RE: David Scoma´s great 4-page essay on his awakening

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S Pro, modified 13 Years ago at 11/17/10 3:08 PM
Created 13 Years ago at 11/17/10 3:08 PM

David Scoma´s great 4-page essay on his awakening

Posts: 86 Join Date: 2/7/10 Recent Posts
http://www.searchwithin.org/download/realization_david_scoma.pdf

And his website (also great movie reviews from the spiritual perspective):

http://justperception.net/

Enjoy!
Sven
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Pål S, modified 13 Years ago at 11/17/10 4:14 PM
Created 13 Years ago at 11/17/10 4:14 PM

RE: David Scoma´s great 4-page essay on his awakening

Posts: 196 Join Date: 8/16/10 Recent Posts
It's always so frustrating reading those spontaneous non-duality awaking stories, every time the realization is "there's nothing to be done", which leaves little hope for 'the rest of us'. What to do? ...Wait?
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Bruno Loff, modified 13 Years ago at 11/18/10 12:20 AM
Created 13 Years ago at 11/18/10 12:20 AM

RE: David Scoma´s great 4-page essay on his awakening

Posts: 1097 Join Date: 8/30/09 Recent Posts
David Scoma:

As this happened, an intense and concentrated period of “Knowing” was Perceived, but by No One. Upon returning, it was impossible to put into words even a fraction of what was somehow recalled from that ‘moment’ out of time. But the core discovery was a more pronounced re-visitation of what had been discovered during the death on Thursday night: What was Realized was that All That Is Is Just Perception – Perception Without A Perceiver.


Very droll emoticon Particularly amusing is his use of capitals. Very amusing to think that the poop I did last night before bed is Just Perception!

After learning about actual freedom, these mystical revelations suddenly seem completely explained, and I Personally Have Come To Find Them Somewhat Silly.

I would sooner have a more down-to-earth kind of freedom, wherein I Don't Think that My Poop Is Just Perception.
mico mico, modified 13 Years ago at 11/18/10 7:00 AM
Created 13 Years ago at 11/18/10 7:00 AM

RE: David Scoma´s great 4-page essay on his awakening

Posts: 79 Join Date: 8/13/10 Recent Posts
"Very amusing to think that the poop I did last night before bed is Just Perception"

Perceptual Poop. And there is No Pooper. Poop Happens.

"As this happened, an intense and concentrated period of “Knowing” was Perceived, but by No One. Upon returning, it was impossible to put into words even a fraction of what was somehow recalled from that ‘moment’ out of time. But the core discovery was a more pronounced re-visitation of what had been discovered during the death on Thursday night: What was Realized was that All That Is Is Just Perception – Perception Without A Perceiver."

It's ironic that a Spiritual quest for Truth, to be Free of the Illusions of Mind, to finally stop Living In Your Head but in Reality, results in people who sound like they are Living Entirely In Their Heads, and who are unable to speak about their experience except in terms of the paradigms they claim to have left behind, forcing them in their confusion (or lack of real insight) to conclude that 'it's just not understandable by the[ir] rational mind'.

It's like someone in Plato's Cave deciding that they must be the Wall. (That isn't touched by the suffering of the shadows, is the pure emptiness behind their transience, and upon which their own shadow is seen to be no different 'in nature' to any other shadow.)
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Christian Ballhaus, modified 13 Years ago at 11/18/10 12:03 PM
Created 13 Years ago at 11/18/10 12:03 PM

RE: David Scoma´s great 4-page essay on his awakening

Posts: 59 Join Date: 9/11/10 Recent Posts
Bruno Loff:


After learning about actual freedom, these mystical revelations suddenly seem completely explained, and I Personally Have Come To Find Them Somewhat Silly.

I would sooner have a more down-to-earth kind of freedom, wherein I Don't Think that My Poop Is Just Perception.






YW
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Daniel Johnson, modified 13 Years ago at 11/19/10 7:09 PM
Created 13 Years ago at 11/19/10 7:09 PM

RE: David Scoma´s great 4-page essay on his awakening

Posts: 401 Join Date: 12/16/09 Recent Posts
It's interesting to think that at certain points in the history of our civilization that this would be considered complete insanity and this guy would be sent to the looney bin, nailed to a cross or burned at a stake, etc.

Despite his dramatic language, isn't the Realization he describes supposedly equivalent to the non-dual realization of the arahat ( Or perhaps maybe it was stream entry (or maybe A&P), or maybe Jhana, or maybe just an extremely altered state of conciousness)... but none-the-less, isn't realization like this part of what this website is designed to help people achieve?

I say this because I'm still investigating for myself what the supposed benefit of enlightenment is, other than a realization into the True Nature of Capital Letters ;)

Take Care
David Scoma, modified 13 Years ago at 11/20/10 10:09 AM
Created 13 Years ago at 11/20/10 9:55 AM

RE: David Scoma´s great 4-page essay on his awakening

Post: 1 Join Date: 11/20/10 Recent Posts
It was hardly spontaneous. I was asked to describe the last week from 20 years of spiritual practice, work, effort, unfolding, and falling away - in about a thousand words. The physical events of the week were extremely dramatic - no apologies for that, and I certainly was not going to tone that down as I feel those are potentials which could be run into by anyone at the end. In fact, the only reason I started writing at all was to point that out. But I also said that there was a great deal of ordinariness, it was a mixture of both. And immediately afterward as a result life in terms of sensory input was overwhelming, and that quickly subsided. I've spent the last five years trying to detail that ordinary nature that remained, what happened and how it came about to try to make that clear. But that essay specifically asked for the very last week. I do not like that essay and have thought often about asking them to take it down. I am not a fan of capitals letters either, or even stories like that one. I simply attempted to put that week into words as best I could in four pages, with the greater specifics about the regular nature of life that followed to be found on the website. My reply here is simply just to make it clear that this was not in the least bit spontaneous, or sudden, or anything like that at all. If anyone has been here since the start of Dharma Overground or even the Underground, or knows this site well, you'll find topics which years ago Daniel Ingram asked me to write about, most of them housed in some of the maps areas.
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Pål S, modified 13 Years ago at 11/20/10 10:26 AM
Created 13 Years ago at 11/20/10 10:26 AM

RE: David Scoma´s great 4-page essay on his awakening

Posts: 196 Join Date: 8/16/10 Recent Posts
David, it would be interesting to read about your practice up until that 'last week' and certainly about life 'after'. If you have written about this before do you have any direct links?
Damian Clark, modified 1 Year ago at 2/3/23 3:48 AM
Created 1 Year ago at 2/3/23 3:48 AM

RE: David Scoma´s great 4-page essay on his awakening

Posts: 19 Join Date: 9/21/21 Recent Posts
can anymore email this document? clarkd34@hotmail.com

does anyone have contact with David.  I am getting to a point after over 20 years of practice it now seems like a waste of time.  I am still angry and resentful at the world and unhappy. In varying degrees. 
Soma Circle, modified 2 Months ago at 7/24/24 10:57 AM
Created 2 Months ago at 7/24/24 10:57 AM

RE: David Scoma´s great 4-page essay on his awakening

Post: 1 Join Date: 7/24/24 Recent Posts
The link no longer works. Would anyone still have a copy of this?
Will G, modified 2 Months ago at 7/25/24 7:23 AM
Created 2 Months ago at 7/25/24 7:23 AM

RE: David Scoma´s great 4-page essay on his awakening

Posts: 42 Join Date: 4/7/21 Recent Posts
Just perception: https://app.box.com/s/vcmijxs39nm35bx42uhmxah1bjpxerda
Martin, modified 2 Months ago at 7/25/24 10:41 AM
Created 2 Months ago at 7/25/24 10:41 AM

RE: David Scoma´s great 4-page essay on his awakening

Posts: 990 Join Date: 4/25/20 Recent Posts
Thanks for posting this, Will.

I had never heard of David Scoma and it was interesting to see his writing in this collection, as well as bits and pieces in Google searches. David seems to have been greatly impacted by his own awakening and the implications of changes in modalities of perception. Sometimes I ask myself why more people are not blown away and enthused by these sorts of things. I am a big fan of the beauty that perceptual changes can bring. Many people describe their awakened life in a low-key sort of way that can seem a little milquetoast. But this other end of the scale presented by David looks exhausting. 

One of the great things about the DhO is that it is a clearinghouse for different ways of seeing. All kinds of claims and descriptions show up here, reminding me that human experience is vast.

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