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Sense the Sacred pg 127
We learn in this chapter that he (the author) feels a sense of being at home when he travels to India. Being a holy man you fell unquestionably accepted. Even if they don't understand Buddhism, they know that you try to live a holy life.
We learn that India is a country that is very accepting of life. Many of our common values in the West are based on very self centered and materialistic values, In places like where the author travels, he can see the devotion towards deity, feeling the power of this devotion and having the sense that there is something beyond the material works.
Don’t get caught up in endlessly trying to satisfy your own needs. You may achieve them sometimes but you can't keep them. The mind is always trying to control things. Maybe we can start looking at things in a different way.
In meditation, if you are trying to achieve some mental state, maybe something you remembered doing before, you will be endlessly frustrated.
The power comes from the recognition of thoughts. Intrusion ability. This sense is natural to us, it is the ability of all consciousness to manifest the things that are happening seen or unseen. In this present moment all is natural.
When the Buddah referred to awakened-ness to being awake and aware. When we trust in that we begin to trust intuitive awareness.
*What is it that you can really trust within yourself at this moment?
This awareness is light and is there and now, It is not created. It is the place to be and it is a refuge.
It is this sacredness of life that brings us joy. The impermanence of it. Allowing yourself to accept the things we would accept.
Everything belongs.
This Pure Subject Has no Name pg 139
The information age had just begun for this author in 2009. To him, the essence of education lies not in the acquisition of knowledge but in the understanding, “right understanding”, this attitude of awareness of using address as a basis of understanding. Understanding that you mind what is being observed.
Often, like the author, once you become interested in something like psychology, meditation or anything that moves you toward introspection, is an awakening moment. -It can be scary to do anything which makes you focus on yourself. The terrifying part of meditation is because a part of you, your ego, is being threatened- that feeling of panic and terror can become quite strong. Some people may feeling like they are “dying” . Emotions are not meant to feeling like you're dying.
Although many of us have been socially and culturally conditioned, we may be fascinated by the idea of meditation.
You are then about to see your thought patterns may not support you or are not as trustworthy-
Emotional habits are based on thought-patterns.
Ego makes doubt. What blinds us to the path is the who, attachment to conventions or identification with conventional form.
*Three features
*Ten Fetters- free yourself from them
What if you could stop thinking.
Who am I? When you ask yourself a question, there is a gap before the mind starts trying to asner it. The point is to consciously notice those gaps between the thoughts- before they connect, the thought process begins.
One will begin to notice a more and more natural state of being.
This awakened attention is something that you recognize,trusting yourself even more.
This means we are in the sense ream , which is a reminder that we have little control over it- we live in a state of continuous agitation.
The whole point of the Buddha's teaching is to “wake-up”- notice the delusions.
Death is something we understand but not deathlessness.