IWOW - Part 4 - Beyond Thinking

Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

We live our lives pursuing happiness "out
there"

as if it is a commodity.

We have become slaves to our own desires and
craving.

Happiness isn't something that can be pursued

or purchased like a cheap suit.

This is Maya,

illusion,

the endless play of form.

In the Buddhist tradition,

Samsara, or the endless cycle of suffering

is perpetuated by the craving of pleasure

and aversion to pain.

Freud referred to this as the "pleasure principle."

Everything we do is an attempt to create pleasure,

to gain something that we want,

or to push away something that is undesirable
that we don't want.

Even a simple organism like the paramecium
does this.

It is called response to stimulus.

Unlike a paramecium, humans have more choice.

We are free to think, and that is the heart
of the problem.

It is the thinking about what we want that
has gotten out of control.

The
dilemma of modern society is that we seek
to understand the world,

not in terms of archaic inner consciousness,

but by quantifying and qualifying what we
perceive

to be the external world by using scientific
means and thought.

Thinking has only led to more thinking and
more questions.

We seek to know the innermost forces which
create the world

and guide its course.

But we conceive of this essence as outside
of ourselves,

not as a living thing, intrinsic to our own
nature.

It was the famous psychiatrist Carl Jung who
said,

"one who looks outside dreams, one who looks
inside awakes."

It is not wrong to desire to be awake, to
be happy.

What is wrong is to look for happiness outside

when it can only be found inside.

On August 4th, 2010 at the Techonomy conference
in Lake Tahoe, California,

Eric Schmidt-CEO of Google, mentioned an astounding
statistic.

Every two days now we create as much information

as we did from the dawn of civilization up
until 2003,

according to Schmidt.

That's something like 5 exabytes of data.

Never in human history has there been so much
thinking

and never has there been so much turmoil on
the planet.

Could it be that every time we think of a
solution to one problem,

we create two more problems?

What good is all this thinking

if it doesn't lead to greater happiness?

Are we happier?

More equanimous?

More joyful as a result of all this thinking?

Or does it isolate us,

disconnect us from a deeper and more meaningful

experience of life?

Thinking, acting and doing,

must be brought into balance with being.

After all, we are human beings, not human
doings.

We want change and we want stability at the
same time.

Our hearts have become disconnected from the
spiral of life,

the law of change,

as our thinking minds drive us towards stability,

security and pacification of the senses.

With a morbid facination we watch killings,
tsunamis,

earthquakes and wars.

We constantly try to occupy our mind, fill
it with information.

TV shows streaming from every conceivable
device.

Games and puzzles.

Text messaging.

And every possible trivial thing.

We let ourselves become mesmerized with

the endless stream of new images, new information,

new ways to tantalize and pacify the senses.

At times of quiet inner reflection our hearts
may tell us

that there is more to life than our present
reality,

that we live in a world of hungry ghosts.

Endlessly craving and never satisfied.

We have created a maelstrom of data

flying around the planet to facilitate more
thinking,

more ideas about how to fix the world,

to fix the problems that only exist because
the mind has created them.

Thinking has created the whole big mess we're
in right now.

We wage wars against diseases, enemies and
problems.

The paradox is that whatever you resist persists.

The more you resist something, the stronger
it gets.

Like exercising a muscle, you are actually
strengthening

the very thing you want to rid yourself of.

So then, what is the alternative to thinking?

What other mechanism can humans use to exist
on this planet?

While Western culture in recent centuries
has focused on exploring

the physical by using thought and analysis,

other ancient cultures have developed equally
sophisticated

technologies for exploring inner space.

It is the loss of our connection to our inner
worlds

that has created imbalance on our planet.

The ancient tenant "know thyself" has been
replaced

by a desire to experience the outer world
of form.

Answering the question "who am I?" is not
simply a matter

of describing what is on your business card.

In Buddhism, you are not the content of your
consciousness.

You are not merely a collection of thoughts
or ideas

because behind the thoughts is the one who
is witnessing the thoughts.

The imperative "know thyself" is a Zen koan,
an unanswerable riddle.

Eventually the mind will become exhausted
in trying to find an answer.

Like a dog chasing its tail, it is only the
ego identity

that wants to find an answer, a purpose.

The truth of who you are does not need an
answer

because all questions are created by the egoic
mind.

You are not your mind.

The truth lies not in more answers, but in
less questions.

As Joseph Campbell said,

"I don't believe people are looking for the
meaning of life,

as much as they are looking for the experience
of being alive."

When the Buddha was asked, "what are you?"
he said simply,

"I am awake."

What does this mean, to be awake?

The Buddha does not say exactly, because of
the flowering of

each individual life is different.

But he does say one thing; it is the end of
suffering.

Every major religious tradition has a name

for the state of being awake.

Heaven,

Nirvana,

or Moksha.

A quiet mind is all you need to realize the
nature of the stream

All else will happen once your mind is quiet.

In that stillness, inner energies wake up

and work without effort on your part.

As the Taoists say, "Chi follows consciousness."

By being still one begins to hear the wisdom

of the plants and animals.

The quiet whispers in dreams,

and one learns the subtle mechanism by which

those dreams come into material form.

In the Tao te Ching, this kind of living is
called "wei wu wei"

- "Doing, not doing."

The Buddha spoke of the "middle way" as the
path

that leads to enlightenment.

Aristotle described the Golden Mean - the
middle

between two extremes, as the path of beauty.

Not too much effort, but not too little either.

Yin and yang in perfect balance.

Vedanta's notion of Maya or illusion,

is that we do not experience the environment
itself,

but rather a projection of it created by thoughts.

Of course your thoughts let you experience
the vibratory world

in a certain way, but our inner equanimity
need not be contingent

on external happenings.

The belief in an external world independent
of the perceiving subject

is fundamental to science.

But our senses only give us indirect information.

Our notions about this mind-made physical
world

are always filtered through the senses and
therefore always incomplete.

There is one field of vibration underlying
all of the senses.

People with a condition called "synesthesia"
sometimes experience

this vibratory field in different ways.

Synesthetes can see sounds as colors or shapes
or associate

qualities of one sense with another.

Synesthesia refers to a synthesis or intermingling
of the senses.

The chakras and the senses are like a prism

filtering a continuum of vibration.

All things in the universe are vibrating

but at different rates and frequencies.

The Eye of Horus is made up of six symbols,

each representing one of the senses.

Like the ancient Vedic system,

thought is considered to be a sense.

Thoughts are received simultaneously

as sensations are experienced on the body.

They arise from the same vibratory source.

Thinking is simply a tool.

One of six senses.

But we have elevated it to such a high status

that we identify ourselves with out thoughts.

The fact that we do not identify thinking
as one of the six senses

is very significant.

We are so immersed in thought that trying
to explain thought as a sense

is like telling a fish about water.

Water, what water?

In the Upanishads it is said:

Not that which the eye can see, but that whereby
the eye can see.

Know that to be Brahma the eternal and not
what people here adore.

Not that which the ear can hear, but that
whereby the ear can hear.

Know that to be Brahma the eternal and not
what people here adore.

Not that which speech can illuminate, but
that by which speech can be illuminated.

Know that to be Brahma the eternal and not
what people here adore.

Not that which the mind can think, but that
whereby the mind can think.

Know that to be Brahma the eternal and not
what people here adore.

In the last decade, great advances have taken
place

in the area of brain research.

Scientists have discovered neuroplasticity
- a term

which conveys the idea that the physical wiring
of the brain

changes according to the thoughts moving through
it.

As Canadian psychologist Donald Hebb put it,

"neurons that fire together, wire together."

Neurons wire together most when a person is
in a state of sustained attention.

What this means is that it is possible to
direct your own

subjective experience of reality.

Literally, if your thoughts are ones of fear,
worry, anxiety

and negativity then you grow the wiring for
more of those thoughts to flourish.

If you direct your thoughts to be ones of
love,

compassion, gratitude and joy,

you create the wiring for repeating those
experiences.

But how do we do that if we are surrounded
by violence and suffering?

Isn't this some kind of delusion or wishful
thinking?

Neuroplasticity isn't the same as the new
age notion

that you create your reality by positive thinking.

It is actually the same thing that the Buddha
taught

2500 years ago.

Vipassana Meditation or insight meditation

could be described as self-directed neuroplasticity.

You accept your reality exactly as it is - as
it ACTUALLY is.

But you experience it at the root level of
sensation,

at the vibratory or energetic level without
the prejudice or

influence of thought.

Through sustained attention at the root level
of consciousness,

the wiring for an entirely different perception
of reality is created.

We have got it backwards most of the time.

We constantly let ideas about the outer world
shape our neural networks,

but our inner equanimity need not be contingent
on external happenings.

Circumstances don't matter.

Only my state of consciousness matters.

Meditation in Sanskrit means to be free of
measurement.

Free of all comparison.

To be free of all becoming.

You are not trying to become something else.

You are okay with what is.

The way to rise above the suffering of the
physical realm

is to totally embrace it.

To say yes to it.

So it becomes something within you,

rather than you being something within it.

How does one live in such a way that consciousness

is no longer in conflict with its content?

How does one empty the heart of petty ambitions?

There must be a total revolution in consciousness.

A radical shift in orientation from the outer
world to the inner.

It is not a revolution brought about by will
or effort alone.

But also by surrender.

Acceptance of reality as it is.

The image of Christ's open heart powerfully
conveys the idea

that one must open to all pain.

One must accept ALL if one is to remain open

to the evolutionary source.

This doesn't mean you become a masochist,

you don't look for pain,

but when pain comes, which it inevitably does,

you simply accept reality AS IT IS,

instead of craving some other reality.

The Hawaiians have long believed

that it is through the heart that we learn
truth.

The heart has its own intelligence as distinctly
as the brain does.

The Egyptians believed that the heart, not
the brain,

was the source of human wisdom.

The heart was considered to be the center
of the

soul and the personality.

It was through the heart that the divine spoke,

giving ancient Egyptians knowledge of their
true path.

This papyrus depicts the "weighing of the
heart".

It was considered a good thing to go into
the

afterlife with a light heart.

It meant that you had lived well.

One universal or archetypal stage that people
experience

in the process of awakening the heart center

is the experience of one's own energy as the
energy of the universe.

When you allow yourself to feel this love,

to be this love,

when you connect your inner world with the
outer world,

then all is one.

How does one experience the music of the spheres?

How does a heart open?

Sri Ramana Maharshi said,

"God dwells in you, as you,

and you don't have to do anything

to be God-realized or self-realized.

It is already your true and natural state.

Just drop all seeking,

turn your attention inward

and sacrifice your mind to the one self,

radiating in the heart of your very being.

For this to be your own presently lived experience,

self inquiry is the one direct and immediate
way."

When you meditate and observe sensations within,

your inner aliveness, you are actually observing
change.

This force of change is the arising and passing
away

as energy changes form.

The degree to which a person has evolved or
become enlightened,

is the degree to which one has gained the
ability

to adapt to each moment,

or to transmute the constantly changing human
stream

of circumstances, pain and pleasure

into bliss.

Leo Tolstoy, author of "War and Peace", said

"everyone thinks of changing the world,

but nobody thinks of changing him or herself."

Darwin said the most important characteristic
for the

survival of the species is not strength or
intelligence,

but adaptability to change.

One must become adept at adapting.

This is the Buddhist teaching of "annica"

- everything is arising and passing away,
changing.

Constantly changing.

Suffering exists only because we become attached
to a particular form.

When you connect to the witnessing part of
yourself,

with the understanding of annica, bliss arises
in the heart.

Saints, sages and yogis throughout history

unanimously describe one sacred union that
occurs in the heart.

Whether is the writings of St. John of the
Cross,

Rumi's poetry,

or the tantric teachings of India,

all of these different teachings try to express

the subtle mystery of the heart.

In the heart is the union of Shiva and Shakti.

Masculine penetration into the spiral of life

and feminine surrender to change.

Witnessing

and unconditional acceptance of all that is.

In order to open your heart,

you must open yourself to change.

To live in the seemingly solid world,

dance with it,

engage with it,

live fully,

love fully,

but yet know that it is impermanent

and that ultimately all forms dissolve and
change.

Bliss is the energy that responds to stillness.

It comes from emptying consciousness of all
content.

The content of this bliss energy born of stillness
IS consciousness.

A new consciousness of the heart.

A consciousness that is connected to ALL that
IS.