new-ish tarin greco audio

Adam , modified 9 Years ago at 11/13/14 9:39 PM
Created 9 Years ago at 11/13/14 6:28 PM

new-ish tarin greco audio

Posts: 613 Join Date: 3/20/12 Recent Posts
in 2012 this audio recording of Tarin Greco talking about Actual Freedom at Cheetah House was made, and then it was taken down.... it came back up pretty recently, here it is for those interested:

https://soundcloud.com/brittonlab/sets/tarin-greco-at-cheetah-house

I would be happy to discuss this once a few more people give it a listen :] I have always appreciated Tarin's wisdom, I sometimes wish he was still around and I could ask him some questions as he seems to be someone who has walked really far (possibly to the end) down the path that I think I'm on...

edit: deleted request for tarin's contact info because idk if he really wants people contacting him... and i think my desire for that contact is just indulging in doubt
J J, modified 9 Years ago at 11/13/14 11:23 PM
Created 9 Years ago at 11/13/14 11:23 PM

RE: new-ish tarin greco audio

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Was and am a big fan of his. I feel like wherever he's gone, nobody would be able to contact him.

Not like, where he physically went. He went far, he's kind of like a shooting star to me. I look up at the sky and remember him with fondness.

Regards,

James
Dave sdfsdf, modified 9 Years ago at 11/14/14 8:29 AM
Created 9 Years ago at 11/14/14 8:29 AM

RE: new-ish tarin greco audio

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He sounds sad, no life spark. Or thats just the setting?
Adam , modified 9 Years ago at 11/14/14 9:33 AM
Created 9 Years ago at 11/14/14 9:31 AM

RE: new-ish tarin greco audio

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I dont know, maybe it is the setting... i have only heard him talk through recordings and in another he is quite lively...

I think people can have fluctuating energy and ways of speaking without fluctuating emotion.

ultimately i shouldnt be worried about what other people are experiencing right? but that tendency to doubt people is here for me too.
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Not Tao, modified 9 Years ago at 11/14/14 7:11 PM
Created 9 Years ago at 11/14/14 5:12 PM

RE: new-ish tarin greco audio

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At the very end (last 5 mins or so) he has a really interesting bit of advice.

He says to think about feeling bad as being both the blamer and the blamed.  You are blaming yourself, after all, or making yourself feel bad.  So, that relationship is what needs to improve.

"Be your own best friend."

EDIT: At the end of that second talk (the one where he talks about all his retreats), he mentions "empty compassion." Basically the idea is that this desire and wanting we have is always a kind of compassion - a wish for something to be better, or for things to be well.
Adam , modified 9 Years ago at 11/15/14 1:29 AM
Created 9 Years ago at 11/15/14 1:29 AM

RE: new-ish tarin greco audio

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Ye I liked both of those points. That thing about self blaming has proved to be a major aspect of developing and progressing. Being able to be aware of emotions without blaming myself for them seems like a huge step.

Another point he made toward the end of the personal story talk was about how at first you see yourself doing unskillful things and you are disgusted, then over time it just seems kind of "empty" when you see yourself making those mistakes. I have noticed that type of "progress" a bit, where my reaction to my own mistakes is less violent. I still recognize where I am creating problems, but there isn't that same vehemence because there is more certainty about the nature of the mistake and so less need to blame myself out of confusion. I understand the mistakes in behavior enough that I am not so upset about them. When I see the mistakes clearly in this way my mind just moves on after they are made, and they have less of an imprint in my mind so I don't make them as much the next time. The delusion that "I will never do that again" is absent, and the delusion that "that was my fault and im a bad person" is absent, instead it is more like "ignorance caused that action, and it may cause it again until it is seen through."
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Richard Zen, modified 9 Years ago at 11/15/14 9:32 AM
Created 9 Years ago at 11/15/14 9:29 AM

RE: new-ish tarin greco audio

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When I see the mistakes clearly in this way my mind just moves on after they are made, and they have less of an imprint in my mind so I don't make them as much the next time. The delusion that "I will never do that again" is absent, and the delusion that "that was my fault and im a bad person" is absent, instead it is more like "ignorance caused that action, and it may cause it again until it is seen through."

That's true, but I still think being mindful and using Right Effort to move into positive territory so that new habits are created is very important. If you have an empty habit of eating healthy, exercising and meditating then that's a preferable to an empty habit of smoking, drinking, drugs and random sex. The goal is letting go of greed, hatred and delusion because of the consequences to ourselves and other people. Once everything has been seen through (delusion) so you have enough disenchantment then it's even easier as you paraphrased above. The habitual intentions start letting go on their own because everything is like a reconstructed hologram.
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Not Tao, modified 9 Years ago at 11/15/14 9:48 AM
Created 9 Years ago at 11/15/14 9:47 AM

RE: new-ish tarin greco audio

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The question is, can you really have an empty habit that is self-destructive or harmful to others?  I don't think so.  If the mind sees its own effortlessness, then, by dwelling in that effortlessness, it will automatically correct itself to the most tranquil mode of existence - cause and effect.  It's only the ego/identity/self/will that creates harmful tendancies because its desires are mis-informed.  It believes that it needs to correct or change reality to please itself.  When this is no longer the case, those habits that exchange pleasure for some kind of payment (physical/emotional/monetary) are just dropped since they aren't needed anymore.
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Bill F, modified 9 Years ago at 11/15/14 11:42 AM
Created 9 Years ago at 11/15/14 11:42 AM

RE: new-ish tarin greco audio

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It's interesting how we all receive these things differently. I listened, and did not detect the sadness that Andreas mentioned. Who knows how accurate either of us are, just a thought about projection. What did you find of benefit, Adam? Where has the path taken you, how long have you been applying the method, and what is the method you have used, if such words apply? 
Adam , modified 9 Years ago at 11/15/14 1:20 PM
Created 9 Years ago at 11/15/14 1:20 PM

RE: new-ish tarin greco audio

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What did you find of benefit, Adam?

I really liked his comment about "wonder" in the beginning of the talk as being just a general open-ended sort of attention. I also liked the notion of "locking on" to that open endedness and just immersing oneself in it more and more and in a way "being" it. At least that is how I interpreted it.

Where has the path taken you, how long have you been applying the method, and what is the method you have used, if such words apply? 

I have been using the method(s) outlined here as well as other methods which I found helpful to this pursuit for the last 4 years since i first heard about actualism. I mostly have used this type of sustained-in-reference-to-change peaceful attention as described in the talk, but i have also used other methods like intellectually inquiring into the sources of discontentment. I have found that applying the latter as a method doesn't work for me, but that in the context of the former the latter happens on its own in a helpful way.

For me the benefits have been a general movement away from taking impermanent conditions as the most important thing in life. That has been replaced by an understanding that what is really important is the attitude with which I experience those conditions as in "how am I experiencing this moment of being alive?" This has been a slow learning process that has come both from dramatic successes (like feeling totally free of all conflict for a few weeks) and from dramatic failures (feeling like i'm totally lost, unworthy, and incapable of happiness for a few weeks.) Lately I have been more on the upside and it has been generally possible to just maintain this relaxed, happy, receptive attentiveness to changing phenomena.
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Bill F, modified 9 Years ago at 11/15/14 1:55 PM
Created 9 Years ago at 11/15/14 1:55 PM

RE: new-ish tarin greco audio

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Cool. Thanks for sharing your experience. 
wwyww, modified 9 Years ago at 3/31/15 11:36 AM
Created 9 Years ago at 3/31/15 11:36 AM

RE: new-ish tarin greco audio

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"I think people can have fluctuating energy and ways of speaking without fluctuating emotion."

Could you elaborate on this in terms of psychology or neuroscience?
Alin Mathews, modified 8 Years ago at 4/1/15 6:09 PM
Created 8 Years ago at 4/1/15 8:08 AM

RE: new-ish tarin greco audio

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wwyww:
"I think people can have fluctuating energy and ways of speaking without fluctuating emotion."

Could you elaborate on this in terms of psychology or neuroscience?


its an interesting study the effects of instinctual passions on the nervous system of humans and animals. and how our new self-reflective cortex can see it's own passion driven thoughts and mistake that ability for a little witness in the head and turn them into 'my inner' psychological experiences.

energy fluctuations can be caused by many things that aren't psychological. eg the body naturally has more energy after a good sleep than after a heavy meal. cognition is more alert during life threatening events and when responsible for young children than when lounging on the couch after a busy day. a person can do and discuss more speedily what theyre skilled and knowledgeable about, than what they have little interest or experience in. physical and mental energy is naturally exhilarated by high quality plant micronutrient intake and exercise. illness and tiredness affect mental acumen. energy fluctuation are neurotransmitters docking onto receptors or failing to and need not become psychological moods.