What's Your Sign?

What is known in western culture about implicit memory has been mostly learned in just the last 60 years. But it's legacy spans countless philosophical systems and thousands of years. The way implicit memory runs in the background (and not always in the direction we would consciously prefer) is the subject of written and oral traditions. It is known as latent tendencies to the Hindu, and mitote to the Toltec.

The Toltec call the automatic synthesis and repackaging of an individual's collective dreams (aka experiences) the parasite (yet they also say it is meant to act as an ally), something western science believes of implicit memory as it researches its role in a number of mental conditions.  All these systems agree no matter what they call the implicit memory, it is the foundation of the world appearance which they say is a dream or illusory.

The ancients believed that to wake up or become aware in this dream is the foundation of liberation from latent tendencies and mitote at which time one who does, may masterfully utilize it as a tool, or ally.  The Yoga Vashistha quotes the Sage, "They who realize this are free from delusion, from attachment, and from mental distress, while continuing to perform appropriate actions spontaneously (aka implicitly) in situations which the stream of life bears along."

"Lucid dreaming" describes waking up in your dreams at night at which point you can choose your activities which can be quite fantastic much as Vashistha describes can happen in the waking life.  To learn how to be lucid in nighttime dreams people establish signals to help them recognize that they are dreaming. An example would be to become lucid when a blue rabbit appears.

In your waking dreams seeing a blue bunny might not be likely, so pick something like pulling up to a stop light, or opening a bottled water. Make an affirmation that when these things occur you will ask what you have been dreaming. As you do, notice the present thoughts and follow how they have been strung together through related links. For example, next time you see any bunny you may think of a blue bunny and also about being lucid in your dream of life.

This new habit is not meant to replace dreaming, but to add being aware of the dreaming to it. With such lucidity, choice happens, and lasting change begins to develop.  What is your sign? Look for it, and Be Lucid!



Blue Bunny courtesy of Carly & Art via creative commons search

What's Playing at the Box Office?

It may not be time for the Academy Awards, but every weekend new movies are released with the hopes that they may be contenders come Oscar time.  A good story draws you in, it might make your heart beat faster, wax nostalgic, or feel sad. It can stick with you hours or days after you leave a theater and even have an influence on your life.

To the ever-present selection of the 3 strings of five words, every story mixes in some or all of the following sting of five words to sequence the subject matter: first, before, then, next, after.  This sequencing produces the illusion of cause and effect looping around on itself as every "after" becomes a "before" for the implicit memory to build upon.

The mind or "I" is chock full of stories it wants you to see.  All day, everyday it runs stories for you mixing past experience with present perceptions to establish logical conclusions and produce future projections.

By using the five story sequence words, the implicit-I is constantly editing and recalculating its story sequences non-stop, offering one possibility after another (or the same one over again) until and as it gets noticed. This is how a "fabulous opportunity" can become a "big problem" then transform into the "best choice", or end up having little or no effect.

When we are unaware this process is running (and it is running 100% of the time) we forget these stories are symbols, and take them personally. Just as when an actor assumes a role in a play he or she is limited to that character's story, so we might feel stuck, and can only react to the story-line when we identify as a character in the implicit I's stories.  When we acknowledge the story-telling process without taking it personally, we can observe and are free to choose to respond or not without regard for a script, appreciating the story for what it is without being subject to it. 

Try this: Next time you see your blue bunny, ask "what's at the box office?" With the detachment of someone checking the movie listings you can notice the cast, storyline,  run time, if there is explicit material, and whether it's a thriller, action-adventure, drama, or comedy.  Regular blue bunny box office reviews help us see all the choices we have and recognize those big-ticket items that are released like ht new block-busters even though they are just cheap remakes of b-rated science fiction.

The goal of lucid change is not to change the stories but the identification of self with them.  Therein lies the transition to a guaranteed unconditional happy ending you can watch again and again.

Be lucid!

photo: popculturegeek via creative commons

Big Ticket Items

Those habits that we really want to change are big ticket items.  They are big for two reasons. First, the issues they are associated are big, like how we interact with others. Typically these are the things we wish didn't happen and wonder why we can't seem to be able to make them go away. Interestingly, this is exactly why they stay.

Aversion is a form of affirmation. In order to resist something we simultaneously affirm its presence. How then to make those habits that work against us go away?  Invite them in. That's right, find nothing unacceptable, and begin retraining the mind to see these things in a new light, the light of Awareness.

Now, if you keep looking for the things you don't like, you are sure to find them. But the idea here is not to go into denial because this resistance is also a form of affirmation that there is something too murky or argh to see it. Instead, know it is a possibility and keep no attachments positive or negative to it.

Today, choose one big ticket item to make into a blue bunny.  If you find yourself grasping at a problem, simply be grateful that you are aware of your blue bunny big ticket item, and choose what you wish to dream next without passing judgement.

Can it really be that simple?  In truth what is real is even more simple than that.  Be Lucid!



Ticket photo courtesty JoeSclabotnik via Creative Commons search on Flickr.com

Nevermind, Part II -Space

"Space, the final frontier", Captain Kirk introduced the idea of space travel in the prologue to each Star Trek episode. Yesterday we visited the concept of Neverland and the world of our imagination. Today we begin to understand how we imagine such fantastic things as did Gene Roddenberry.

Many people say they are not creative yet they will watch Star Trek (or some other fantasy) completely engrossed in whatever wild adventure is presented. They don't realize that they are participating in the process of imagining.  They think what they're watching is real or something someone else has imagined. They don't see that without their implicit participation in the imagination of what is seen they would not understand it. They are in the process of believing their own concept that this is happening to them rather than through their own conceptions. Even to see this is happening is nonetheless a concept, but the road we are traveling in the mind leads to learning how to use it rather than thinking we are used by it (consumers).

Space, as we understand it is that which exists between objects. Space covers the relationship between the objects to one another. You can't touch, bottle, or see space; you can only sense it and you do. Space is relationship and you create it with your imagination.

This might sound like the mental wanderings of a crazy artist, but quantum physicists like Einstein and Erwin Schrödinger challenged the notion that objects exist independent of observation.  They submitted that the appearance of exact circumstances emerging from a state of flux, are caused by observation. Not a quantum physicist? Well let's try it another way.

In Nevermind, space is defined as the relationship between objects which are created by our conception of them. These objects, for purposes of defining how we create in the world of our imagination, may be summed up as: I, You, We, They, and This. Like the "I", the rest of these, no matter who or what we think they are, are exactly that: what we think, emerging from the flux of implicit and explicit memory or mind. When we hear ourselves use the words "I, You, We, They, This" they can act like blue bunnies to wake us up to the concept that we are imagining something into our lives. Then we have the opportunity to choose how and what we imagine.

Yes, I'm saying the people and things we seem to experience outwardly are something we just thought up. This is why so many arguments are related to misunderstandings, because the "you" "I" think "I" knows is not the same as your "I" knows as "you". (I love that sentence, it's a doozy).  And the funny thing is we can't really know anything more than what we think we know about anything. All attempts to expand our understanding produce nothing more that more of our own understanding ("I") which we carry out with recognizable perceptions and also remix and apply to new perceptions making them concepts which we believe to be true.

Try this practice:  Imagine some "You" your "I" knows. Now try separating that I-knowledge from that person. Its a little like the glove in our last practice. Without what your "I" knows, the You does not exist as anything other than a nameless, incomparable....not even a thing. This practice is most helpful when you take the time each day to unimagine one person who is not currently presenting any big ticket items.  Just let go of them and all you imagine about them.  Then, when you get a wake up call from a blue bunny you will be better equipped to simply say, "Nevermind", detach, and choose unconditional happiness.

Next, Time. 
Be lucid!

Hubble photo of space courtesy  Nasa Goddard Photo and Video Stream via Creative Commons license on Flickr.com

Brief Recap

Below are brief descriptions of terms used, in alphabetical order.  They are linked to relevant posts onsite and other places.  

To read all posts on a specific topic consult the Label list in the sidebar.  Be Lucid!


Automaticity: Acting without consciously thinking (see implicit memory)

Backtracking: to recall memories and experiences to match and support present circumstances in an effort to know what to do next (see also, Recalculate)

Believe:
Perceiving your concepts as real.

Big Ticket Item:
Habits that don't work, cause problems, and remain active despite attempts to stop/change.

Blue Bunny:
An indicator you create which, when encountered, prompts you to be lucid to your dream of life.

Conceive or Concept:
The story we associate with perceiving to make it make sense for us

Conditional Happiness:
The expectation that something must or cannot happen in order for happiness to occur.

Do Nothing allowing the space to perceive what is not yet known as it is not yet determined.  It is the secret ingredient to making lasting change, the twinkle in the eye of the wise sage.  Practice: noticing the space between thoughts and word and cultivating its expansiveness solely for the purpose to know Nothing and enjoy that.  (see also, fill in the blank, ignorance)

Explicit Memory:
What you know you know, a deliberate process of recalling and telling a story. (see also, stories)

Fill-In the Blank:  
Elaborative words that fall into and flesh-out the motion string of five words (see description this page) of Have, Think, Feel, Say, Do often introducing new object which compound and add to the original story object. eg You (see Space) Never (see Time) Feel (see motion) fill-in the blank: Satisfied.  Sometimes motion string words become the blank-fillers as in You Never Think!

Implicit Memory:
What you don't know you know about past experiences and memories experienced as automatic procedures (sequences) for taking action induced (triggered) by experiencing similar circumstances (see also Stories).

I:
A mind boggling concept often misidentified as oneself when it is really only what the mind knows as thoughts, feelings, expectations, desires (both attractive and avoided) etc. (also see description of Space on this page)

Ignorance:
Not knowing how to not know, in other words always in need of seeking knowledge.  If you find this definition offensive....Nevermind. (also see Do Nothing, Know Nothing) 

Know Nothing: Being whole in experience of limitless, unconditional, indescribable, absolute potential of all that is not yet.


Lucid:
Comfortable with and adept at not yet knowing; curious, creative, observant

Lucid Change: The intent to live lucid rather than automatically

Mitote: The traffic of thoughts in the mind leading to more thoughts, and thoughts about thoughts, and so on and on and on, forming and recalculating stories.(see also, Stories, and Recalculating)




Motion:
Have, Think, Feel, Say, and Do are the action or motion that comes from the relationship of space time, satisfying the human need to have a story or to know (or to think we know) about each person, place or thing we conceive (see definition this page).

Nevermind (Mantra):  
A practice for interrupting the sting of five words involved in all mitote and story-telling that distract us from being lucid in the dream of life.  It is suggested that when any of the words in the three strings of five come into play in such as way as to bring about discomfort for oneself or another, the progress of the three strings is first acknowledged by stating the sequence of the first two strings which represent the inevitability of space and time in life as we know it, then to pre-empt the third string which contains optional words which complete our creative process/story by producing the blanks we fill-in with knowledge based on our limited experiences; with the single word Nevermind, until the story sequence is abated.
 
                              I, You, We, They, This
                              Always, Never, Could, Should, Can't
                              Nevermind (substitutes for Have, Think, Feel, Say, Do (fill-in the blank)
                              (see also, Space, Time, Motions, and Fill-in the blank on this page)

Nothing:
The limitless, unconditional, indescribable, absolute source of all that is and as not yet. AKA Brahman, Ground, Absolute, Void, Potential, Love.

Noticing the Mundane:
Being lucid to the individual components of mundane sequences like "fix dinner", "get ready", "get ready for work".  Example: Fix Dinner might become: Open cabinet, remove skillet, touch refrigerator handle, open door, select package of tofu, open package, drain tofu in sink etc.  Not a tofu lover?  Don't be so literal!

Perceive:
Seeing prior to attaching knowledge to create a seen. Not yet knowing.  Also see Lucid.

Recalculate
Building upon and reorganizing memories, like a GPS system does after the set course is varied to create a new course that will fulfill expectations. (see also backtracking, mitote, and stories)

Stories
The history of experiences now kept as stories we can build upon to stay up to date as our experiences change daily. (see also Stories)

Space:
The relationship of objects.  In the three strings of five, space is conceived as  I, You, We, They, and This as broad categories containing countless related terms (such as That in the category of This as well as specific this and that's or particular names of specific people or groups of people/causes etc in any of the other categories. Even in the I category, the distinction between self and Self would both be contained therein as they are nonetheless conditional concepts (see definition in this list) of an unconditional perception (see definition in this list)

Three Strings of Five:
Three sets of five words I, You, We, They, This; Always, Never, Should, Could, Can't; Have, Think, Feel, Say, Do that categorize the terms we use to tell the stories of our lives as Space (Who-What and Where) x Time (When) = Motion (or action, How).  Also see Nevermind Mantra on this page.


Time: As Always, Never, Should, Could, and Can't, Time imposes a sense of loss, lack, and limitation (even Always is kept from being Never) upon object categories (see Space).  These terms represent general categories which may contain countless related terms so that Could may contain Can etc.


Transcendence
Skipping over the stories and limiting conditions of the I (see also I, believe, and Nevermind on this page)

Unconditional Happiness:
Yep, there really is such a thing.

Vedas
Ancient Hindu scriptures, includes the Upanishads which predate the Buddha and the Christ. 

Wise Sages and Teachers:  A wide variety of teachings are the substratum for these blog posts from modern scientific thought on the part of great thinkers like Einstein, to Greek philosophers like Heraclitus and other ancient sages like Vashistha, the Buddha, and the Christ among others, including teachers I have known in this lifetime who helped me see the light. The wisdom I share here is drawn on the consensus that there is one truth told many ways.  I am grateful for all of them.  If you would like to know the source for any of the concepts introduced on this blog consider any and all of the above.

The Light of Awareness

Within you is the light of awareness. When you hold it high, it can light your way. When left unattended it can set fire to your life. Unaware, it is easy to get caught up in circumstances as they are implicitly related to past experiences, recreating even the things we might prefer to leave behind.

With awareness we can actively appreciate circumstances as reminders to be present, noticing what comes up and being curious about what we might be the best fit for our thoughts, emotions, and deeds for any situation. With awareness we can be truly creative and discover new ways of being, different than what automatically comes up.

Today, let your blue bunny be those times when you think you know what's happening and what should be done about it. Then, without judging what you have noticed, allow yourself a present moment to consider alternate possibilities, noticing what works most in your favor, and choose the most joyful, positive, creative possibility.

Brief Recap

Here is a brief recap of terms and descriptions in alphabetical order.  They are linked to relevant posts onsite and other places.  
To read all posts on a specific topic consult the Label list in the sidebar.  Be Lucid!

Believe:
Perceiving your concepts as real.

Big Ticket Item:
Habits that don't work, cause problems, and remain active despite attempts to stop/change.

Blue Bunny:
An indicator you create which, when encountered, prompts you to be lucid to your dream of life.

Conceive or Concept:
The story we associate with perceiving to make it make sense for us

Conditional Happiness:
The expectation that something must or cannot happen in order for happiness to occur.

Do Nothing allowing ourselves the space to perceive what is not yet known.  It is the secret ingredient to making lasting change.

Explicit Memory:
What you know you know, a deliberate process

Fill-In the Blank:  
Elaborative words that fall into the motion categories (see description this page) of Have, Think, Feel, Say, Do often introducing it as a new object which compounds and adds to the original story object. eg You (see Space) Never (see Time) Feel (motion) fill-in the blank: Satisfied.  Oftentimes the motion words are the blank-fillers as in You Never Think!

Implicit Memory:
What you don't know you know, consists of automatic procedures

I:
A mind boggling concept often identified as what the mind knows, thinks, feels, expects, desires, avoids etc. (also see description of Space on this page)

Ignorance: Not knowing how to not know

Lucid:
Comfortable with and adept at not yet knowing; curious, creative, observant

Lucid Change: The intent to live lucid rather than automatically

Mitote: The traffic of thoughts in the mind leading to more thoughts, and thoughts about thoughts, and so on and on and on.  Aggravating.


Motion:
Have, Think, Feel, Say, and Do are the action or motion that comes from the relationship of space time, satisfying the human need to have a story or to know (or to think we know) about each person, place or thing we conceive (see definition this page).


Nevermind (Mantra):  
 A practice for interrupting the sting of five words involved in all mitote and story-telling that distract us from being lucid in the dream of life.  It is suggested that when any of the words in the three strings of five come into play in such as way as to bring about discomfort for oneself or another, the progress of the three strings is first acknowledged by stating the sequence of the first two strings which represent the inevitability of space and time in life as we know it, then to pre-empt the third string which contains optional words which complete our creative process by producing the blanks we fill-in with knowledge based on our limited experiences; with the single word Nevermind, until the story sequence is abated.
 
                              I, You, We, They, This
                              Always, Never, Could, Should, Can't
                              Nevermind (substitutes for Have, Think, Feel, Say, Do (fill-in the blank)

Noticing the Mundane:
Being lucid to the individual components of mundane sequences like "fix dinner", "get ready", "get ready for work".  Example: Fix Dinner might become: Open cabinet, remove skillet, touch refrigerator handle, open door, select package of tofu, open package, drain tofu in sink etc.  Not a tofu lover?  Don't be so literal!

Perceive:
Seeing prior to attaching knowledge to create a seen. Not yet knowing.  Also see Lucid.

Space:
Objects conceived as  I, You, We, They, and This as broad categories containing countless related terms (such as That in the category of This as well as specific this and that's or particular names of specific people or groups of people/causes etc in any of the other categories. Even in the I caegory, the distinction between self and Self would both be contained therein as they are nonetheless conditional concepts (see definition in this list) of an unconditional perception (see definition in this list)

Three Strings of Five:
Three sets of five words I, You, We, They, This; Always, Never, Should, Could, Can't; Have, Think, Feel, Say, Do that categorize the terms we use to tell the stories of our lives as Space (Who-What and Where) x Time (When) = Motion (or action, How).  Also see Nevermind Mantra on this page.



Time: As Always, Never, Should, Could, and Can't, Time imposes a sense of loss, lack, and limitation (even Always is kept from being Never) upon object categories (see Space).  These terms represent general categories which may contain countless related terms so that Could may contain Can etc.


Unconditional Happiness:
Yep, there really is such a thing.

Wise Sages and Teachers:  A wide variety of teachings are the substratum for these blog posts from modern scientific thought on the part of great thinkers like Einstein, to Greek philosophers like Heraclitus and other ancient sages like Vashistha, the Buddha, and Jesus among others, including teachers I have known in this lifetime who helped me see the light. The wisdom I share here is drawn on the concensus that there is one truth told many ways.  I am grateful for all of them.  If you would like to know the source for any of the concepts introduced on this blog consider any and all of the above.

Noticing the Mundane

The second thing that makes big ticket items so big is their exclusivity among all our processes in our conscious awareness.  Everyday we enter into thousands of processes that sequence multiple events as one activity.  We "get dressed", "fix dinner", "work". Simply "waking up" includes opening the eyes, rolling over, blinking at the ceiling, sitting up, and letting the needs of the day start flooding into our thoughts.

Now, please mentally make that sound of the car brakes skidding to a stop. Thank you. Right now, please notice all the things you are doing while "reading". Is your hand on a mouse, or are you scrolling the screen with your thumb? Where are you sitting or standing?  Do you have a drink or snack?  A pet, child, or pressing thought nearby?

Noticing the mundane is seeing what our implicit memory thinks is unimportant which allows it to address things for us automatically without our giving them a second thought. Second thought, being able to see what you didn't know you saw, is often considered a liability (i.e. make up your mind!) to efficiently accomplishing this process called "life". 

The big ticket items in our lives seem to be so because the implicit memory screens out the thousands no, millions of other processes we enter into each day. Our explicit desire to alter certain processes, makes them the shared property of both conscious and subconscious memory. Since the subconscious implicit memory is much quicker, the conscious explicit memory usually only has hindsight of what was implicitly decided and those big ticket items seem to be the only habits that slip through without conscious awareness.

By developing a fondness for noticing the mundane, we can, as when we were children prior to the automatization of our minds, fully experience the beauty of simple things like the opening the toothpaste, the feel of squeezing the tube with our fingertips, the sound of water running first thing in the morning, and grow awareness for the variable nature of our processes in which lay our choices.

When what were big ticket items are just another part of a sea of processes, they lose their potency. They become just another possibility as the possibility of our noticing them in the moment is cultivated.  Life is not always supposed to be efficient. This is an erroneous conclusion made by the implicit memory. Life is something to be savored and this is the time to teach this to our little helper.

Try adding the following practice to seeing blue bunny for a lucid change. 
Each day choose an activity such as "wash hair" or "fix breakfast" and notice each of the processes sequenced in so doing. Notice what senses are involved. Touch, hear, taste, see, smell more deeply. Notice how much more full and noticeable your experience is.  Be Lucid!


Swirl of toothpaste photo courtesy Bradley P Johnson via Creative Commons Search on Flickr.com

I’ve been thinking too much

And then I get an interesting response from somewhere deep in my past, or perhaps my soul.

I think:

We need to collaborate to counter the Authoritarian elements that are threatening democracy. They thrive on duality for status and power. The “powerful” allow the “lower” class to survive.

Then something deeper takes hold:

“They” pit one group against another selling the idea that there’s not enough to go around when, in Truth, there would be plenty if they were not hoarding it.

That is one way, the Limited way, to look at it. But that is not the only way. The system of our beliefs, from which Being springs and manifests, is beautiful and boundless and is the One and only thing that manifests change.

“We are our thoughts. With our thoughts we form our world”

— Ghandi

It is possible to be effective in both worlds, however the order of perception determines the outcome which will be manifest.

If one is drawing from the Limited, Lucid dreamers seem idealistic and ineffective. It appears to the Limited that, without tangible goals, the battle will be lost. While doing this however, they are setting their thoughts and energies on manifesting “battles”, “ and possibly “losing” against people who are not of like mind, including the Lucid dreamers, and the duality continues.

When you are Lucid or Mindful, you can see that the limited notion of battling for rights is set in the Truth that all things are possible, and you can consciously move toward the light.

The Lucid way shines the light on the principal story that we are separate, solo, and even powerless under the control of Limiting powers.  It understands that notions like loss, lack, and limitation are manifestations of unlimited thought, and that all possibilities always underlay what manifests.  

The Lucid Mindset does not perpetuate disappointment with the expectation that the manifest dictates the ability to enjoy life. What is manifest by limited thought is lost on the Lucid who know this illusion of limitation, good or bad shall pass, and are mindful of perceiving that reality.

If you want freedom, it does not help to imagine you are stuck.  Whatever you do, however you feel, Be Lucid and, with a foot in both worlds, lean into the Truth that makes all things possible. See That, Be That, and That will come as the power and flow of Being through you and the All as you see and be the change. 

Tat Vam Asi

Try this: Perceive seeing news reports or a social media post as a blue bunny 

What Remembers?

Students of Eastern philosophy such as Advaita Vedanta are encouraged to engage in self-inquiry, asking "What is the I?"   What is this distinction all about?

Both Eastern and Toltec teachings identify the mind as "mirror".  In the context of our conversation on lucidity, we find that we sometimes look into the mirror of the mind and identify with the efficiency of implicit memory.  Then again we might identify with our explicit memory as we explain or teach.

The implicit ability to act automatically is an indispensable tool; getting through the day without it would be a truly laborious task.  The explicit memory is also a tool, without which we would never know why we did anything.  But if these are tools, what is the "I" that uses them?  Just as we know we are not our physical reflection, we find we are not this mental conditioning that we notice. 

A 2005 research study using MRI scans reveals that implicit and explicit faculties of the mind each operate in totally different parts of the brain from the other. That means being able to act automatically is not a progression or refinement of what we think we know.  The same research goes on to report that a third region of the brain, independent of explicit or automatic memory centers, lights up the moment one intends to retrieve information, something we do when we are noticing the mundane. Both the implicit and the explicit minds respond to that intent.

It seems that even science might say there is a self other than what we think we know (the explicit I) and what we don't know that we know (the implicit I). This Lucid I is differentiated from memory by intention and awareness.  The end-goal behind the practices of Lucid Change like noticing blue bunny markers and mundane sequences, is not to simply help you capture what you know, but to help you let go of what you know and experience being lucid. When practicing, look for those lucid moments in between what is noticed.  That's the prize!

Look in the Mirror Practice:  The mind is a mirror of what we see.  When we identify with the mind we lose sight of the true self.  This exercise is not about looking at yourself in the mirror but to see how you mistake yourself for the mirror.  The first step is to notice a mundane action such as walking or sorting through some papers, or pouring a cup of coffee.  Notice too that until you did you were just "pouring a cup of coffee".  When you notice you can see your hand holding a pot of coffee that is being poured out into a cup and we begin to see thing differently. 

Lady Flora with a Mirror by Edmund Joseph Sullivan courtesty of Cea on Flickr.com

Breaking the Law of Cause and Effect

There are some things that are thought of as law, that are based on the most ridiculous hypothesis.  One is that there is a cause for everything that happens.  This gets twisted in our implicit learning as children to make it seem best that we know the reason for everything that happens.  In truth Nothing happens, and there is Nothing to cause it, but diversity seems to exist, so we get stuck in unraveling the mystery. But our investigation is less than scientific or objective.  We have theories as beliefs and we attach our worth to the outcome of our efforts.

The perception of anything is completely dependent on what is imagined to be experienced and so it is that Nothing seems to exist.  All attempts to understand anything about an apparent person, place, thing or circumstance including the self, other than this simple explanation, is a fruitless endeavor. We will only ever understand the parameters of the cell of knowledge in which our thoughts dwell. That is the essence of bondage, and due to it having no other existence than the limits of the imagination, it is by this understanding that suffering bondage may become obsolete.

Only this knowledge is true: All knowledge of objects that arise as the "result of" and "to cause" is nothing more than a fairy tale which we don't have to believe.

Blue Bunny Practice: The Crow and the Coconut.  In the Yoga Vasistha it this expression is often told to remind that when a crow lands on a branch and a coconut falls the mind is apt to think the crow caused the coconut to fall when perhaps the coconut was about to fall regardless of the crow's presence. Use this phrase as you might the Chicken and the Egg, but not to question not which is the cause of either's existence but to question your perceptions and be free of the limitations of limiting automatic thinking. The possibility of some other experience will provide the space to think differently whenever big ticket items comes up. 

Be lucid and happy in the experience of the unconditional and remain free of suffering the illusion and all the consequences of cause and effect.

photo: Coconut Tree by indi.ca via creative commons license

50 Ways - Not.

"The problem is all inside your head, she said to me. The answer is easy if you take it logically. I'd like to help you in your struggle to be free. There must be 50 ways to leave your lover."

Paul Simon

 

Suppose the lover is not someone else, but the doer of love in the mind, the implicit lover we learned by example, wielding the kind of love that approves, judges, promises, teaches lessons, and gets hurt. Then by now we know we can't leave it, or at least it won't leave us, even if we have amnesia.

When we take on the illusion of love we pull the rug out from underneath all other appearances of illusion. One might wonder, when love can feel so good why would we want it to stop? Because love that is "good" requires poor examples of love in order to be recognized and known. In the words of another song, "love hurts".

The word "love" is charged with so much meaning, it is related to or implicated in the entire belief system. On a sliding scale, we were or weren't sufficiently loved when we were children. We grow up to love and care for one another as adults or we don't. Sometimes when we think we love deeply, then we're told we don't love sufficiently.

We either do or don't love jobs, vacations, god, housework, pets, clothes, friends, family, coworkers, cars, food, smartphones, movies, television shows, songs, the Big Bang Theory, everything. The love we do, just like the "I" we think, is not real, and isn't the same as the love that is nothing at all, or as all.

So, once again it is not about effort. In fact it is about letting go of effort and the kind of love that requires effort to give and receive.It's about being and in this case, being free of a lover that while faithful is always cheating us of True Love.

There is no need to go through the effort of 50 ways to leave your lover. When the kind of  "love" that has a charge comes up, "good" or "bad", let it be a blue bunny and refrain from associating with its conditions.  Practice the glove technique of not naming - in reverse. Don't name the memories and people or perpetrators of "love" in your life. Sit with the word and let it go empty of attachment/expectation associations.

Let your busy mind rest in the unconditional, pre-existent power that sources and supports all that is. Teaching it a new way to recalculate for True Love.  Then choose the focus of your affections wisely, without consideration or fear of loss, lack or limitation, and be That Love of Life.

Be lucid!


Photo by Tony in WA at flickr.com via creative commons license

When Not is a Sound, Part II - Not Really!

What's this?
I does not know
Not that
Not now

These four lines can be used as a mantra to facilitate being lucid in the dream of life by making a blue bunny out of the question What's this?.

When the reply affirms I does not know, the observer is consciously detaching from automatically running the belief system, and may inquire further rather than be subject to the automatic problem-solving consciousness of the implicit memory.

 The assertion Not that is recognition that what is perceived is nevertheless manufactured by the mind as it must be embellished with story (concept) in order for it to seem real (believable) in the dream of life.

Rather than attach to these objects built upon past experiences, erroneous conclusions and preventive strategies, the observer may move on to the fourth line which addresses the illusion of time with Not now, simultaneously reducing the concept in Nevermind fashion.

This four-liner broadly covers the same territory as the  three strings of five , but takes a more direct punch at the concept of "I" which, while it is included in the first string of words, often overlooks itself. (That's easy to do when it lacks any real substance and is programmed for self-preservation.)

There is not anything conceivable that can take away one's freedom. But the unchecked identification with the I as self, and belief in its information content, which is all recalulated from past experience, can produce a deluded sense of freedom which cannot be attained or which when thought to be attained thus becomes just another limiting condition.

Of the four lines, the re-minder, I does not know, can be powerfully influential in letting go of that which does not serve being fully lucid to the true unconditional nature of self. Be Lucid!