Listening to Your Own Resistance

There seems to be only one way to actually listen: wholly and fully to whatever Is. This is very challenging when you find that you do not like what Is, yet that is the kit and caboodle of the challenge itself, and I daresay the main factor as to whether we are in relationship (an actual, working interplay between fellow beings) or not. The ability to truly listen is such an important factor that it permeates our lives to our benefit or detriment, as per our abilities All the Way Through. There is nothing in our lives that is not touched by this.

     The ability to listen or not means discovery or not and this is true of the outer as well as the inner. We tend to block what we do not like or shut if off or down rather than awareness just taking conscious note of the preference. Is it possible to listen to both the outer stimuli AND our inner responses of like or dislike without trying to pull it in (like) or shove it away (dislike)? In this way it is possible to listen deeper both to our friend/relative and to ourselves. Our fortified prejudices keep us from the Freedom and Beauty of Discovery. It's not that we 'try' not to have prejudices, that would be like fighting the force of gravity, but rather than them playing the role of a dam in the liquid world of our awareness, they are more like bolders in the bottom of the stream.  Awareness can see them yet they do not constipated the works, and thus it can flow on as it's nature.

      This requires an Inner work that has nothing to do with force or manipulation, but everything to do with love and a yearning to be free.

      "The gentlest thing in the world overcomes the hardest thing in the world. That which has no substance enters where there is no space. ---Tao te Ching

Age comes naturally. You have to work for Wisdom.

Pleasure and Pain: The Two Sides of The Same Coin

It's funny and ironic to me that we, as human beings are always trying to accept only one side of this dualistic principle.
     The perpetual search for greater and higher pleasures only brings more pain when we Demand them. The same seems to be true for the Demand of avoiding pain itself...more pain.
     There is a fine road, a line, a way, if you will of navigating the pleasure/pain principle. It seems to require
an inner state of neutrality, and since nothing is constant and 'effort' is also another snare in which to get caught one finds that that it requires a light hearted vigilance that does not sleep. An acceptance and a love that breathes with your surroundings and circumstances, and the ability to allow yourself to fall asleep and wake up a thousand times a day without remorse, and love it for what it is, with a smile on your face is paramount to gleaning any understanding of self.
     I think it's not the 'end' result, as if there was one, that's important, but just the moment to moment, day to day Journey that is crucial. There is only now. The future will come of it's own. "Sufficient unto the day are the concerns thereof..." -Bible (paraphrased).
     "We hold reality in the palm of our hands...not too lose, and not too tight." --Some Zen Somebody

     Some piece to this perplexing aspect of the human experience may lie in the acceptance of reality As It Is, rather than the constant knee jerk reaction of having to change every little thing that we do not like in this or that moment. How much energy is spent on that? How much energy is spent on trying, at great lengths, to avoid pain? What would happen to a person's inner evolution if they came to a Full Stop on manipulating their external reality? What would action then look like? Do we actually Know true Action apart from reaction?


 
Age comes naturally. You have to work for Wisdom.

Awareness

It's awareness in the little things that seem to have the most impact on outcome in day to day life.
  Awareness of the chatter and movement inside of yourself while relating with another. Awareness of the fact that you're actually not listening to what they're saying, but are instead off down the road thinking of what you are going to say next. Awareness of the fact that you don't actually agree with what they are saying, but out of politeness are not really going to let on to that.
  It's awareness that counts, not what you do with that discovery per se. What actually are you going to do with it anyway? Awareness is a light that can illuminate what has been in hiding. If you fight or struggle with what you find by turning on the light, where are you? In a state of conflict over What you find. How is that any good? So there must be freedom to look. Freedom to see what's there without internal judgment. Otherwise there's really no point to being aware in the first place.
  In Buddhism it is sometimes said that a good way to measure your 'progress' in your 'practice' of (internal) awareness is by how unattached you are to the prescence of thoughts of stress or bliss, or thought itself. Sometimes truth is often closer to the person who is not looking for it, than it can be to one who is seeking. It depends upon the state of the 'I' with it's wants and demands--it's greed for spiritual property, spiritual aquisition, spiritual 'enlightenment'. The motto for developing an awareness that is possible and usefull without turning negatively inward on oneself might be: 'not too lose, not too tight'.
  The is no owning of awareness. It is a free state. It is love-- non personal, total attention. It cannot be cultivated in the strict sense of the word, for that would require a 'cultivator'. Awareness is not an entity, but a state of consciousness either present or not depending upon the state of the mind. The mind talks to itself about cultivating awareness, but that is something entirely different. That is thought chattering to itself; the movement of the 'me'.
  The beauty of awareness is that you can at anytime watch yourself like a movie and discover For Yourself principles of Truth. These things bear themselves out as you have the patience, fortitude, and dedication to Look. There has to be love and acceptance of who you are on a deep level or the activity locks up and shuts down. You cannot Look And be Judgmental. What has brought you to the process of looking into yourself--a non accumulating self knowledge--must be stronger,more vital than any kind of resistance to what you find. The beauty of self awareness is that it can also help you to be Self(Higher self) reliant. There is great beauty to seeing yourself as you are.

  
S.T.C.

"Eyes to See...Ears to Hear"

I am Enjoying the Sun on my naked torso while my mind searches for answers. Answers to questions that I have asked repeatedly,so much so that I feel silly to be asking them still,yet nonetheless they remain. They hang out in the space of my consciousness in Bold Print as subtle neon beacons pulsing in still space in the windy ramblings of my mind's Chamber. If you walked up fresh and gazed upon this internal scenario there would be nothing to stand out as a marker of my effort. Nonetheless,I guess this is a kind of State-of-Man sort of thing. I do not feel alone nor accomplished.
 Faith is the Space between answered prayers (it has been said). "When should you ask them again"?,I say to myself. How long should you wait before uttering them once more,assuming that you have 'Eyes to See'?
 I wait.....peering into the silence of listening. I bring my Heart in on this Conferenced Awareness,and I pray that I am aware of the answer when it presents itself.
 Many wise people report that the answer is In the question. They say that the two are One. If you look beyond the question you will get lost,moving away from truth. It is easy to produce an answer of your own creation out of desire for one. So greed can get in the way producing a false 'ping'. Prayer, it seems to me, in a way, is like 'testing for echo'. Answers may not become apparent on Our Timetable,but perhaps when we are at peace enough that they become Inwardly obvious. Perhaps when we are ready to hear them,are actually open to what they are,irrespective of our 'wants',they may be there....where it is likely they have been all along.