Saturday, September 17, 2011

Realisation, Illumination And Evolution

Realisation is a phenomenon that illuminates the individual, 

his mind and intellect, and the constant I - sense - idea in which 

one is rooted through action, emotion, thought and knowledge.





Post realisation, the person isn't the same... as in his paradigms,
values, beliefs, perspectives, and the idea one has of the universe, 
life, nature, history, beings, situation, other people, and of oneself.





One : Realisation causes surge of a new set of desire primarily for causing, enabling and facilitating realisation among others, to which however one is not attached for results or for satisfaction to oneself. The desire does bring forth an untiring will tempered equally with endless patience, absolute fearlessness accompanied with deepest compassion, and uninhibited action and behaviour with pervasive mindfulness and concern for spiritual welfare. 

The truth paradigm is characterised with clear break and protection from that transient subjectivity of before, which could take over or even overwhelm occasionally but not asunder or blanket access to this integrated consciousness... universal, homogeneous and unified... that and liberates the individual forever from all states of doubt, confusion, want and unhappiness. 




And, two : Realisation erases those self - serving desires, active urges and potent memories, values perspectives arising of experiences impressed and evolutionary past remnant in one's subconscious... that keep the individual tethered to particular psychological habits, formed of impacts from outside of other people's form, status, thoughts and views, of fear, of concern with being right or wrong, and of least want to be what one is already not or have what one already does not have.





This " realisation " process, in practice, takes one through stages of fullness and freedom along what could be termed as the " path " of spiritual evolution of man. 


The path is ever about having to choose between the electable derived of longer validity truths and happiness and the pleasurable that serve our constantly urging but transient self - satisfactions. The pleasurable are what we grow up with, look about for... which we are fixated to exert for and have. However, study and self - examination by one on a quest for " something " more in our life takes us to the domain of higher morals, ethics, values and truths. The discovered electable sticks with us as ideas but needs our time, attention and exertion to be established as our " very own " truth. Most of us though, most of the time, do not have these personal resources available from our survival imperatives. The rest are employ them at tasks necessary to better secure their middle or high status and for even faster social mobility.

It is on these resources of ours -  Time, Attention and Exertion, and in the willing priorities of our I - being, that the actual conflict between the reigning lower nature and the drawing higher nature of ours takes place within us. It may take a moment or ages for us to resolve to go with the electable, depending upon how we are spiritually poised along the evolution scale. The starting up event however is simply an exercise of choice, as a matter of fact... choose to forego ( the rather intense reality of ) the pleasurable, of objects that are greatly but merely desirable, and spend our being's resources on making the electable more real for ourself than mere ideas that we know and are aware of. For the electable are markers pointing to something higher than what we then might be subscribing to in our priorities and preferences. The source they lead to, admittedly within ourself, exceeds our very I - being then...



Our spiritual evolution is not in the esoteric images that modern - day practitioners and commercial preachers of the East entice the populace to. It is exoteric in its effect : uprooting the evil, its lure and potential within us. The time period and the scale along which this process takes place is not uniform or predictable. And the results are definitely non - linear. 





The evolution curve takes us through consciousness particular to diverse multi - dimensional convergence domains including Time - Space - Species constrained limitations, knowledge, awareness and values perspectives ... each with their specific material - physical - mental - intellectual - spiritual content of being.




The distribution of individuals along the evolution scale is pyramidal, with a base that has an endless spread. The barriers to rising up are exponentially higher, from the lowest to the highest. In these terms, the divide between the material and spiritual is huge. 

Very few ( occasionally ) actually transcend it. Because we are born, inveterate materialists. Say, abiding agreement based on shared values alone, not on lure of rewards or fear of punishment, and committment to such an agreement, is a very evolved thing to happen. That is why it is rare, which is also why trust is at such a premium !

Given the species we are, at any point in time ... ( space specific differentiation cause more disagreements ) ... there are very few who by their realisation - values - perspective would agree to the same thing.

Agreements are easier to accomplish for spoils or gains for material objects. They readily satisfy the will gravitated to our lower nature. 

But, bat an eye, the agreement disappears. And The Reign Of Terror ensues. 

The me - mine - myself anchor is more, far far more powerful than all attractions of knowledge, reason and ' ideas.'

Ironically, nobody can be faulted. Blame the Time - Space - Species - Individual realisation and evolution curve coordinate, if you will ! 


The monster is the Buddha. 

 The Chakra Tantra offers a very simplified picture of the realisation and evolution scale.


 ... Context To The Discussion …

 On Oct 21, 12:43 am, ornamentalmind wrote:>
" What I find is that all truths are obvious. If that is the aim, then there is nothing to be done, except to ' see.'" Vam

Exactly so Vam ! I think it was my retelling of the Sufi story of 3 men all being right that first struck a chord in Neil. In fact, there is nothing to be done in one sense. In another, I do not cease eating, sleeping nor even thinking. Also, while we may have known all truths… when a child, I was happy to have met and read remarkable wo/men along the path who shared more clarified and purified apprehensions than I had at the time. So, it is in a way incumbent upon those who can to do.
" 01 Unity is one thing, unity through agreement is quite another ¦ Unity through agreement is impossible, except on a limited scale. There will always be disagreement, expressed or not." Vam

I almost left your very eloquent words now replaced by the ellipsis so they could be read again! However, what you suggest here, a sort of criticism and argument, is true too. However, to be clear, I do not propose a tyrannical agreement nor a 1984 type either. Unity of subjective words can only manifest in what you have clearly said, words are subjective ! We agree. And, in this process, (using words online) specific recognitions can and have been addressed in a fully functional way. I expect no more nor no less here. More importantly, both a fact and a direction for ˜work" is presented. This, even though we know that in any ultimate sense, nothing can be done, AND knowing that what we ARE ˜doing" may be part of this so called non-doing too.
" 02 Unity in effort, interest, programme or association is possible, more completely at reduced scales. Unity through affinity, need, characterisation or empathy too is possible ... more readily around carnal and commonplace basics like birth, food, sex, security, power, death and their auxilliaries such as money, money, money, money, money and money ... and less and less readily around the exalted and the intangibles such as feeling, emotion, thought, idea, knowledge ... " Vam

Yes Vam, I fully empathize. And, as humans we all have feelings, emotions, thoughts, ideas and knowledge. This is an aspect of how we are one. We are of the same pattern. Most of us have had quite similar if not equal feelings, emotions, thoughts and ideas albeit at different points in time. Yes, our specific associations with words may differ, yet the same seed is found within. So, in this pure sense, our knowledge is one too. How do we know this? One way is to share as we do here at Minds Eye !
More to your real point about agreement being apparently impossible – I'm not so sure this is in fact the case. IF one uses the more common paradigms, ones that we know have not been successful, of course this is the case. There is something about those who keep trying the same thing expecting a different result, no ?

So, while accepting the apparent contradiction of agreement and unity being mutually exclusive, I suggest we continue using the axiom that they are not (exclusive) and see how that goes. What do you think ? Again, a possibly poor analogy would be the different types of non - Euclidean geometries that arise when one of Euclid's axioms is assumed to not be true. To explore in these realms, memes must be severed.

On Oct 20, 9:42 am, Vamadevananda wrote:
You strike the chords in my core ... indeed !

What I find is that all truths are obvious. If that is the aim, then there is nothing to be done, except to ' see.'
01 Unity is one thing, unity through agreement is quite another.

Differences and diversity abounds. Every part of speech - nouns, adjectives, adverbs ... brings in view an endless range of differentiation. Conditioned to these differences ( and inequities ), unity to us is a mere term of abstraction.
To a de - conditioned mind however, when differences and diversity remains superceded, unity is obvious and immediate in our view. Cows are different ; each cow is innately aware of such differentiation. But all differences disappear in ' cowhood.' All cows are characterised by this cowhood, that makes each a cow.

Men are different. Humanity is one. Living beings are different. The Earth is one. ... Planets are different. The Galaxy is one. ... Galaxies are different. The universe is one.
Differences are natural, in this manifest state of minimum potential. To be able to see the unity takes effort, like taking water up the slope.

Unity through agreement is impossible, except on a limited scale. There will always be disagreement, expressed or not.
02 Unity in effort, interest, programme or association is possible, more completely at reduced scales. Unity through affinity, need, characterisation or empathy too is possible ...

>> more readily around carnal and commonplace basics like birth, food, sex, security, power, death and their auxilliaries such as money, money, money, money, money and money ...
>> and less and less readily around the exalted and the intangibles such as feeling, emotion, thought, idea, knowledge ... 

---


THE MATERIALIST CAVALIER …

In an interview, a top ranking ' star ' seemed tortured and confused to me.

His refrain was : Come on, I'm a materialist. I'm just doing a job ... a f*****g job ! That's all ! !

The spiritual aspect to it is that there's no job that is " just a f****** job." 

Imagine a soldier or, better still, the contorted face of an Ortsgruppenleiter, saying that ! 

To tell the truth, all soldiers of modern armies are mercenaries. Theirs is not just a f******* job. 

They are paid to kill other people, on command, no disobedience allowed except at the risk of being court marshalled or even summary execution. 

Theirs is a job that kills other people, right or wrong. 


The ' star ' endorses products and becomes brand(s) ambassador. 

That too isn't just a f**king job. You are actually telling people what they should believe, buy, consume, where to invest their savings ... without really knowing much about the product or service quality, or the organisation, at least in the medium and longer term. 

A proof of which is that you would endorse a competing product or brand in a couple of years time, without a thought to what actually your previous ' job ' meant and did to other people ! 

All ' jobs ' affect other people, environment, life, and impact on societal norms and values ... more or less, the right or wrong way. 

Unfortunately, 90% of the world's ' employee ' population cannot choose their jobs, where the agenda is set by the paying counterpart. 

They are lucky to have one, even if the employer is a mafia ' Don !' 

It's bad and dirty, but spells business.



Anybody who has the right reference values and the ability, with insistence, to view things critically is a ' spiritual ' person.

And, you can see why such gnomes are scarce ... Because acquiring those qualifications is difficult, the mastery rather extremely ! 

---


THE ARTIST'S WAY …

" ... nothing mattered but this -- that she loved him and he loved her.

Nothing else was of any account, not the planes, not the bombs, nothing but this. 

This was what happiness was -- he'd never known it before ; this melting away, this exaltation, 

your guts spilling into your head, filling your eyes -- your mind transformed into your body, your body instinct with joy in your mind ; 

this sensation of reality having met its end."
......from The Glass Palace : Amitav Ghosh


This projection of the experience touches us. 

It speaks of Reality, this Existence we live in our experience ... its truth is our Truth. The specifics recede into the background.


The experience is real, if scarcely. Its unreal, commonly. And both, its reality and its unreality, are true.

But, the first one is a higher, superior truth in value ... positive, breathing, happy, liberating. 

In fact infinitely more, compared to the truth of its unreality. 

The realised truth of its reality remains in our memory, ever obvious and overwhelming over other impressions.

In practice, the apparent unreality of what is so crucial, and vital to us, serves the thankless process of our detachment, our de - identification with every thing and its fruits, their meaning and relatedness. 





What we know or not in truth... is what and how we are in fact !



Wednesday, August 17, 2011

30 Books To Read Before You Turn 30 !

01               Siddhartha  by Hermann Hesse – A powerful story about the importance of life experiences as they relate to approaching an understanding of reality and attaining enlightenment.

02               1984  by George Orwell – 1984 still holds chief significance nearly 60 years after it was written in 1949. It is widely acclaimed for its haunting vision of an all-knowing government which uses pervasive, 24/7 surveillance tactics to manipulate all citizens of the populace.

03               To Kill a Mockingbird  by Harper Lee – The story surveys the controversial issues of race and economic class in the 1930’s Deep South via a court case of a black man charged with the rape and abuse of a young white girl.  It’s a moving tale that delivers a profound message about fighting for justice and against prejudice.

04               A Clockwork Orange  by Anthony Burgess – A nightmarish vision of insane youth culture that depicts heart wrenching insight into the life of a disturbed adolescent.  This novel will blow you away… leaving you breathless, livid, thrilled, and concerned.

05               For Whom the Bell Tolls  by Ernest Hemingway – A short, powerful contemplation on death, ideology and the incredible brutality of war.

06               War and Peace  by Leo Tolstoy – This masterpiece is so enormous even Tolstoy said it couldn’t be described as a standard novel.  The storyline takes place in Russian society during the Napoleonic Era, following the characters of Andrei, Pierre and Natasha… and the tragic and unanticipated way in which their lives interconnect.

07               The Rights of Man  by Tom Paine – Written during the era of the French Revolution, this book was one of the first to introduce the concept of human rights from the standpoint of democracy.

08               The Social Contract  by Jean-Jacques Rousseau – A famous quote from the book states that “Man is born free, and everywhere he is in chains.”  This accurately summarizes the book’s prime position on the importance of individual human rights within society.

09               One Hundred Years of Solitude  by Gabriel García Márquez – This novel does not have a plot in the conventional sense, but instead uses various narratives to portray a clear message about the general importance of remembering our cultural history.

10            The Origin of Species  by Charles Darwin – Few books have had as significant an impact on the way society views the natural world and the genesis of humankind.

11               The Wisdom of the Desert  by Thomas Merton – A collection of thoughts, meditations and reflections that give insight into what life is like to live simply and purely, dedicated to a greater power than ourselves.

12               The Tipping Point  by Malcolm Gladwell – Gladwell looks at how a small idea, or product concept, can spread like a virus and spark global sociological changes.  Specifically, he analyzes “the levels at which the momentum for change becomes unstoppable.”

13               The Wind in the Willows  by Kenneth Graham – Arguably one of the best children’s books ever written; this short novel will help you appreciate the simple pleasures in life.  It’s most notable for its playful mixture of mysticism, adventure, morality, and camaraderie.

14               The Art of War  by Sun Tzu – One of the oldest books on military strategy in the world.  It’s easily the most successful written work on the mechanics of general strategy and business tactics.

15               The Lord of the Rings  by J.R.R. Tolkien – One of the greatest fictional stories ever told, and by far one of the most popular and influential written works in 20th-century literature.  Once you pick up the first book, you’ll read them all.

16               David Copperfield  by Charles Dickens – This is a tale that lingers on the topic of attaining and maintaining a disciplined heart as it relates to one’s emotional and moral life.  Dickens states that we must learn to go against “the first mistaken impulse of the undisciplined heart.”

17               Four Quartets  by T.S. Eliot – Probably the wisest poetic prose of modern times.  It was written during World War II, and is still entirely relevant today… here’s an excerpt: “The dove descending breaks the air/With flame of incandescent terror/Of which the tongues declare/The only discharge from sin and error/The only hope, or the despair/Lies in the choice of pyre or pyre–/To be redeemed from fire by fire./Who then devised this torment?/Love/Love is the unfamiliar Name/Behind the hands that wave/The intolerable shirt of flame/Which human power cannot remove./We only live, only suspire/Consumed by either fire or fire.”

18               Catch-22  by Joseph Heller – This book coined the self-titled term “catch-22” that is widely used in modern-day dialogue.  As for the story, its message is clear: What’s commonly held to be good, may be bad… what is sensible, is nonsense.  Its one of the greatest literary works of the 20th century.  Read it.

19               The Great Gatsby  by F. Scott Fitzgerald – Set in the Jazz Age of the roaring 20’s, this book unravels a cautionary tale of the American dream.  Specifically, the reader learns that a few good friends are far more important that a zillion acquaintances, and the drive created from the desire to have something is more valuable than actually having it.

20               The Catcher in the Rye  by J.D. Salinger – This novel firmly stands as an icon for accurately representing the ups and downs of teen angst, defiance and rebellion.  If nothing else, it serves as a reminder of the unpredictable teenage mindset.

21               Crime and Punishment  by Fyodor Dostoyevsky – A smooth-flowing, captivating novel of a young man living in poverty who criminally succumbs to the desire for money, and the hefty phychological impact this has on him and the people closest to him.

22               The Prince  by Niccolo Machiavelli – This book does a great job at describing situations of power and statesmanship.  From political and corporate power struggles to attaining advancement, influence and authority over others, Machiavelli’s observations apply.

23               Walden  by Henry David Thoreau – Thoreau spent two years, two months and two days writing this book in a secluded cabin near the banks of Walden Pond in Concord, Massachusetts.  This is a story about being truly free from the pressures of society.  The book can speak for itself:  “I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived.”

24               The Republic  by Plato – A gripping and enduring work of philosophy on how life should be lived, justice should be served, and leaders should lead.  It also gives the reader a fundamental understanding of western political theory.

25               Lolita  – This is the kind of book that blows your mind wide open to conflicting feelings of life, love and corruption… and at times makes you deeply question your own perceptions of each.  The story is as devious as it is beautiful.

26               Getting Things Done  by David Allen – The quintessential guide to organizing your life and getting things done.  Nuff said.

27               How To Win Friends and Influence People  by Dale Carnegie – This is the granddaddy of all self-improvement books.  It is a comprehensive, easy to read guide for winning people over to your way of thinking in both business and personal relationships.

28               Lord of the Flies  by William Golding – A powerful and alarming look at the possibilities for savagery in a lawless environment, where compassionate human reasoning is replaced by anarchistic, animal instinct.

29               The Grapes of Wrath  by John Steinbeck – Steinbeck’s deeply touching tale about the survival of displaced families desperately searching for work in a nation stuck by depression will never cease to be relevant.

30               The Master and Margarita  by Mikhail Bulgakov – This anticommunist masterpiece is a multifaceted novel about the clash between good and evil.  It dives head first into the topics of greed, corruption and deception as they relate to human nature.

BONUS 1  How To Cook Everything  by Mark Bittman – 900 pages of simple instructions on how to cook everything you could ever dream of eating.  Pretty much the greatest cookbook ever written.  Get through a few recipes each week, and you’ll be a master chef by the time you’re 30.

BONUS 2  Honeymoon with My Brother  by Franz Wisner – Franz Wisner had it all… a great job and a beautiful fiancée.  Life was good.  But then his fiancée dumped him days before their wedding, and his boss basically fired him.  So he dragged his younger brother to Costa Rica for his already-scheduled honeymoon and they never turned back… around the world they went for two full years.  This is a fun, heartfelt adventure story about life, relationships, and self discovery.   



What we know or not, in truth... is what and how we are in fact !

Tuesday, August 9, 2011

Living Meaningfully ...



LIVING MEANINGFULLY !

There is only one self – evident Truth : your Self.
Every other truth follows, to you, in its evidence.
It then appears, seems, modifies, mutates… and is only in the moment.
That’s what and how things mean to us, in that moment.


It may be, if our memory is deep, sharp and focused enough… 
that we discover one such truth that modifies no more and mutates no further. 

It appears again and again, and seems the same, 
unaffected by time, ourself or the environment we might ourself in.

We then become aware of something with a longer time - scale validity.


Such an unchanging truth, in respect of one object, being or attribute, is of value. 

It becomes a core around which other facts, the truths of the moment, 
pertaining to the same or like things may link, cluster and arrange... 

Several such cores together come to form a foundation over time on which, thereafter,
facts we experience or realise are easily laid on and about.

The link – cluster – arranged and laid on meaning of one thing connects with another such, of another thing, and with one more… and so on in time, to an aggregate that presents a more accurate and complete perspective of life and living, beings and things, world and our experience.



Life perspectives, arising from longer validity truths, 
yield valuable guides to effective living

decisive morals we do not have to belabour at when the need is already too hot nor try to commit to memory from what may have been gained in hindsight.



Living with truths having long time scale validity 
is the way to living meaningfully, truthfully, and more completely.


_____________________________


What we know or not in truth... 
is what and how we are in fact !