Comments on: Coming Down http://frimmin.com/2007/11/01/coming-down/ spiritual awakening and enlightenment in today's world Mon, 14 May 2012 03:31:47 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: Margreet http://frimmin.com/2007/11/01/coming-down/comment-page-1/#comment-12083 Margreet Wed, 19 Dec 2007 20:41:48 +0000 http://frimmin.com/2007/11/01/coming-down/#comment-12083 I can relate to the "empty holodeck" metaphore. I can relate to the habit of wanting to conceptualize something as THE Truth. In my case I feel it more to be like THE meaning of life I'm searching for. A few weeks ago I finished reading "Awareness" by Anthony de Mello, an Indian Jesuit who blends the spiritual traditions of his own country with Ignatius Loyola's Spiritual Exercises. This book isn't going to be popular with anyone who thinks to have found THE truth. It was a simple question he started with, but it proved to be both devastating and cause for a sense of tremendous freedom. The question was: who or what is this "I" you keep talking about? Chapter by chapter he tore down all illusions I and all the rest of us build around ourselves, either forced upon us by our fellows or created from our own need for security. Four easy steps to enlightenment (or whatever) he writes about and I tried them. The sense of infinite freedom came when I realized that everything that happened in the past and is going to happen doesn't matter one bit. Of course, I said to myself, that's what Jesus, Buddha, every spiritual teacher has been saying. It just didn't sink in. The devastation (but also with profound hope) was when I realized that all my spiritual and possibly "mystical" ideas are just as illusionary as what everyone else is thinking. This realization was followed by a fit of laughter, realizing how crazy I and you and all the rest of us really are. But after all that, I went back to being "normally insane". After that I went back to throwing a temper-tantrum at God, while I haven't got the foggiest idea who or what God is or whether there is a God in the first place. Isn't that just silly? I kinda stopped looking for "answers" after that. Just some of my rantings.... Margreet I can relate to the “empty holodeck” metaphore. I can relate to the habit of wanting to conceptualize something as THE Truth. In my case I feel it more to be like THE meaning of life I’m searching for.

A few weeks ago I finished reading “Awareness” by Anthony de Mello, an Indian Jesuit who blends the spiritual traditions of his own country with Ignatius Loyola’s Spiritual Exercises. This book isn’t going to be popular with anyone who thinks to have found THE truth.
It was a simple question he started with, but it proved to be both devastating and cause for a sense of tremendous freedom. The question was: who or what is this “I” you keep talking about? Chapter by chapter he tore down all illusions I and all the rest of us build around ourselves, either forced upon us by our fellows or created from our own need for security.

Four easy steps to enlightenment (or whatever) he writes about and I tried them. The sense of infinite freedom came when I realized that everything that happened in the past and is going to happen doesn’t matter one bit. Of course, I said to myself, that’s what Jesus, Buddha, every spiritual teacher has been saying. It just didn’t sink in. The devastation (but also with profound hope) was when I realized that all my spiritual and possibly “mystical” ideas are just as illusionary as what everyone else is thinking.

This realization was followed by a fit of laughter, realizing how crazy I and you and all the rest of us really are. But after all that, I went back to being “normally insane”. After that I went back to throwing a temper-tantrum at God, while I haven’t got the foggiest idea who or what God is or whether there is a God in the first place. Isn’t that just silly?

I kinda stopped looking for “answers” after that.
Just some of my rantings….

Margreet

]]> By: mark http://frimmin.com/2007/11/01/coming-down/comment-page-1/#comment-11089 mark Fri, 07 Dec 2007 00:37:02 +0000 http://frimmin.com/2007/11/01/coming-down/#comment-11089 This post has been selected to be featured on the OneWord blog, and can be found here: http://1word.wordpress.com/uwords/ This post has been selected to be featured on the OneWord blog, and can be found here:

http://1word.wordpress.com/uwords/

]]> By: Trev Diesel http://frimmin.com/2007/11/01/coming-down/comment-page-1/#comment-8668 Trev Diesel Fri, 02 Nov 2007 18:47:59 +0000 http://frimmin.com/2007/11/01/coming-down/#comment-8668 "As windsocks give visibility to the movements of the air, so bodies give visibility to the movement of God." Maybe my new favorite quote. Thanks, Jon. I'm glad your experience is starting to make sense (or make unsense?) to you. “As windsocks give visibility to the movements of the air, so bodies give visibility to the movement of God.”

Maybe my new favorite quote. Thanks, Jon. I’m glad your experience is starting to make sense (or make unsense?) to you.

]]> By: Jon http://frimmin.com/2007/11/01/coming-down/comment-page-1/#comment-8658 Jon Fri, 02 Nov 2007 02:16:35 +0000 http://frimmin.com/2007/11/01/coming-down/#comment-8658 That's one of the paradoxes, Greenfrog. Spiritual practice tunes us into the mystery and the fact that things are much more than what they appear... it allows us to see the Wind in the windsocks. That’s one of the paradoxes, Greenfrog. Spiritual practice tunes us into the mystery and the fact that things are much more than what they appear… it allows us to see the Wind in the windsocks.

]]> By: greenfrog http://frimmin.com/2007/11/01/coming-down/comment-page-1/#comment-8657 greenfrog Fri, 02 Nov 2007 02:10:17 +0000 http://frimmin.com/2007/11/01/coming-down/#comment-8657 Jon, I love this. Three weeks after your experience last year, I wrote up this story (http://inlimine.blogspot.com/2006/02/version-of-favorite-tale.html), which moved me, as I imagined Shiva/God's joy at the experience of embodiment as a sow. It was several months ago that the story resonated with me because I was the sow. I since have realized that that was, of course, one step away from the right answer. While I agree with your sentiment that this is what's important, rather than that, I've found that seeing the stillness at the base of, behind, and shot through everything provides a helpful backdrop against which to discern more clearly what is this. Jon,

I love this.

Three weeks after your experience last year, I wrote up this story (http://inlimine.blogspot.com/2006/02/version-of-favorite-tale.html), which moved me, as I imagined Shiva/God’s joy at the experience of embodiment as a sow.

It was several months ago that the story resonated with me because I was the sow.

I since have realized that that was, of course, one step away from the right answer.

While I agree with your sentiment that this is what’s important, rather than that, I’ve found that seeing the stillness at the base of, behind, and shot through everything provides a helpful backdrop against which to discern more clearly what is this.

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