so often in so -called

> > " spiritual. " circles.

>

> Dear Judi,

>

> The moment of truth. When I look at the mirror, I see some of my

> qualities in your list. The question is, what do you see?

>

> Hur

>

****** Hi Hur, thanks for responding. And yes, I'm sure it catches most

everyone a little bit, some to more extremes than others. The whole idea

is to show people to themselves and what they are up to. And the way I

see it, if this is your question, is that it comes down to maturity,

strength of charachter, soberness in other words, where a person finally

stops playing games wtih themselves and begins to see how they're doing

nothing BUT avoiding suffering all the time, which IS suffering itself.

It takes great resolve and strength of charachter to see that, to

swallow that. It's a tremendous blow.

And like James puts it, you got to be as strong as ten camels in

courtyard to be able to take it. :-) You got to be stronger than the

wind in other words. Because ultimately it's your death is what you're

dealing with. But as long as person goes along with his pleasuring of

himself, he will not come into understanding. Because understanding is

NOT about pleasuring yoruself, under no circumstances. Period.

So what it comes down to is a choice, do you want to be happy or do you

want understanding. Take your pick. Becasue you can't have it both ways.

 

 

 

--

Happy Days,

Judi

 

http://www.users.uniserve.com/~samuel/judi-1.htm

TheEndOfTheRopeRanch

http://www.livingston.net/allison/sacred01.htm

 

Rev. Helen Hiwater, D.D. ...

" Straighten up and bow down! There's nooooo way around it! "

[Guest guest]

Judi Rhodes wrote:

> do you want to be happy or do

> you

> want understanding. Take your pick. Becasue you can't have it both

> ways.

>

>

**** And I will go on to say, that there IS happiness, but not as long

as *you* are there.