Baseline shift. - Discussion
Baseline shift.
J J, modified 9 Years ago at 11/14/14 2:27 AM
Created 9 Years ago at 11/14/14 2:26 AM
Baseline shift.
Posts: 225 Join Date: 3/31/14 Recent Posts
James Yen presents: Baseline shift, coming soon to a theater near you.
So about five seconds ago I had an enormous baseline shift, which I will contextualize and interpret for you guys.
For the past two months or so I had been struggling with the truth (by truth I mean the center of consciousness, that is non-suffering, a non-dual consciousness). I struggled with this because I had found the deepest center of my being, the so-called non-dual, divine center was always accessible to me, but I was always passing it up.
In other words; I doubted what had been presented to me.
So whilst I spent a lot of time in effortless samadhi, if I ever stopped exerting myself, said samadhi would disappear.
(Keep in mind my explanation right now is like a second-tier interpretation of what actually happened.)
In other words: I was passing the experience up, and looking for something else.
Just now I concluded that I had found what I wanted, the experience was something along these lines:
I'm making it sound more spectacular than it was, but the core of it was that the seeking, or vetting, or attempting to validate and conceptualize (read: grasp at) experiences part of my brain disappeared.
I was literally presented with the evidence of non-duality for several months, until I concluded that I had actually found what I wanted. Satisfied, my searching stopped. It was presented to my face non-stop for too long, I could no longer avoid the conclusion that I had found It.
And that's it.
Cheers,
James
So about five seconds ago I had an enormous baseline shift, which I will contextualize and interpret for you guys.
For the past two months or so I had been struggling with the truth (by truth I mean the center of consciousness, that is non-suffering, a non-dual consciousness). I struggled with this because I had found the deepest center of my being, the so-called non-dual, divine center was always accessible to me, but I was always passing it up.
In other words; I doubted what had been presented to me.
So whilst I spent a lot of time in effortless samadhi, if I ever stopped exerting myself, said samadhi would disappear.
(Keep in mind my explanation right now is like a second-tier interpretation of what actually happened.)
In other words: I was passing the experience up, and looking for something else.
Just now I concluded that I had found what I wanted, the experience was something along these lines:
Concluding that I had found what I wanted, and that their could be nothing more final, more wanting or more complete than this (this non-dual, divine center). I entered samadhi for several years (time is experienced instantaneously but authentically in this state). This absorption was the usual good stuff I had access too. The body melted etc.
However, the vetting mind fell away, the ego so to speak. The ego in this case was the part of my mind that literally tried to find the truth, conceptually. It was a massive, consistent existence of an effort of will that constantly "vetted", or attempted to validate my experiences.
Because the ego is literally a muscle-band of tension that wraps around the head and burrows (creates a circle), which attempts to find the truth within its boundaries. Its dissolution was none other than something like this:
Take an O, cut part of it so there is no more connective tissue in the O, the O becomes a U, turn it inside out: and you get a point.
In other words my mind literally expanded, without a boundary, there could be no mind.
However, the vetting mind fell away, the ego so to speak. The ego in this case was the part of my mind that literally tried to find the truth, conceptually. It was a massive, consistent existence of an effort of will that constantly "vetted", or attempted to validate my experiences.
Because the ego is literally a muscle-band of tension that wraps around the head and burrows (creates a circle), which attempts to find the truth within its boundaries. Its dissolution was none other than something like this:
Take an O, cut part of it so there is no more connective tissue in the O, the O becomes a U, turn it inside out: and you get a point.
In other words my mind literally expanded, without a boundary, there could be no mind.
I'm making it sound more spectacular than it was, but the core of it was that the seeking, or vetting, or attempting to validate and conceptualize (read: grasp at) experiences part of my brain disappeared.
I was literally presented with the evidence of non-duality for several months, until I concluded that I had actually found what I wanted. Satisfied, my searching stopped. It was presented to my face non-stop for too long, I could no longer avoid the conclusion that I had found It.
And that's it.
Cheers,
James
J J, modified 9 Years ago at 11/14/14 2:35 AM
Created 9 Years ago at 11/14/14 2:35 AM
RE: Baseline shift.
Posts: 225 Join Date: 3/31/14 Recent Posts
The experience of the Divine, first presents a dichotomy, between what is impure (egoic) and Divine. The absence of the ego, means there is no experience of the Divine, there is no "experience of the Divine" without an ego. All such distinctions disappear upon the absence of a search for truth.
The ego is the search for truth, the absence of the ego is truth. But it is not possible to prematurely drop ego, it can only be dropped after being worn out and acclimatized by living in this state for a while, after this occurs, the ego (and its contradictions), literally just drops away.
In other words there are three phases:
1) An uncovering, that stops when there is a discovery of non-duality.
2) A living struggle to live and be non-dual at the same time (which by the way is not possible).
3) A conclusion that the non-dual is truth, and thus falling away of the vetting.
Phase 2 ends when there is no more living.
This is odd to talk about.
Off to have a cigarette.
Peace.
The ego is the search for truth, the absence of the ego is truth. But it is not possible to prematurely drop ego, it can only be dropped after being worn out and acclimatized by living in this state for a while, after this occurs, the ego (and its contradictions), literally just drops away.
In other words there are three phases:
1) An uncovering, that stops when there is a discovery of non-duality.
2) A living struggle to live and be non-dual at the same time (which by the way is not possible).
3) A conclusion that the non-dual is truth, and thus falling away of the vetting.
Phase 2 ends when there is no more living.
This is odd to talk about.
Off to have a cigarette.
Peace.
J J, modified 9 Years ago at 11/14/14 3:03 AM
Created 9 Years ago at 11/14/14 3:02 AM
RE: Baseline shift.
Posts: 225 Join Date: 3/31/14 Recent Posts
And it turns out that this was another spur-of-the-moment post. Oh well.
Edit: Insight was somewhat useful. But I suppose I should start taking experiences with a grain of salt.
Cheers.
Edit: Insight was somewhat useful. But I suppose I should start taking experiences with a grain of salt.
Cheers.
Not Tao, modified 9 Years ago at 11/14/14 11:39 AM
Created 9 Years ago at 11/14/14 11:39 AM
RE: Baseline shift.
Posts: 995 Join Date: 4/5/14 Recent Posts
Maybe you can get insight from what caused the experience, rather than the result. When I focus on the result of my practice (as in, "wow, that felt so good!") I tend to forget the reason it happened - which is usually some kind of releasing of control.
What you wrote about the ego isn't wrong, IMHO. The only mistake is segregating the divine, as you say, from the ego. It seems to me that, to normalize these experiences, we have to apply the same mental quality that exists in the divine-type states to the ego itself.
So, the practice then is allowing the ego to be itself, and simply BEING it. You are both the experience of the ego and the divine, but you don't control either of them. The belief in control, itself, is the stress. The experience of the divine is what results when control of the ego is relenquished. Or maybe better - the experience of the divine is what results when the divine is allowed to express itself as the ego. The ego is the divine, and by allowing the ego, the divine can flow freely. The divine is always there, and the ego is just the part of the divine we don't like and try to reject.
What you wrote about the ego isn't wrong, IMHO. The only mistake is segregating the divine, as you say, from the ego. It seems to me that, to normalize these experiences, we have to apply the same mental quality that exists in the divine-type states to the ego itself.
So, the practice then is allowing the ego to be itself, and simply BEING it. You are both the experience of the ego and the divine, but you don't control either of them. The belief in control, itself, is the stress. The experience of the divine is what results when control of the ego is relenquished. Or maybe better - the experience of the divine is what results when the divine is allowed to express itself as the ego. The ego is the divine, and by allowing the ego, the divine can flow freely. The divine is always there, and the ego is just the part of the divine we don't like and try to reject.