To Rick about Some help needed here ...

[Guest guest]

Rick wrote:

 

> • Even a thought is a hindrance to realize the Self.

 

My quick comment: Is a fish or a bit of seaweed a hindrance to the ocean?

 

 

 

Dear Rick~ I already wrote quite a long post about thoughts as tools,and

tools may be used for good or ill, so I'll try not to repeat it. In my view, the

two items you mention are not only not a hindrence to the ocean, but are a

part of its health and function as a ocean. A fish, or a bit of seaweed, or a

coral reef (fast disappearing, sadly), or the shells which are homes to other

ocean critters until they shed their earthly form, and the shell washes up

on the shore, all of these and more are not separate from the ocean, except in

our minds. Neither are we separate from the Earth, though we do our best, by

building towers of steel, housing developments that deprive the Earth and her

creatures from desperately needed habitat.

And in a sense, we humas are all a part of Gaia, this living Earth.

 

Having practiced TM and experienced going beyond thought and touching the

Divine, even in a small way, I understand the statement that "even a thought is

a hindrence to realize the Self." Yet, I believe, as I stated before that

thoughts are part of who we are, like the fish is part of the ocean. Right now,

I am using thoughts to write this response. I believe the crux is, to be in

communion with the Divine, we must reach that place beyond thought, beyond

feeling, beyond, beyond, beyond ... to the Silence which is Filled with

Divinity. It is difficult to talk about this, easier to express in poetry or

song.

So we do our spiritual practices, and especially our meditation to take

ourselves beyond all we are part of, including our own thoughts and our own

selves, to experience that communion with the Divine.

 

Yet, when we are going about our daily lives, we need our cognitive

abilities for a variety of purposes. I have always thought that if I lived in

that

state of communion constantly, it could be quite dangerous because nothing else

is reaching me. So, crossing the street, I might be hit by a bus. Dipping

into the Ocean of the Divine and then bringing that experience of communion into

"all our affairs" (as they say in AA and Al Anon), is, I believe, part of

the point. We experience communion, we let go of thoughts, then we come back

"out," and we go to work, we make dinner, we write songs, we paint paintings,

we cross the street, we interact with friends and loved ones and strangers who

cross our path, and because, in this (waking) state, we have our minds and

our thoughts, we can avoid the run in with the bus, or with the person, or

with the eggs boiling on the stove. (I forgot once, and came back to find egg

all over the kitchen, even the ceiling ... the poor thing had exploded due to

my inattention.)

 

I'm not sure your statement about the fish and the seaweed are exactly

equivalent to thoughts, but close enough for, as they say, "government work."

And

when we step out from that experience of union, we do have to govern

ourselves and our lives, and for that we need our tools: thoughts, feelings,

physical

body, energetic body.

 

Jai Ma ~ Linda

 

 

 

[Guest guest]

on 1/27/06 10:04 AM, nierika at nierika wrote:

>

> Yet, when we are going about our daily lives, we need our cognitive

> abilities for a variety of purposes. I have always thought that if I lived in

> that

> state of communion constantly, it could be quite dangerous because nothing

> else

> is reaching me. So, crossing the street, I might be hit by a bus.

 

We know famous people, such as Amma, who are constantly in tune with the

Divine, and are able to interact normally with the environment, although

when Amma was still growing into her present state, she did have problems of

this nature. I have friends who are Awakened who run businesses, raise

children, etc., with no problem. So I don't think Enlightenment, once

stabilized and integrated, is incompatible with "normal" functioning. In

fact, it enhances it.