Alternating from “just look” to “just be”

 I went to Duncan Donuts the other days as I got bored waiting for my son’s golf tournament to end. It was a slow day there and an elderly Indian lady served me coffee and told me with a huge smile all about her problems with her medical billing. It was as if there was a spark ignited as I entered the store. I wished her good luck with her medical visit, took my coffee and left a lot happier than when I entered the store.

 

As within so without, which gives us two gateways to connect with what lies beyond this self identification. To break free from the body, mind, world matrix we can tune into the inner or we can be inspired by the outer. In the S (ilence) E (nergy) L (ove) F (low) acronym, we have to be mindful when the inner silence or the energy flow get interfered with, while on the outer we can enjoy the love and life’s flow as it presents itself. We alternate from “just look” to “just be.”

Look and choose again!

 How would you react if you came home tired from a business trip and as you open the door you realize that your roommate has secretly invited people over to an orgy and you see numerous naked bodies jumping over each other? Compare that to the situation where you both invite friends over to a party, where you cannot help noticing how attractive some of your roommates' friends are, where the alcohol is flowing, and where everything agrees that strip poker is a great way to raise the party mood?

 

Do you see the difference of the two outcomes? When we are truly attentive, we are not triggered into a predetermined action. The tired guy may decide to join the jolly party, or he may call it a night and go into his room and leave the party to itself, but he has a choice in the matter.

 

Likewise, in many of life’s events we are led by our subconscious agendas, by the ghosts of the pasts and the triggers that call them into action. Spiritual living is being truly attentive. When you truly observe you can find that life mirrors these subconscious agendas back to us all the time. We are literally walking magnets attracting all the events that show us where we still have blinders on. All we have to do is to look and choose again.

 

Dial into SELF

 Be without yesterday’s bitter memories

and tomorrow’s anxious cares.

Ramana Maharshi

 

I went for my dental cleaning, and man, did that lady poke at my teeth. For these 15 minutes or so I was my body, but then today all of this is a distant memory. The stock market goes up or down, and for a minute or two I feel greed or despair, and then once again, all a distant memory. It is as if there is an inner dial and happy are those who can catch themselves when they get triggered into an illusionary identification and then simply move on without suppressing or projecting.

 

We understand the self as that what is always the same. Yet, what truly is the same is the S (ilence), the E (nergy), the L (ove) and life’s F (low)—SELF in short. Everything else is just a story in motion that appears to be stable, but it is not. Awake to SELF and Bob is your uncle. Everything else are just passing phenomena. The root meaning of the word identification is “always the same.” It is not. The identifications are shifting constantly, while SELF remains the same.

The River of Consciousness moves towards the Ocean of Bliss

 Whether you like it or not,

whether you know it or not,

secretly, all nature seeks God

and works towards Truth.

Meister Eckhart (1260-1328)

 

What we perceive as “self” is itself a thought, part of an intricate body-mind-world matrix. This thought “self” is not even stable over time, but bio-feedback systems established it as an imaginary constancy. What is stable is the perceiver/operator/creator of this matrix, which is sometimes referred to as Awareness or Self, but this statement itself is just a thought unless we experience the truth behind it. J. Krishnamurti and physicist David Bohm went over this complicated subject in a series of conversations spanning more than a decade, and David Bohm summed up the problem statement of thought disguised as a self identity well in the book, “Thought as a System”:

 

“Thought runs you. Thought, however, gives the false impression that you are running it; that you are the one who controls thought, whereas thought is the one which controls each of us and until thought is understood, better yet, more than understood—perceived—it will actually control us, but will create the impression that it is our servant, that it is just doing what we want it to do. That’s the difficulty. Thought is participating and then saying it is not participating, but it is taking part in everything.”

 

Spirituality 1.0 is the evolution of modern man with the noble mission of doing the best and most ethical thing we can with this body, mind and world that we are born into. This view of gaining control was eloquently articulated by Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius:

 

Control what you can, accept what you can’t, and navigate the chaos with wisdom, virtue and resilience. (Every Philosopher’s Philosophy in one sentence. YouTube)

 

It’s a noble mission but also a bit naïve if thought controls us while we think that we are in control instead. Modern spiritual woman comes a bit closer to the truth if she tunes into her intuition to tell her what the thought-feeling-energy is all about. Lastly, we have spiritual man who often feels that he is observing the thought-feeling-energy at work and thus has connected with Awareness which is beyond thought and self. Whether spiritual man actually has or not, only the environment he is in can mirror back to him. Here too, it’s easy to fall into the enlightened thinking trap where thought claims it has escaped the mind-body-world matrix for good while tricking the thinker of the thought.

 

Spirituality 2.0 is the cessation of psychological thought. It’s the end of all self identification. How to get into this state for good only God knows, but then, as the saying goes, if the mountain doesn’t come to the prophet, the prophet can always go to the mountain. Likewise, if Awareness is hard to come by, we can always practice self awareness. Meanwhile, the beauty of life as is, it doesn’t even matter that much how we proceed. The River of Consciousness moves towards the Ocean of Bliss whether we are consciously aware of this fact or not. Again, in Meister Eckhart’s words:

 

“Don’t worry if God works through your nature

or above your nature because

both are God’s, nature and Grace.”

 

We are all addicted! (Video)

 Nisargadatta Maharaj once famously stated that the fruit falls when it is ripe. Every compulsive habit and addiction calls for a psychological letting go process we haven’t quite yet gotten our arms around. How to break free? Well, you tell us. Keep digging. Keep observing. Keep breaking free!

Open God’s Present (Video)

 The “Power of Now” is serene, potent and effortless living. This video claims that every moment is God-given, especially designed for us to get the “me” out of the way and open us up to the higher energies that surround us all. 2025 seems to be especially potent in bringing this transformation about. Several mindfulness techniques of how to accomplish this reorientation of our lives are being discussed.

 

Practice self-awareness if Awareness is hard to come by

 Never mind the mind.

If its source is sought,

it will vanish leaving

the Self unaffected.

Ramana Maharshi

 

What we perceive as “self” is itself a thought, part of an intricate body-mind-world matrix. This thought self is not even stable over time, but bio-feedback systems established it as an imaginary constancy. What is stable is the perceiver/operator/creator of this matrix, which is sometimes referred to as Awareness or Self, but this statement itself is just a thought unless we experience the truth behind it. J. Krishnamurti and physicist David Bohm went over this complicated subject in a series of conversations spanning more than a decade, and David Bohm summed up the problem statement of thought disguised as a self identity well in the book, “Thought as a System”:

 

“Thought runs you. Thought, however, gives the false impression that you are running it; that you are the one who controls thought, whereas thought is the one which controls each of us and until thought is understood, better yet, more than understood—perceived—it will actually control us, but will create the impression that it is our servant, that it is just doing what we want it to do. That’s the difficulty. Thought is participating and then saying it is not participating, but it is taking part in everything.”

 

Spirituality 1.0 is the evolution of modern man with the noble mission of doing the best and most ethical thing we can with this body, mind and world that we are born into. This view of gaining control was eloquently articulated by Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius:

 

Control what you can, accept what you can’t, and navigate the chaos with wisdom, virtue and resilience. (Every Philosopher’s Philosophy in one sentence. YouTube)

 

It’s a noble mission but also a bit naïve if thought controls us while we think that we are in control instead. Modern spiritual woman comes a bit closer to the truth if she tunes into her intuition to tell her what the thought-feeling-energy is all about. Lastly, we have spiritual man who often feels that he is observing the thought-feeling-energy at work and thus has connected with Awareness that is beyond thought and self as such. Whether he actually has or not, only the environment he is in can mirror back to him. Here too, it’s easy to fall into the enlightened thinking trap where thought claims it has escaped the mind-body-world matrix for good.

 

Spirituality 2.0 is the cessation of psychological thought. It’s the end of all self identification. How to get there only God knows—maybe literally this time around! As the saying goes, if the mountain doesn’t come to the prophet, the prophet has to go to the mountain. Likewise, if Awareness is hard to come by, we can always practice self awareness.