RE: Nothing but EVERYTHING!

Thor Jackson, modified 1 Year ago at 11/7/22 3:05 PM
Created 1 Year ago at 11/7/22 3:05 PM

Nothing but EVERYTHING!

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I have read/studied/researched most of the publicised spirituality/religion/metaphysics/philosophy written by man, and women, for 45 years of my 52 years of life. Yes, I was curiuos about the concept of life at age 7. Infact, I have memorys of life from age 3. I remember sitting in the back of a car at age 4 and asking my stepfather about the huge drum shaped objects that I saw. He told me jokingly that they were huge drums that god played on, (they were gasometer containers).
Age 7 is considered, roughly, the age that we develope the ability to "reason".  But what is "reason"? Conformity to the reality that most people agree on? 
If anyone disagrees with "societal" norms, they are considered as abnormal, outcasts, deviants. 
However I experienced something "abnormal" at age 5.
My mother was a very loving person. She was natually devoted to her children, dispite her inadequacies of wisdom, even though she had high "intellegence".
Part of her loving kindness involved tucking me into bed at night, as a young child. Beleve it or not, not many mothers take the time to do that these days.
The point being, whenever she tucked me in at night, I always requested that she tuck the blanket edges tight under the matress because it made me feel more secure. The tightness of the blankets around my body, gave me a feeling of comfort ( we did not have quilts in those days, it was the seventies).
However, the result of the tightness of the blankets around my body induced a sort of numbness of bodily feeling which may or maynot have contributed to my early access to spiritual experience. I distinctly remember, one night, after being tightly tucked in, by request, ie, tucking the blankets under each side of me and puffing my pillow to cover the sides of my head, after it happened, I naturally focused on the sensate experience of my body.
In fact, I focussed so intensely on the sensate experience of my body, that I actually left it.
It started, by focussing on my jaw bone area, which felt wierd for some reason. So I focused on it. As I did, I felt I was zooming in on some sort of immensity, but the closer I got the more scared I got so I blanked out.  I belive that "immenisty" was what is commonly known as Samadhi.
That was my first experience of spirituality. At age 5.
I have had many more experiences since then. One such experience I have already discribed here. I will discribe another now.
I was about age 27. It was around the time I had the other experience I have already talked about.
I was debating with my mother about the subject of life. At one point, she said, "some of us have flown higher", and I said, "don't you mean lived longer?" At that point she bowed her head and said I suppose so, but, what happened next was incredible.
Immediatly after she said that, I had the most unuseal sensation of the exterior edges of my eyebrows folding inwards, without my control. It was like someone else had control of the muscles of my eyebrows. I also felt an very unusual feeling inside my self.
That was not the only unusual thing though.
Immediatly after I felt this wierd feeling, my mother suddenly said, "hey, something just came out of you!" In other words, what ever happened to me, INTERNALY, she felt also and felt it came out of me. It was so impactfull upon her, she suddenly got up from her seat and came over to me and knealed down in front of me. 
The anoying thing is, for some reason we both ignored the remarkable situation afterwoods. We acted as if it never happened. I asked her about it a few years later when its significance dawned on me, but she said she didn't remember.
As with my other experience of a spiritual phenomena that I have talked about, it appears that very few people even acknowledge it, let alone remember it even when they are part of it.
I suppose most people are not ready to face reality.
George S, modified 1 Year ago at 11/8/22 8:50 AM
Created 1 Year ago at 11/8/22 8:50 AM

RE: Nothing but EVERYTHING!

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What makes your reality more real than someone else's reality?
thor jackson, modified 1 Year ago at 12/7/22 7:14 AM
Created 1 Year ago at 12/7/22 7:14 AM

RE: Nothing but EVERYTHING!

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George S
What makes your reality more real than someone else's reality?

Reality is reality. If there is a difference, it is not reality.
thor jackson, modified 1 Year ago at 11/17/22 11:13 AM
Created 1 Year ago at 11/17/22 11:13 AM

RE: Nothing but EVERYTHING!

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Nothing. I have not stated my reality is more real than anyone elses.
George S, modified 1 Year ago at 11/17/22 12:57 PM
Created 1 Year ago at 11/17/22 12:57 PM

RE: Nothing but EVERYTHING!

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I suppose most people are not ready to face reality.
I was just curious what you mean by "reality" here.
thor jackson, modified 1 Year ago at 11/17/22 1:26 PM
Created 1 Year ago at 11/17/22 1:26 PM

RE: Nothing but EVERYTHING!

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Reality is what you perceive through your five senses. That is until you perceive something beyond them.
George S, modified 1 Year ago at 11/17/22 2:01 PM
Created 1 Year ago at 11/17/22 2:01 PM

RE: Nothing but EVERYTHING!

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How can you perceive something beyond your senses?
thor jackson, modified 1 Year ago at 11/17/22 2:30 PM
Created 1 Year ago at 11/17/22 2:30 PM

RE: Nothing but EVERYTHING!

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By relaxing and concentrating to such a degree. The more you relax, the more you are able to concentrate, one pointedly. The mind is directly correlated to the body. If you concentrate enough, and relax enough, you can bypass all sensations from the five senses. Once that is established, you are left with only one thing. Your awareness. Which is what you truly are in essence. 
George S, modified 1 Year ago at 11/17/22 4:06 PM
Created 1 Year ago at 11/17/22 4:06 PM

RE: Nothing but EVERYTHING!

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Ah ok. Sounds similar to sixth jhana. Personally I would say it's still experienced through the senses, even if it's disembodied, but maybe that's just semantics. However I don't consider it to be an essence or identity any more than any other experience (it's still conditioned, still fabricated, still impermanent ...)
thor jackson, modified 1 Year ago at 12/7/22 7:18 AM
Created 1 Year ago at 12/7/22 7:18 AM

RE: Nothing but EVERYTHING!

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George S
Ah ok. Sounds similar to sixth jhana. Personally I would say it's still experienced through the senses, even if it's disembodied, but maybe that's just semantics. However I don't consider it to be an essence or identity any more than any other experience (it's still conditioned, still fabricated, still impermanent ...)

If you experience something, it is not reality. True reality is not experienced, it just is.
George S, modified 1 Year ago at 12/7/22 12:47 PM
Created 1 Year ago at 12/7/22 12:47 PM

RE: Nothing but EVERYTHING!

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For me "isness" is just another experience. It's a nice state, I like hanging out there, but I don't consider it to be "true reality" any more than any other experience.
thor jackson, modified 1 Year ago at 12/7/22 12:51 PM
Created 1 Year ago at 12/7/22 12:51 PM

RE: Nothing but EVERYTHING!

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George S
For me "isness" is just another experience. It's a nice state, I like hanging out there, but I don't consider it to be "true reality" any more than any other experience.

"isness" is not a state you can experience. So by definition, you have not reached it!
George S, modified 1 Year ago at 12/7/22 1:04 PM
Created 1 Year ago at 12/7/22 1:04 PM

RE: Nothing but EVERYTHING!

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You mean something like a cessation?
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Chris M, modified 1 Year ago at 11/17/22 5:43 PM
Created 1 Year ago at 11/17/22 5:43 PM

RE: Nothing but EVERYTHING!

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The mind is a sense just like the other five.
thor jackson, modified 1 Year ago at 12/7/22 7:19 AM
Created 1 Year ago at 12/7/22 7:19 AM

RE: Nothing but EVERYTHING!

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Chris M
The mind is a sense just like the other five.

The mind, is identification with something else. It is not a sense.
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Pepe ·, modified 1 Year ago at 11/17/22 7:13 PM
Created 1 Year ago at 11/17/22 7:05 PM

RE: Nothing but EVERYTHING!

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The more you relax, the more you are able to concentrate, one pointedly. The mind is directly correlated to the body. If you concentrate enough, and relax enough, you can bypass all sensations from the five senses. Once that is established, you are left with only one thing. Your awareness. Which is what you truly are in essence. 

You are just describing the 1st Stage/Phase of a Seven Stage Model, so beware of the Pitfalls and Dangers of the I AM Phase.  It's just a different model from what is practiced here in DhO, though there are communicating vessels between them, particularly from 5th Stage onwards.  In fact, check in that section the entry John Tan (2012) – The failure to recognize the Three Characteristics of Existence is the problem of all problems, which points to investigating the 3Cs, the bread and butter practice of DhOers.

edited
thor jackson, modified 1 Year ago at 12/7/22 7:24 AM
Created 1 Year ago at 12/7/22 7:24 AM

RE: Nothing but EVERYTHING!

Posts: 42 Join Date: 11/17/22 Recent Posts
Pepe ·
The more you relax, the more you are able to concentrate, one pointedly. The mind is directly correlated to the body. If you concentrate enough, and relax enough, you can bypass all sensations from the five senses. Once that is established, you are left with only one thing. Your awareness. Which is what you truly are in essence. 

You are just describing the 1st Stage/Phase of a Seven Stage Model, so beware of the Pitfalls and Dangers of the I AM Phase.  It's just a different model from what is practiced here in DhO, though there are communicating vessels between them, particularly from 5th Stage onwards.  In fact, check in that section the entry John Tan (2012) – The failure to recognize the Three Characteristics of Existence is the problem of all problems, which points to investigating the 3Cs, the bread and butter practice of DhOers.

edited
You have turned your practice into an intellectual exercise of "stages". This MOMENT is all that exists. Concentrate on it and forget about stages.

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