non-attachment

152 posts

Time and the Dancing Puppet

We define aspects of our existence such as life and even death as expressions of time.  And, most people think or believe that time is a universal truth. The sun rises and sets and it often seems that we are a puppet dancing to the strings of time. I do not wish to agree or disagree with your ideas, opinions or insight. However, time is nothing but a mind game and you are probably unconsciously playing this game.

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I hear many people say in passing haste that they have no time. I delight in hearing this statement. And, my delight is without animus intention. Ultimately, no one has any timeline because this label only exists in our mind. Therefore, acknowledging that there is no time is beneficial in consciously moving  beyond the conceptional label. I understand that even in spirituality topics people use terms relating to a moment or now. However, these are also only constructions of the mind that, at best, can be useful stepping stones to inner self-discovery.
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Dissatisfaction Distorts How You Live Life

Dissatisfaction dominates most people’s behavior at some level. Discontentment thrives within our experiences. And, this tendency causes unnecessary confusion and stress in our activities each day. Furthermore, the structures of our society always prompt us to need and want more. Therefore, many people feel unhappy and anxious. And, this mind behavior pattern is toxic to the awakening of consciousness within presence.

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What might be the root of all this evil? Well, let’s not search 🙂 for a reason. However, specifically, we can say that mind adaptation and evolutionary development cause us to unconsciously interact with life. Let’s use a classical story to illustrate. The biblical drama of Adam and Eve. Of course, everyone has a thought, opinion or belief about this story. Therefore, you might think that the fruit in the story was a test of faith and obedience. Other individuals will insists that Adam and Eve were to learn the difference between good and evil.

Dissatisfaction Restricts Conscious Awareness

I personally, sense that the story depicts choice, either unconsciously or consciously, about how to live. Living in unaware or aware presence was a choice then, just as it is today. Therefore, let’s consider that they were not consciously aware. Thus, did they decide to eat the forbidden fruit due to unconscious temptation or dissatisfaction? After all, this one fruit was the only thing that was out of their reach in this heavenly paradise. But, why wasn’t living in paradise enough, even without the fruit? And, isn’t this still our dilemma each day? It is possible to live in conscious aware presence now. Nevertheless, we overlook conscious enlightenment due to the mind details of our existence in a world gone mad.
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Are You Hot-wired by a Conditioned Mind?

Do you know the term hot-wired? This expression is helpful to illustrate mind behavior that restricts conscious presence. The mind hot-wires most of your experiences. But, conscious awareness has the potential to stop the mind’s intrusion into your state of active presence. Indeed, active awareness is a catalyst for conscious energy expansion into your beingness.

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Hot-wiring is to start the engine of a motor vehicle by short-circuiting the ignition. Aware presence nurtures conscious living. However, the mind usually short-circuits your conscious awareness. Therefore, the mind steals your sense of presence. Thus, the mind distracts you with thoughts, emotions and conditioned behavior. And, an unaware person accepts and believes that they are these thoughts and feelings. But, usually, most thoughts have nothing to do with the present moment. Furthermore, these are strictly mind illusions that distract a person from conscious presence. Continue reading

Suffering Is Unnecessary and You Know It so Let Go

Something is always happening to you. And, the mind interjects thoughts and emotions as reactions to these daily situations. Thus, often this overwhelming mental behavior causes suffering because the mind interprets an experience as bad or unacceptable. Let’s use the example of hitting your finger with a hammer to illustrate. You hit your finger and it hurts. This is a fact. But, the mind construes the hurt finger as a drama due to countless reasons that are fictional illusions. Hence, thoughts and feelings attachment themselves to the pain in your finger. This mental behavior then becomes a repetitive pattern, if you are unaware, that might continue for minutes, hours or days. And, this causes the suffering that you feel.

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A person hits their finger with a hammer and it hurts. Nevertheless this is pain and not suffering. Suffering is an inflection of the mind in an unaware person that can eventually result in mental and bodily dysfunction. Experiences stimulate the brain. Coincidentally, the mind then tries to interpret, define and label all brain stimuli. Accordingly, this usually causes an unaware person to feel confusion and anxiety during most experience. Why? Obviously, because there is not any sense of conscious presence. Unconscious behavior induces illusions of complexity. But, these illusions are only of the mind and usually not derived from any actuality of presence. Continue reading

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Malicious Mental behavior and You

Do many thoughts or situations cause you frustration or anxiety? If yes, why? Ask yourself. What causes the confusion and disappointment? How do you feel in such a moment? Recall any recent situation that disturbed you.

I’ll assist you by offering a situation from my own experiences. I stood in the kitchen to take medication. The medicine consisted of two pills. One pill fell from my hand as I put the cap back on the bottle. I didn’t hear the pill hit the floor. And, I did not hear it fall on the kitchen counter. I thought that it might have fallen on the carpet. Thus, I crawled on my hands and knees searching the floor. I felt frustration. Where had the pill fallen? Nothing on the floor. Then, I rechecked the counter top. Malicious thoughts bounced around my head. Where was the pill. Why can’t I find it? How is this possible?

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I searched everywhere but found nothing. I felt frustration due to the thoughts, confusion and increasing anger. My head told me that I must find the pill. Nevertheless, I was aware enough to accept the situation. Thus, I reached for a cup of tea. I had put the cup of hot tea on a beverage coaster. And, there, next to the cup was the missing pill. It was as if some unseen force was saying that everything is as it should be. The tablet was there next to the tea and all I needed to do was take it. I laughed the moment I saw the pill. There it was all this time, just waiting for me to take it. Continue reading

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Teach the Teacher

Wake up and acknowledge that everything corresponding to how you live life comes from within you. I don’t want to continue this article with many spirituality references, although there will be a few. It has taken me many years to recognize and accept that I am molding my experiences, either consciously or unconsciously. I am the teacher that has the potential to wisely learn and teach myself. This is also true for you. And, please do not fool yourself by listening to the mind tell you otherwise.

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Things always happen! Think of your childhood. Perhaps, you had an opportunity to watch water start to boil in a pot when your mother made a meal. There was a slight noise due to the raising water temperature. Then steam appeared. Wow, as a child, you thought this was fascinating. Then the first few air bubbles took shape on the bottom of the pot. The heating water captivated your eyes. Suddenly, these bubbles floated slowly to the water surface. Consequently, more appeared. Correspondingly, and abruptly, the water erupted in movement caused by the ever increasing evaporation. It was a delight for you to watch this happen as a child. But, why doesn’t boiling water fascinate you now? Continue reading

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Unlearn, relearn and Discover the Self within Living

When and where did everything begin? How and why will everything end? These questions are inquiries into the diversity of your being. Your answers to these questions will widely vary. But, let’s keep it simple. Ultimately, everything manifests according to the focus of your being. And, this is the isness of living life. This is the purpose of the articles title statement. Unlearn basically everything you have been told about living life. Relearn the depth and true nature of your beingness in the flow of life and the universe. Thus, you discover that everything is within you as the center of being. And, your experience of self-being determines how you live life.

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The Self is a complex and core subject in many forms of spirituality. Two types of Self are commonly considered—the Self that is the ego, also called the learned, superficial Self of mind and body, egoic creation, and the Self which is sometimes called the “True Self”, the “Observing Self”, or the “Witness”. In Hinduism, the Ātman (Self), despite being experienced as an individual, is actually a representation of the unified transcendent reality, Brahman.[42] Our experience of reality doesn’t match the nature of Brahman due to māyā.  (Wikipedia) Continue reading

The Chains that Burden You

Charles Dickens offers an indirect glimpse into conscious enlightenment in his tale A Christmas Carol. Scrooge’s dead partner Jacob Marley appears as a ghost burdened with heavy chains in the story. Marley forged each chain link in life and must carry them during his death resulting from his behavior and decisions. This suggest that each person forges his or her own path in life. This acknowledgment is the first step on a person’s inner journey of self-discovery. Marley implies that the totality of his being, in life and death, is the result of free will and choices.

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The ghost Marley represents the conscious awareness that dwells within your presence. The details of the world around you are the distractions and restrictions that will forge chains of burden. Equally, this is true for thoughts and emotions that will manipulate if you live in unawareness of your being.  And, an unaware existence causes attachment and dependency to the things you confuse as your true self.  Thus, these mind and existence details are the chain links that you and every unaware person carry. Continue reading

boat on a calm lake - www.steveleasock.com

Boat on a Calm Lake

Aware presence of here and now is beneficial during your inquiry into living consciously. Additionally, conscious enlightenment is not a feat of magic or luck. Thus, learn to accept the simple beingness of your presence in any moment. Likewise, living a fulfilling and peaceful life is to learn the difference between mind or conscious presence existence.

boat - www.steveleasock.com

Accordingly, you realize conscious presence during the inner journey of self-discovery. And, non-attachment and non-dependency are essential stepping stones along the way. Therefore, are you willing to let go of what the mind tells you? This is the first conscious step on The Way of Life (Tao Te Ching). This stepping stone is one of many that allows a shift from mind distractions to conscious aware presence. Imagine your presence as a boat on a calm lake that freely floats peacefully and without purpose on the water. Continue reading

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Die or Live but Never Wake Up

Alan Watts shares an insight relating to the state of being in life and death. Sleeping, waking, unconsciously and consciously living, in example, offer the realization of being. This is his suggestion. Try and imagine what it would be like to go to sleep and never wake up. However, let’s not try to interpret or label any analogy. Instead, as with every experience, being is enough. On the contrary, thoughts and feelings about the beingness of being are insignificant to the aware presence of being. What if I said to die before you live? This might seem callous. Nevertheless, this is the focus of our inquiry.

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To Die and Realize the Act of Being Alive

I took this insight quite literally last month during a heart attack and head concussion. It was not possible for the heart to pump blood due to a blocked artery. This resulted in me clinically dying six times before arriving at the hospital trauma clinic. Additionally, I fell during the heart attack causing a head concussion. The shock was too much for the body. I was in a coma for two days. The coma gave the brain an opportunity to heal due to the severity of the head trauma. So, to die and to experience a type of deep coma sleep were the experience of being for me.

Life and Death are Irrelevant to the isness of Being. Beingness within non-experience and experience became obvious as I awoke from the coma. The clarity of my isness as a living and conscious state of aware beingness was indescribable in that moment. Apparently, there is less brain activity during a coma. Therefore, upon awakening, there was a sense of pure being and of living without constrains. There was no unconscious or conscious acknowledgment of being or not being during the coma. This freed me from any mind-body interaction. Image living actively aware without any obligations or necessity to express, clarify or verify the act of being. Acknowledge that this is possible through the practice of being without attachment and dependency to anything within this isness.

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