Questioning everything. Being open to radical changes. Or small changes. Working at removing my prejudices, my filters, my principles. Removing mental crutches, one by one. Planning and preparing less. Winging it. And to do it well, being fully present in the Here & Now. Really observing, listening. Not being mentally lazy and jumping to conclusions. But respecting others and myself enough to inspect and evaluate. And only then conclude and act. And as I become better at being fully present, the evaluations gains speed. I become better at what I practice. Never settling with the status quo. Always exploring new horizons to uncover more truth. Not being afraid of being wrong or disproven, but embracing my faults as a catalyst for progress. The progress is the goal, not the goals themselves. Chilling and being able to say “fuck it”. Doing what helps. Not doing what doesn’t help. And worrying seldom helps. Being better at controlling what I can control and not focusing on what I cannot control. Creating value for others. Catalyzing free will and helping others exercising their power of choice. Caring and being kind.
These are the ideals I work toward. I am a work in progress. I enjoy.
Geir Isene - uncut 
“Learn to discern the real from the false.” The Voice Of The Silence ~ H. P. Blavatsky
“Mind is only a faculty or organ (indriya) like the eye or the ear… The difference between the eye and the mind as faculties is that the former senses the world of colours and visible forms, while the latter senses the world of ideas and thoughts and mental objects… Now ideas and thoughts are not independent of the world experienced by these five physical sense faculties. In fact they depend on, and are conditioned by, physical experiences”. What the Buddha Taught ~ Walpola Rahula
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Reality is made up of what is there. It is not only physical matter, energy, space and time, but also mental ideas, feelings, etc. So, we are not just talking about materialism here.
Table, chair, trees, planets, suns, etc., are physical objects that we perceive. We perceive them using the sense organs of eye, ear, nose, tongue, and body. Similarly, thoughts, ideas, feelings, emotions, desires, etc., are mental objects that we perceive using the mind. Mind is as much a sense organ as are eye, ear, nose, tongue, and body.
When we consider only the physical objects we are looking at part of the reality. The physical perceptions are not independent of the mental perceptions. Physical and mental perceptions complement each other. Together they complete the picture of reality.
Reality is made up of both physical and mental objects.
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We alter the reality when we knowingly look through colored glasses. We know that our view is false because we can restore the reality by removing the glasses. Similarly, we can alter the reality by knowingly assuming an ideology. We know that our view is false because we can change the reality by changing the ideology.
Real is what is there. False is what is added to it.
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But could there already be something added to what we perceive? Could we be wearing colored glasses and not know it? Could we be holding a bias that we are not aware of?
The answer is yes. But, as we start to recognize those colored glasses and biases that we have been unknowingly carrying all along, we start to improve our view of what is really there. Buddha taught the concept of mindfulness to help one clarify reality. “See things as they are,” said the Buddha, “Do not expect. Do not speculate. Do not assume.”
As we look, the starting point is always the present reality. It is seeing things as they are. The reality does not have to be proved because it is what it is. What we are generally asked to prove is our opinion about reality. When something does not make sense then all we can do is look more closely, and see what is really there.
We may find that what is actually there is different from what we thought to be there. Suddenly, we may become aware of the “colored glasses,” or prejudices, that we have been unknowingly carrying all along. The reality then becomes clearer because we now see how it was being distorted.
Reality is what it is. It cannot be proved. One clarifies it simply by looking more closely.
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Very nice post, Vinnie.
The above post with links is available here.
http://vinaire.wordpress.com/2013/05/03/reality-mindfulness-section-1/
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Inspiring. Lovely.
You just reminded me of this poem by Rudyard Kipling:
IF
If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies,
Or being hated, don’t give way to hating,
And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise:
If you can dream – and not make dreams your master;
If you can think – and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build ‘em up with worn-out tools:
If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breathe a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: ‘Hold on!’
If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
‘ Or walk with Kings – nor lose the common touch,
if neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,
And – which is more – you’ll be a Man, my son!
Thanks for posting this, Sheila. I haven’t read it for years. Very moving. Beautiful.
🙂 You’re welcome, Marildi. It’s a favourite.
This Rudyard poem is prominently posted at Sydney Boys School. Imagine seeing something so bright and encouraging every day. 🙂
Do you have a special poem that inspires you?
Here’s a nice one:
If I Knew You & You Knew Me
by Nixon Waterman
If I knew you and you knew me,
If both of us could clearly see,
And with an inner sight divine,
The meaning of your heart and mine,
I’m sure that we would differ less,
And clasp our hands in friendliness;
Our thoughts would pleasantly agree,
If I knew you and you knew me.
ARC. marildi 🙂
Beautiful….(my secret thought is that Alanzo reads it and puts a poem here).
A lovely, secret thought. 😉
Oh Marildi! That just gives me chills all over. 😀
Nice to meet you, Marildi – and know you a bit for the light you are.
Love,
Sheila
I feel likewise, my dear. 🙂
Love,
marildi
I like your passion, Geir.
I like your passion too, marildi. 🙂
Wow! New picture! Like it!
🙂 Thanks Marianne! I will change it sooner, I like to change my pictures. Important is not changing my ideas, or at least, not changing so easy 🙂
Dragos,
xooxxoox
marildi 🙂
p.s. I like the photo, too. It’s a nice effect to have your face sort of in shadow, but for the next I vote for it to be in more light. 😉
Got it! How can I refuse you? 🙂 I’ll change the photo. Much more light for you 🙂
Spiritually speaking, dear Dragos, you sometimes light up my life, 🙂
You guys are amazing! Love the humour of your exchange!
It’s all in the chemistry, Marianne ;). Love your chemistry too!
Enough light, marildi? 🙂 PS. Thanks for musical dedication, wonderful voice!
OMG, couldn’t be better! Just like the photo, I feel showered in light. 🙂
And I’m glad you liked the video. 😉
😀
There is a sociology study I read years ago that claims many people become good friends because they began with a conflict, which made them try all the harder to understand each other. 😉
Sheila, Geir once told me he really liked me. And I replied back that I really, really liked him too (and that was after deleting a couple of really’s ;)). Another time he said he loved me like a sister – and that was in the middle of a fight. 😀
Thanks for telling me about that study. People are really something, aren’t they?
ha ha I like you too, marildi. 🙂
Mutual! 🙂
Or you can say “Opposites Attract”. No sociology study, just Paula Abdul 1989.
“Removing mental crutches, one by one”…that’s the key to entire post I suppose.
For me, the single most appealing aspect of Scientology was encompassed in the idea of a vast unlimited, unrealized and unexplored human / spiritual potential.
In that potential lived the solution to scarcity and lack, fear and horror, miserable acceptance of debilitating conditions and entrapment. This is the frontier of what can be freed from the unwanted aspects and limitations of what was.
There is no doubt that the fruits of science have resulted in marvelous creations that have served to liberate humanity from drudgery and uncertainty in many areas. These are based on the core certainty that there are core certainties that do repeat sufficiently and consistently enough to be utilized in the manipulation of physical material at long enough to be useful. I think it would be safe to suggest that many of these inventions and innovations depend on attempting to keep the ecosystems of earth operating within a particular set of conditions — the effort to insistently hold onto a particular mode results in having to make “artificial” changes to affected areas. i.e. greenhouse effect, biodiversity, etc. In other words it looks true, useful and valuable, but it has unexpected and many unwanted consequences.
I have come to think that as much as this is true in the realm of the “verifiable” sciences, it is also true in the realms that science cannot verify. I believe that this “unverifiable” domain impacts the sciences very powerfully, but in ways and through shifts that are either very difficult to verify or nearly impossible to produce on a controlled, and repetitive basis. This is the realm of what can be, and ultimately what is. It is in a constant state of tension and shift, anchored in what was. What was is myopic by nature. it is exploration of what can be, what should be, and potentials and possibilities that expand and extend that is my current focus and the hope that lives on in me unabated.
I am grateful to Scientology for providing another step along the way, in exploring potentials in terms of desirable and unwanted consequences, unexpected or implanted as the case may be. MAY be.
Maria
‘For me, the single most appealing aspect of Scientology was encompassed in the idea of a vast, unlimited, unrealized and unexplored human/spiritual potential.’
Beautiful. I wholeheartedly agree. I’d like to add that not only the ‘idea’, but the ‘practice’ as well. I mean here both the ‘tech’ and what it’s true ‘application’ results in. For example doing Self Analysis the perception of how this no-thing potential (I wouldn’t even say ‘ I ‘) is creating an image, a thought, a sensation…that one ‘question’ makes it possible to see – it’s just genious. It’s just one example of hundreds. Also, the ‘everlasting’ result of freeing up the tones and its consequences in living life. The ability to be at any emotional tone with anybody –
or just have a clear space in which another can safely display any emotion, even
go through it and get better. That much I know of the tech – loved it. As I said before, I stopped it when that part, which the Bridge stands in, became conscious. I may call it ‘no-thing’ or ‘life-force’.
Glad you wrote this comment. I have always been ‘grateful’ to the people I have learnt from – one of them is Ron. It was a step for me too, as it was you.
Wonderful testimony, Marianne. And I feel very much the same. It’s gratifying and heartening to be in such good company.
Wow, Maria. I never could have put it so scholarly or eloquently but what you wrote seems true to me too. The last paragraph was especially appealing, being so broadminded and free-thinking.
Geir
The OP. ‘I am a work in progress’. Is it true? The ‘ am’ is constant, never changing. What I see in the OP is rather ‘My’ views are in progress’.. Yes, they can change, they can ‘progress’. Endlessly. But WHAT makes this progress possible? LIFE. So ‘turning to’ the AM (living the flow of life), as it is getting ‘stronger and stronger’, it is ‘voicing’ itself more and more…knowing what to do without thinking (evaluating, concluding). The ‘flow’ ( the Just ) is ‘doing’ the listening, the observing, the ‘work’….no other method is needed, just letting that Just (as you used this word).
Eventually there is the perception, there is no ‘ I ‘. Just a source. Life.
Hi Marianne,
What an interesting post.
I am not a Scientologist anymore and haven’t been for decades. I forgot the idea of the unchanging “I”.
Not to discredit your opinion/philosophy, but I hold a different one, that we are composite beings and that is our natural state. Everything moves and changes constantly – and so do we, contracting and expanding. Like breathing. The roots of this concept are in Hinduism. Just another way of looking at it.
Aussiesheila1: Not to discredit your opinion/philosophy, but I hold a different one, that we are composite beings and that is our natural state.
Chris: Now you’re talking!
We like to talk about the existence of the external world in which we live – and the existence of our inner life. Neither of these we can prove or disprove. We separate ourselves from the external world and call it objective. We identify ourselves with the inner life and call it subjective. When we talk about reality, most people think of the external objective world.
The “external world” is made up of physical objects, such as, table, chair, trees, planets, and suns. The “inner life” is made up of mental objects, such as, thoughts, ideas, feelings, emotions, and desires. All objects, whether physical or mental, are manifested. We can perceive them for what they are.
So, what is the “external world” external to? What is the “inner life” internal to?
The boundary separating the “external world” from the “inner life” seems to be arbitrary. We can move this boundary all the way to one side and call all these objects “external.” Or we can move this boundary all the way to the other side and call all objects “internal.” It colors our perception of what is there.
Reality is not just the material universe. Reality is anything perceived non-judgmentally.
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Vin: So, what is the “external world” external to? What is the “inner life” internal to?
Chris: I really feel that you are nailing it. You are right to challenge this supposed dividing line. But to your questions, If as I think, the collapse of the wave to particles is the result of an iterative function, then the rules that establish this iteration can provide the dividing line to which you refer. The separation does seem to be there. To say that there is no line is to ignore simple looking and seeing what is there. Humans cannot cross these seemingly arbitrary lines, though we continuously assert that we can. This is a delusion. This delusion is a mental additive to what is there. There are perfectly good extant explanations for this. There can be separate mathematical sets of perception for the inner world which the outer world doesn’t seem to perceive. There are mathematical sets and rules to the outer world which the inner world seems to be unable to effect except in the mildest ways of rearrangement but only after the fact of wave collapse.
My current conjecture (I would call it a speculation, but I want to appear to have thought this through) is that with regard to reality, and based on the apparency that the real world continues on long after the inner world dissolves, there may be in this universe be only an outer world as a superset and an inner world as subset. Both made of the same stuff and separated only by rules (equations.) Beyond this we can speculate but fruitlessly as we can continue by trying to understand the world in front of our eyes. Later, when we know more, reality may be laid out nicely but I suspect it will seem as different then as our worst discarded superstitions seem to us now.
This “dividing line” between physical and mental objects is not so sharp when we look at people in insane asylums. There really seems to be a spectrum from physical to mental objects.
Mindfulness can put humans in a position to look at this whole spectrum from physical to mental objects “objectively.” We may need new mathematics to show this bridging effect.
I don’t think that it is possible for mental objects to dissolve and only physical objects to remain. The whole spectrum would continue to be there even as it simplifies as one approaches enlightenment.
By the way, looking at Geir’s Blog and Scientology, the involvement here seems to be entirely with mental objects. This is just my observation.
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I tried real hard to push a flower through that ethernet cable, but it keeps getting stuck.
But the hugs made it through. 😉
But sadly only as “mental objects”. Gimme a clue, please – how Do I transfer physical objects via this blog? Quantum teleportation perhaps?
The clue is what you were the first to clue me into: It’s all illusion anyway. 😀
I know. It needs some practice. Haha!
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Internet is excellent for mental objects, but not so good for physical objects. In America we use FedEx or UPS for physical objects.
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Ethernet cable is a medium through which one can talk about either physical objects or mental objects. It is a communication medium that requires conversion to electromagnetic waves. Maybe someday we may able to convert flower to electronic medium and back but not right now.
Sent from my iPad
Vin: Reality is not just the material universe. Reality is anything perceived non-judgmentally.
Chris: Back to my tautological universe! I think we are making a good argument for one! haha
Yes, we are. Mindfulness is leading me in that direction.
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Sounds good to me! I indeed like – ” ……. I am a work in progress.” and will steal that phrase to use, thanks. 🙂