Quotes | Isaac Shapiro
I notice how when something touches us, our attention moves to the sensations, trying to bring them to peace.
Its rare to look and see if what touched us is real or not.
For example if we see a rope and mistake it for a snake and get a huge fright.
On recognising that its a rope, do we have to work on the fear or does the simple seeing that its a rope, end it.
12 Sep 2013
Recognising the Truth of whom we have always been is a prerequisite to be available to life as a love affair, in which the unconscious patterns that have plagued mankind forever come to peace.
01 Sep 2013
Most of us have had moments of happiness. Usually we associate the happiness with a cause, like for example, the person, or the situation made me happy. So, is it the circumstance or the way we relate (the quality of attention) that is the source of the happiness. Ramana’s question “Who am I” is in essence an invitation to bring our attention to awareness, the source of everything. Untangling this, allows a simple resting without needing to run after anything.
28 Aug 2013
For most people, our focus of attention is on our experience, with an ongoing activity of measuring and evaluating it.
This manifests as trying to fix, change, get rid of and waiting for a better experience and is experienced as suffering.
Deeply resting as THAT which is beyond all experience, in which all experience appears and savouring our experience as the Beloved changes everything.
28 Aug 2013
Notice how when we become aware of some resistance or defensiveness, the knee jerk reaction is to try and change or fix it.
Recognise that this is how your system survived and honour it.
Gently enquire if it is necessary in this moment. The answer is yes or no.
Notice how when the new info comes in how the mechanism responds.
If it relaxes, notice that you are surviving!
27 Aug 2013
So many nuances as love lives itself.
Being true to love, as this capacity of awareness makes these fine distinctions and reveals the felt sense of the exquisite sweetness of dropping deeper into the indescribable.
24 Aug 2013
So love living as an invitation to embody, Truth, Love, Wisdom, Beauty.
Don’t know of anything more exquisite and see how many of us resonate with this calling..
21 Aug 2013
Last evening the topic of “killing the ego” came up.
This baffles me as how and who could kill something that doesn’t exist?
Clearly there are automatic unconscious habits that play and there is a beauty in being available for these to become conscious.
This process is facilitated by resting as awareness and allowing the innate capacity of awareness to make distinctions, as these habits can only function unconsciously.
20 Aug 2013
Such luck, get to spend time with folks interested in Truth, exploring the nuances of consciousness and resting as THAT in which everything appears.
The field that opens up is such a caress, a love bath. The felt sense/knowing of no boundaries, nobody, simply life living itself in all these manifestations.
18 Aug 2013
Gently noticing where and how attention is drawn, noticing and exploring if the habits are joyous and human friendly.
That simple noticing is awesome.
14 Aug 2013
So grateful for the recognition of This, that all manifestation appears in, and that attention rests effortlessly with That.
Silence and beauty prevails. Hari Om
08 Aug 2013
Amazed at how the seeing, in an instant shifts the basis that life is lived from.
Noticing subtle differences in how my son and I relate, which I can see is what we both always wanted. The unconscious patterns playing in us both, caused friction that was painful to both of us.
Who knows how many more unconscious patterns are playing. All I know is I am available for them to become conscious.
07 Aug 2013
Feeling so blessed. Got to hang out with my 17 year old son and his buddy into the wee hours exploring truth.
Both so available and interested.
Such a privilege to witness as recognition happened in them both, and a joy as they described in their words so articulately and freshly how it opened up for them.
I had longed for this with my son for quite some time and knew that it would have to happen at the right moment without any push. So grateful.
05 Aug 2013
Whats the distinction between doubt and not knowing?
Can we ever really know what is happening?
Seems to me in the recognition that it is not possible to know, a relaxing happens and life lives itself.
With doubt, there is some semblance of control remaining.
04 Aug 2013
Doubt. Let’s explore doubt. What is it?
Is it a thought? Can you doubt without thinking?
What is its promise? Maybe if you doubt long and hard enough you’l be certain.
So if doubt arises, is it useful to follow it, by either entertaining or resisting it? Is it possible to simply recognise what it is and let it come and go?
03 Aug 2013
Resting as awareness, no agenda.
The natural capacity of awareness to notice, with exquisite sensitivity all the usual movements that cause difficulty, invites a deepening that is sooooo delicious. Bliss.
01 Aug 2013
Who you are, you already are, so no need to do anything or make any effort to become anything.
Recognising your nature is simple. The habits to be confused and to measure our nature with our mind and to measure by our experience are the activities that are suffering.
Interesting to notice these activities and question who does them! Really check it out.
30 July 2013
So often when we meet an expression of life whom we commonly refer to as “another”, there is some discomfort that is experienced.
Usually, we trust our perception of what they seem to be doing or being that is causing the discomfort and there is an automatic trying to get them to be different. Usually with the idea that if they change or recognise what we are talking about, the universe will be a better place.
What happens in this movement is a feeling of separation, of “I” and the capacity to be present to experience is non existent.
Compassion literally means to feel with, or to say it another way, the recognition that everything and everyone is an experience to us and that all experience appears in awareness.
29 July 2013
In our culture, we have been conditioned to believe that things make us happy. Relationships, money, toys, possessions etc.
Check and see if its the object or the way we relate (our habit of attention) to the object that produces our experience. For example we can love and hate a person within seconds of each other. Is it the person or our way of relating to them that produces the different experience?
Once we can see that our experience happens from where and how our attention is focused, then its possible to explore relating to this moment as the beloved.
28 July 2013
Always interesting to check in and recognise what priorities are being lived in your life.
Easiest is to notice where your attention is most of the time, not what your mind tells you your priorities are.
Is the priority living as Truth, Love, Peace or being busy with other things.
No right or wrong, just a gentle simple noticing.
27 July 2013
This love of Truth, bringing attention to THAT in which everything appears.
So simple and so much momentum to believe thoughts, feelings and experiences as real.
Somehow life has picked us up to be available as this love affair of everything and nothing.
26 July 2013
Always interesting to check in and recognise what priorities are being lived in your life.
Easiest is to notice where your attention is most of the time, not what your mind tells you your priorities are.
Is the priority living as Truth, Love, Peace or being busy with other things.
No right or wrong, just a gentle simple noticing.
25 July 2013
This moment, recognising that the entire manifestation is appearing in something that can never be described, drinking and kissing and being caressed by manifestation as the beloved.
Bliss.
24 July 2013
The tendency to believe that our experience means something about “me” is interesting to look at, recognising that the entire universe is an experience to us.
We feel the human frequency which is pretty freaked out. If there is the idea it means something about “me” then there will be energy spent to try and fix, change or get rid of the experience, which of course only makes it stronger. This unintended identification causes so much trouble.
Great to be conscious of this mechanism.
23 July 2013
In the recognition that the universe is an experience to us, lets consider what the human constituent as an experience is.
The majority of expressions of life we call humans are confused, anxious, unhappy, fearful etc. Living life waiting for a better experience.
Of the totality of our experience of now, which includes galaxies upon galaxies not to mention trillions of cells, nature etc, the human expression is a tiny fraction.
Is it possible to include the human vibration in the awesomeness of this moment, just gently allowing it to be what its is. Holding it with love. A word for this, compassion.
22 July 2013
The tendency to believe that our experience means something about “me” is interesting to look at, recognising that the entire universe is an experience to us.
We feel the human frequency which is pretty freaked out. If there is the idea it means something about “me” then there will be energy spent to try and fix, change or get rid of the experience, which of course only makes it stronger.
This unintended identification causes so much trouble.
Great to be conscious of this mechanism.
21 July 2013
In the recognition that the universe is an experience to us, lets consider what the human constituent as an experience is.
The majority of expressions of life we call humans are confused, anxious, unhappy, fearful etc. Living life waiting for a better experience.
Of the totality of our experience of now, which includes galaxies upon galaxies not to mention trillions of cells, nature etc, the human expression is a tiny fraction.
Is it possible to include the human vibration in the awesomeness of this moment, just gently allowing it to be what its is. Holding it with love. A word for this, compassion.
21 July 2013
So often there is the feeling/idea that our experience means something about us.
Lets examine that. The entire universe is an experience to us experienced through 5 senses.
We experience where our attention is focussed, similar to a TV set. Hundreds of channels and what shows up on the screen is which channel the TV is tuned to. What does what shows up on the screen mean about the TV?
What determines where our attention is focused? We could call that our interests.
Where do our interests come from? Do we choose them, or do they come by themselves and leave the same way?
19 July 2013
A friend today mentioned this idea of “You choose your suffering”
Don’t know anyone who wakes up in the morning and says lets see how much I can suffer today.
Seems to me that suffering occurs because of automatic unconscious habits and that no one does it consciously.
The idea that You choose it, is a double wammy, which brings up blame, shame and guilt which I have not found useful in exploring and bringing unconscious habits to consciousness.
17 July 2013
Is it possible to describe the totality of your experience of this moment?
Does anyone really know what going on?
If the answer is no to these questions, gently rest and notice how there is an activity that wants to know and make sense of whats happening and provide a context to the mystery.
14 July 2013
When automatic unconscious patterns, that are expressions of pain play through us, they hurt not only ourselves, but everyone, especially those closest to us.
Resting as awareness, meeting every sensation as the beloved our expression becomes one of beauty that caresses existence.
13 July 2013
During the time the body was forming in the womb, the cells were being conditioned by how the Moms cells were responding to their environment. This was way before thought.
Our experience and our responses, including thought stem from this early conditioning as far as I can see.
The thoughts that come from a feeling that everything is not OK come from this.
The capacity of awareness to gently notice these automatic movements or responses is what allows them to become conscious and then come home.
12 July 2013
Exploring the distinction between teaching and inviting to what you have always known, but was hidden by the way the mind and nervous system function?
11 July 2013
Being THAT in which “here” and all of manifestation appears, including the sense of “I” and everyone.
10 July 2013
Most of us have a conditioned habit of focusing our attention, in a way that produces a sense of me and another, subject / object.
The use of language turns living processes into nouns and then we look out and see a thing and it seems like we get the info of what we are looking at from outside.
If you would like to try an experiment, relax your eyes and imagine they are holes and that light of everything is effortlessly pouring in.
Notice that what is seen is an experience to you and that all experience appears in awareness. Now notice that the info is coming from inside. Enjoy!
9 July 2013
Responsibility.
Interesting to explore how it feels in the body to look though the filter of believing in the idea of responsibility.
For eg, I am responsible, or you are responsible. Just noticing what happens in the body without right or wrong, good or bad etc, without having to decide if there is or isn’t such a thing, just what happens when that idea is looked through at life.
Does every cell vibrate in ecstasy or is there contraction?
7 July 2013
A whole day meeting today, hanging out with beloveds whose love of Peace and Truth keeps us meeting and exploring after all these years..
We all know there is nothing to get and no one to get anywhere and yet as we spend time together, love keeps revealing Itself to its Beloveds..
How lucky is that!.
6 July 2013
Almost everyone has had the experience of feeling hurt. If the hurt is strong, it can feel existential and there is an automatic response to do whatever it takes to get away from the pain.
Under all of that are the sensations of the touch which shows up as the hurt, which rarely are met consciously without any agenda, to change, fix or get rid of. Ironically that is what’s required to bring them home.
4 July 2013
Exploring the easiest way to quieten thoughts.
As far as I can see, thoughts are the capacity to solve problems, which is what enables us to build all the accoutrements of what we call civilisation.
As we enjoy the sensations of now, there is no problem to solve and hence nothing to solve, so thoughts quieten or stop.
Have invited this enjoying for no reason, many times in the meetings and almost everyone has the direct experience.
Give it a go.
3 July 2013
People talk of accepting life the way it is?
But how is it?
Is our experience of life, it?
1 July 2013
Exploring the distinction between teaching and inviting to what you have always known, but was hidden by the way the mind and nervous system function?
29 June 2013
Such a paradox, recognising THAT in which everything appears and then to see how THAT plays a character which believes it is independent, time bound and separate. Amazing!
28 June 2013
Worth looking fresh at the idea of identification.
Who does it?
The sense of “I” that appears, appears after identification, so obviously “I” doesn’t do it.
Who or what is responsable for the sense of separation?
Who or what is responsable for the automatic unconscious patterns that play as us?
26 June 2013
We so often hold that exploring the unconscious patterns that play in us, is for ourselves, so that we feel better, have more etc.
Holding exploration like that actually is in the way of integration and is identification.
In the recognising that the patterns are not personal and that as they come to peace, it benefits all beings, then the exploring becomes service. Such a different dynamic.cient suppressed and disowned pain, that I could see manifested as expressions like Monsanto, the oil and banking industries and the war machine. Never even knew it was there.
So amazing to be able to be present and not take it personally. Such grace.
25 June 2013
What I could see is that from the perspective of the pain, there was no value for life including its own.
However because of being suppressed and disowned, on the surface, there was quite a different view, including an idea of being pro life, and into love, peace etc.
Also could see how universal this pain is. So happy it is revealing itself.
24 June 2013
Touched today an ancient suppressed and disowned pain, that I could see manifested as expressions like Monsanto, the oil and banking industries and the war machine.
Never even knew it was there.
So amazing to be able to be present and not take it personally. Such grace.
23 June 2013
Touched today an ancient suppressed and disowned pain, that I could see manifested as expressions like Monsanto, the oil and banking industries and the war machine. Never even knew it was there.
So amazing to be able to be present and not take it personally. Such grace.
22 June 2013
In response to some of the comments about my previous post.
When our systems never received the info needed to embody in a happy healthy way, there is an ongoing yearning to deeply connect to get the info.
However we seem to get attracted to a nervous system that is also lacking the info, so our patterns fit perfectly. This is usually quite painful and often either gets suppressed with an overlay of many spiritual ideas of not needing anything, trying to not want etc, In my experience when we try to deal with the yearning by simply moving our attention, which is great for resourcing ourselves, the missing info never gets completed.
For this, usually a nervous system that has the info is required.
21 June 2013
Recognising the intricacies of bringing to peace, unconscious patterns that play in intimate relating.
Requires such a willingness and persistence to gently keep exploring even when the habit is to run.
Incredibly useful to remain friends in the exploring, even though the habit when we touch those core woundings is to be upset and project.
So usual to fall into compensations that are less then alive in order to maintain relationships and the cost is high.
20 June 2013
Looking at the human experience, its easy to see that it is completely relational. This means that the quality of the attention that we receive is a huge factor not only in our physical health but also the health of our psyche and our sense of self.
This brings into view the importance of community or what in the East is called Sangha. To be in a community of friends on fire with a love of Truth, is a great gift for humanity.
20 June 2013
Listening to the Beloveds call, resting as awareness. Being in awe at this appearance of life, and the grace of having human form to recognise the Truth beyond form.
18 June 2013
Whatever automatic unconscious mechanisms are functioning, is happening in present time. In order to integrate these mechanisms or bring them to peace, there needs to be, a knowing of who you are, an interest to bring them to peace and the knowing of what assists for this to happen.
Gentle noticing and honouring of these mechanisms with no agenda is essential.
Also really slowing down and not getting sidetracked by thinking.
Being available as space, as love allows these mechanisms to reveal and become conscious.
17 June 2013
There is an interesting habit when talking about what troubles us, which is saying things like, “I always” or “what to do when this happens again”.
Whats happening is based on the past and our thoughts project the same into the future.
This habit is obviously trying to assist us. Once seen deeply, frees the projection mechanism and assists in remaining present.
15 June 2013
What a paradox, to know that who we are is that in which everything appears, matter, energy, time, space, and every known and unknown universe and then to have human experience.
15 June 2013
Such grace that this love affair with Truth establishes Itself in our hearts, so that when “touches” happen, instead of projecting outward or on ourselves, a gentle enquiry arises.
Gratefulness.
13 June 2013
In the journey of this expression of life called human existence, if anywhere from conception on, the body never received the information from the Mom it needed to feel held, safe, welcomed, the experience of embodiment will be filtered through this lack of information.
This will show up as a sense of suffering, which feels personal and often accompanied by wanting and needing.
Then we are told wanting and needing are not spiritual, so we try wanting to not want. Clearly this can never work.
In gently exploring wanting and needing, honouring and allowing, their gifts reveal and come home. Usually for this another nervous system that has the info is required, as this is how the human nervous system is designed to get the information it needs to be at peace.
Writing like this offends many non dualists, that feel recognising your true nature is sufficient to end suffering.
11 June 2013
So curious western and eastern conditioning around touch.
Most primates bond and are comforted through touching. My feeling is that touch nurtures and resources us.
We feel free to hold and touch infants that we know and feel enriched by the contact and then it gets crazy.
Touch gets tangled up with sexuality and relationship.
In some circles, it’s OK to hug, saying hi and goodbye, or shake hands but the bonding and need of touch remains quite loaded.
In some circles even hugging is difficult.
There is also the option of getting massaged, but spontaneous holding is rare.
In our retreats, I notice that after a little while, participants start naturally supporting and being supported through touch. This happens spontaneously in the field of trust that opens up. I love it!
08 June 2013
In the journey of this expression of life called human existence, if anywhere from conception on, the body never received the information from the Mom it needed to feel held, safe, welcomed, the experience of embodiment will be filtered through this lack of information.
This will show up as a sense of suffering, which feels personal and often accompanied by wanting and needing.
Then we are told wanting and needing are not spiritual, so we try wanting to not want. Clearly this can never work.
In gently exploring wanting and needing, honouring and allowing, their gifts reveal and come home. Usually for this another nervous system that has the info is required, as this is how the human nervous system is designed to get the information it needs to be at peace.
Writing like this offends many non dualists, that feel recognising your true nature is sufficient to end suffering.
07 June 2013
Resting as awareness. Nothing to do, nowhere to go and no-one to do or go anywhere.
The experience of now, viewed through whatever filters, is all we have.
The filters are so habitual, they don’t even appear on our radar. Somehow we feel that how we perceive, is the way it is, even if we can see that everyone perceives differently.
What brings these habits of perception into view, so that they are no longer unconscious and colour not only the sense of life but also the sense we have of ourselves?
If our nervous system is in survival mode, whether there is any actual existential threat or not, what chance is there to notice finely enough, so these filters can be seen?
The luxury of having time, space and a friend that we feel met and held by, to assist in this exploration, is such grace.
06 June 2013
Recognising our nature as awareness, does not deal with the habit of attention, that is identification and the feeling sense of separation.
The capacity of awareness to recognise the tiny movements in sensation that are pre thought and that actually drive thought, is what integrates.
In my view, this is the exploration that is the love affair with life and is service to all.
05 June 2013
So easy to misunderstand this invitation to know who you are.
That is why it is so fortunate to have a friend who is experienced to assist in the invitation.
The friend needs to have a maturity that is capable of simply being present without trying to fix, change or get rid of anything.
Also the ability of not going into agreement or arguing with the stories that our thinking invariably spins.
The more they have been able to bring the unconscious patterns that have been playing in themselves to peace, the deeper the assist will be.
If when you are with them, you can notice getting quieter, your system calming down, and clarity returning, these are good signs.
If they are vulnerable and relate as being equal with you, this allows trust to arise, without putting them on a pedestal.
04 June 2013
Such a huge difference between hard and gentle noticing. Hard noticing is how we have been conditioned and always has an agenda to change, fix or get rid of, and is actually violence. Hard noticing makes it impossible to integrate what is being noticed and adds layers of blame, shame and guilt.
Gentle noticing is curious, honouring, using the capacity that is inherent to awareness, to make fine distinctions and bring what has been unconscious to consciousness.
03 June 2013
We are conditioned from at least conception on in how our nervous system relates to the field of information we call the universe. Usually the conditioning objectifies everything, which is what language does. It turns living processes into nouns, like for example tree instead of treeing. So what happens is our focus of attention produces a sense of separation and a feeling of a separate “me”.
In reality there is no separation nor can there ever be. So our habit of attention causes a sense of me which feels disconnected, but this is an illusion or as they say in the east, maya.
As the habits of conditioning become conscious, there is a sense of being more embodied.
01 June 2013
Hear people talking about going in and out of awareness.
What is it that goes in and out and what is that based on? It is usually based on measuring awareness by experience.
Awareness cannot go in and out of itself. What moves is attention, which gives that illusion.
08 May 2013
There is such a habit to believe our experience means something about us?
This has a huge cost.
A question; What does the reflection in a mirror mean about the mirror?
Or, what does a program on the TV mean about the TV?
Only shows where the mirror is pointed or what chanel the Tv is on.
in human terms, where and how our attention is focussed.
Is our attention who we are?.
06 May 2013
Often hear people say, I am irritated by my mom or by someone.
Love to ask if the irritation is with the mom or a pattern playing in the mom.
That distinction seems easy to make. Then is it you that is upset or a pattern in you.
Clearly a pattern is upset with a pattern. Recognising that it is not “you” or the “other” can be quite liberating.
05 May 2013
Drinking nectar in that always present source of all.
The wildest passionate love affair of everything and nothing.
03 May 2013
What is a mistake?
Does it live in loves garden.
In recognising a “mistake” and learning happens, is it a mistake?
01 May 2013
Often hear the question, What can “I” do when “my” mind is spinning?I and my are rarely explored.
Take a moment to deeply explore what feels or seems to be the “doer”.
What or who is that? Where does that go when deep sleep happens?
30 April 2013
So loving the depth and deepening I see in all of us in the Meetings happening here in Amsterdam. So lucky.
Thank you, thank you, thank you. Love always.
30 April 2013Facebook Quotes
Awareness awarenessing.
Drinking a cup of tea.
Spring is springing.
Gratefulness.
25 April 2013
The capacity of awareness to make really fine distinctions, is the enquiry that brings unconscious patterns of conditioning to consciousness and thus to peace. Papaji would speak of this capacity being like a swan, that if you mixed water with milk, the swan could drink only the milk.
In even the most simple life forms, there is the capacity to recognise what is food and what is life threatening. Amazing design.
Wow.
25 April 2013
The paradox. Unbelievable human ignorance without a doer that breaks the heart, appearing in an ocean of intelligence, love. And nothing is happening.
Try to wrap the mind around that.
24 April 2013
Beyond the senses, beyond any experience, including the senses and all experience… aaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhh
21 April 2013
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Gratefulness. Life living itself. An endless love affair.
What a dance.
20.April.13
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In the recognition, not just intellectual but the felt sense of no separation and no
separate “I”, who is it that chooses and decides? Once this is known, there is an opportunity to explore the habits of projection that have been taken seriously for so many generations.
April.13
In exploring the sense of “I”, what can be easily seen. 1stly, that it disappears whenever deep sleep happens. 2ndly, that it is a referencing activity that includes memory. For example, what would be your sense of “I” without memory. In seeing that the sense “I” is an activity, a feeling, not a someone, how can it have doership?
6.April.13
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When we loose our sense of humour, its not funny.
16.Aug.12
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Yearning.
What is it.
A sensation that usually is accompanied by thoughts of what will satisfy.
If those thoughts are believed in, whether its a yearning for God, the perfect partner, billions of dollars, enlightenment or any experience etc, there is suffering.
If the yearning is met as an opportunity to recognise that in which it arises, its a doorway to bliss.
10.Aug.12
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In receiving our experience
as the Beloved,
we embody as
unconditional Love.
9.Aug.12
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What is thinking?
Thinking is the ability to solve problems.
Great for practical matters.
Thoughts come and go.
Awareness remains!
8.Aug.12
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Whenever we try to find happiness through the mind,
we move into hope, that someday in the future,
we will be happy.
The other side of this is hopelessness or depression.
7.Aug.12
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With the experience (sensations) of now, what are your options?
We can receive our experience as the Beloved.
Or we can wait for a better experience.
Notice what habit is playing now!
6.Aug.12
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What is “your” body?
Where does it begin and end?
Does it exist without breath?
The body is an experience to you, so it appears in awareness.
5.Aug.12
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Stop!
In this instant,
without a thought,
without any idea
to get anywhere,
what is here?
4.Aug.12
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When we feel hurt or angry,
is it something we decide
or does it just happen?
Who is doing it then?
If we blame someone else,
then who is in charge of our happiness?
3.Aug.12
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As awareness,
the sensations of this moment
are experienced as love.
2.Aug.12
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What we call the world, the universe is an experience to us. This includes everyone and everything.
Compassion means Feeling with.
We already feel everyone/everything and many think this is “my” experience and that compassion is a doing rather than the way it already is.
28.July.12
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There is a huge cult that many are involved with called the difficult.
27.July.12
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We all have unconscious habits of attention, that are uncomfortable to ourselves, and the ones closest to us, and indeed to all with whom we are associated. All reality is experienced through these unconscious habits, which function as cognitive filters, and make it almost impossible for us to recognize them.
The beauty of this invitation is that nothing needs to be changed, fixed, or eliminated. It is a non-dualistic, non-judgmental enquiry into our present being. Everything happens through the agency of awareness.
As we bring awareness to these unconscious habits, there is a shift that occurs. In the course of investigation, people spontaneously recognize the true nature of themselves, which many report as the experience of peace, unconditional love, compassion, or simply of being home.
24.July.12
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Gratefulness.
Great Fullness.
Overflowing joy.
Truth, Love, bliss.
21.July.12
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An invitation to live this instant as a love affair with the beloved.
18.July.12
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If the idea of choice is believed in then the idea of responsibility seems real.
Every time we are upset with someone, we believe they had a choice and made the wrong one and the upset is the attempt to get them to realize their mistake.
When we think they had a choice we don’t have a choice but to be upset.
15.July.12
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Choice.
Is there a choice in this moment, or can “you” only choose in the next moment?
13.July.12
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Savouring these sensations. Drinking and kissing. aaaahhhh.
12.July.12
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In the depths of the ocean it’s very quiet
and on the surface it’s wavy.
If you have a preference for the depths
rather than for the waves then you’re on the shore.
It seems you’re not the ocean anymore
because the ocean
is all of it. Papaji
11.July.12
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Imagine you meet your most Beloved.
How would your whole body respond to that manifestation?
Can you meet this moment as the Beloved?
Notice how your system responds to this invitation.
10.July.12
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As far as I can see, there are 2 ways in which we relate to the sensations of now.
Ow or Wow!
9.July.12
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The whole idea
of seeking for enlightenment
is still all about wanting
a different experience than we are having.
8.July.12
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Awareness has no limits, it’s infinite, but our capacity to embody this awareness is limited by tightening up.
All beliefs, defences, trying to control our experience etc, show up in us simply as tightening up in the body or mind. So if there’s any contraction in your body, simply letting go, releases the energy that was used to tighten up, and we are more at ease. Letting go happens in the recognition that the tightening up doesn’t help in any way. Then in a way the tightening up which was an unconscious process, now that it is conscious and recognized that it only hurts, it lets go of you.
Recognizing you are already the awareness in which everything appears gives the space for letting go.
7.July.12
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The unconscious habit of resisting our experience shows up in us as contraction.
Take a moment and notice the experience you call your body. Notice where there are contractions.
Consider if the contractions you notice, serve in any way thats useful.
In noticing where there has been a habit to tighten, as you gently notice the tightness, does this already produce a subtle shift?
One change is there is now awareness of it.
5.July.12
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Awareness is ever present. Experience is always changing. Most people have the funny habit of trying to measure awareness by the experience they are having, and not only that, but to measure themselves by their experience.
Is it possible to measure awareness by experience?
“I feel so sad” – does that mean I am not aware. All this contraction, this means I’m not awareness. Only when I feel expanded, then I’m aware.’ Funny habit, isn’t it?
4.July.12
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Is awareness an experience?
Can we sense awareness with our senses?
Can we know it with our mind?
We can be aware of our mind and of our senses and that’s why it’s said that awareness is beyond the senses, beyond the mind, beyond everything. We can understand that with the mind.
The invitation is to know this directly.
3.July.12
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Stress is an upset with time.
Contemplate for a moment the belief of not having enough time and living through that filter.
2.July.12
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All experience appears in awareness. The universe is an experience to us, so it is at least as large as the universe.
Can you find a boundary to awareness?
Another word for no boundaries is freedom. In truth, awareness is free even of freedom, because it doesn’t have any concept of freedom in it. Boundaries or borders belong to our thinking, which we call the mind. No thought, no mind, so both freedom and borders are irrelevant to awareness.
2.July.12
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Instead of enjoying and loving in the moment
we’re unconsciously busy trying to get in a way
that makes sure we will never get it!
But never!
And most of us will do that
for the rest of our lives
unless
we see it!
1.July.12
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Stop for a moment and gently explore any automatic unconscious habit of waiting for a better experience.
As this becomes conscious and your attention begins to be present, notice what happens in the body.
Enjoy!
30.June.12
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This moment is as God as it gets!
28.June.12
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In the light of each focus of attention, our life is experienced in many different ways. If somebody is judgmental of us, it has an impact.
When someone is open and meeting us as love, in the light of that, we feel lovely!
The light that shines from us either can have filters or it’s just pure light. When whatever is happening is met by love, even what feels like limitation, becomes a doorway into love.
26.June.12
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Our thinking is this capacity to solve problems.
When enjoying the experience of now is happening,
there are no problems registered,
so our thinking doesn’t have a job to do.
23.June.12
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Wanting to be loved is a huge habit for human beings.
Honestly look and see how much energy is going
into this movie in your life.
What is the return on the investment of energy?
22.June.12
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Who would you be
without any idea
of how you should
or could be?
21.June.12
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This moment, life is an experience to us.
See if it is possible to describe your experience of now.
The experience of now is changing each instant. How fast would have to speak to describe now before it is different?
How are you going to describe the experience of now?
You can’t.
You can’t describe this moment, but you can enjoy it.
We all have the capacity of enjoying.
20.June.12
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Who would you be
without any idea
of how you should
or could be?
20.June.12
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There’s nothing that makes you
happy or unhappy.
It’s never what’s going on.
It’s the habit of attention, the focus
that produces the experience.
19.June.12
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That recognition
of being awareness
without beginning or end
is sometimes called
awakening
but it was and is always here!
8.June12
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It’s always
the resistance to our experience
that hurts far more
than any experience
can ever hurt
18.June.12
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Such a paradox.
The recognition of connectedness, all is as it is, all is well, bathing in an ocean of love.
This includes the knowing that we can all live in a conscious honouring and respecting of life, each other, our beautiful planet with all its expressions, putting and end to all the pain and suffering caused by ignorance.
17.June.12
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No thought, no mind. No mind, no worries, no me.
15.June.12
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To me it seems as if there are 2 phases of waking up.
The 1st is the recognition that you are THAT in which everything appears. Many stop here and advaita whatever isn’t working in their lives away. Common excuses, “Theres no one here” or “Its all an illusion so why bother”. The 2nd happens as life lives itself and reveals all the unconscious mechanisms that have plagued mankind for generations and through the grace of the 1st recognition, now has space to come home. This is a huge fire as the way the intelligence of the nervous system functions is to avoid being present to the sensations/information that are the basis of the mechanisms.
This phase happens once the recognition of never have been bound, is realized together with the recognition that enlightenment, freedom etc are all concepts and for me feels like the flowering of love and compassion.
12.June.12
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What in this moment is more precious then peace and love?
Rest your attention at its source and drink deep.
10.June.12
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Inherent in awareness is the capacity to make fine distinctions. This capacity enables being able to distinguish between hard noticing and gentle noticing.
Hard noticing has the flavour that something is wrong and needs to be changed or gotten rid of.
Gentle curious noticing allows a seeing of what has been unconscious to become conscious.
Unconscious mechanisms that trouble us, and everyone especially those closest to us, can only function unconsciously.
10.June.12
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For these mechanisms to become conscious, ends suffering that has troubled mankind for generations.
Savouring this moment as the beloved.
Resting in the arms of infinity.
Recognising all of the above is appearing in awareness, THAT which is already your nature.
9.June.12
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So amazing when whats spoken of in quantum starts to open up in experience.
In a way so easy to look and see we dont know whats happening and cant describe it.
As the direct experience opens up, nothing is the same.
5.June.12
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Interesting to hear from scientists that there is no sound unless our ears interpret waves in the field as sound and similarly with colours. Also all matter is actually space with some forces making it seem solid.
Resting, quietly present, as the field reveals itself in all these amazing ways. Glorious.
5.June.12
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Awareness, that in which everything appears. Time, space matter and energy.
The entire universe is an experience to us.
Is there a boundary between awareness and experience?
4.June.12
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The opportunity and privilege, to be available as an invitation to live life, as an embodied expression of this love affair with totality.
3.June.12
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The paradox of different perspectives.
As awareness, no boundaries, no birth and death, untouched by experience.
As the nervous system, boundaries, birth and death, in the field of experience.
The invitation, to honor both perspectives.
2.June.12
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Distinction between teaching and exploring.
Teaching is putting something on top.
Exploring or enquiring is finding out for yourself.
29.May.12
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Trust.
What does that mean?
Funny how often we trust mistrust.
Awareness beyond trust and mistrust.
28.May.12
I love this topic of how to respond to the knowing that what is going on in the world, is unsustainable and could result in many species, including our own going extinct.
In the light of deep enquiry, it is clear that there is no one doing anything. As John Lennon wrote so poetically, “Life is what happens whilst we are busy making other plans.” We can check this for ourselves by asking if our lives are how we exactly planned them. I know in nature, if there is a real threat to our survival, our system will respond by going into fight, flight, freeze or collapse.
We have no choice which of these appear automatically, which of course will affect the expression that happens. What often happens then is a judgement of how the system responds, which only adds another layer of confusion. We can enquire honestly as to how the system is responding to this threat and gently notice what is happening in the body. Most often, what I see is overwhelm and denial with a bunch of spiritual platitudes to compensate. At least then, our response becomes conscious and has a chance at integrating.
Recognizing that the entire universe, time, space, matter and energy are all an experience appearing in awareness, and that awareness is our true nature is the beginning. Resting as awareness gives the possibility of noticing the automatic unconscious habits, that are identification and cause the sense of “I”, separation and suffering. These unconscious habits produce the false sense of doer ship, where as in truth Totality is all there is and expresses as everything.
Enquiring into these habits, which is a natural function of maturing, by either being present to the sensations that drive them or noticing how they function without any agenda, allows them to become conscious, without them getting attention by wanting to change, fix and get rid of them, which is what gives them their power. In my view, what we see happening in the world, which is threatening the survival of our species, is the manifestation of these unconscious habits. These habits cannot manifest consciously.
Try to suffer consciously. I love when these unconscious habits reveal themselves, including how they show up as what is happening in the world.
Becoming conscious of these habits, which are not personal, but feel really personal, influences the field. Our attention is all we have to give. Where and how our attention focuses produces both the sense of ourselves and also the sense of the universe we live in.
The habit of attention, being a habit is hard to notice as we are so used to look through it. The habit of attention in a family is enough to manifest as sickness, suicide, a sense of being unworthy, not belonging etc, so vital to our well being. The unconscious dualistic habit of attention of most expressions of totality, commonly called people, is painful, so we have the sense of causing trouble for ourselves and everyone, including the people that are closest to us. What we love, is to be in life in a way that is beautiful to us and nourishes and is of value to those around us.
How totality expresses as humans, will depend on many factors and will express so differently. This said, how expression happens will be through all the filters of conditioning from our ancestors and society. As the automatic unconscious habits, become conscious and integrate, an expression that is appropriate to our talents will emerge. That might be anything from playing music, actively non violently protesting, to direct action.
Love will show the way.
Isaac on Facebook 03.05.2015
Such a paradox this life.
The heartbreak of how we live as humans. Political corruption, the banking system based on greed and inequality, Monsanto, corporations, the war machine, the petro chemical industry and the majority who are asleep and not aware of being asleep.
Then there are all the inspired, ordinary warriors, who with heart and clarity are available to life to say NO to whats happening, staying connected with compassion and to act in ways of beauty, love and overflow that also break my heart and bring tears of joy and gratefulness.
This manifestation in the Great mystery, on a tiny speck swirling through the universe, all appearing in awareness.
Brings me to my knees.
Isaac on Facebook 31.12.2014
If our parents or caregivers had a dualistic focus, they would have relied on their senses to be able to take care of our needs, without having the capacity to know and feel our needs from within. To an infant whose only signal was to cry, when our signals were not met, this would have felt existential and traumatic.
What I notice is this leaves a residue of a felt sense that all is not well and a need to defend from everybody especially those that are most meaningful to us. In intimate relating, after the honeymoon period, this often manifests as pain with many compensations to deal with the felt sense of not being met. This often goes unrecognised or if felt gets projected as there being something wrong with ourselves or intimate partners, family, friends and in fact everybody. Often we are so used to this that there doesn’t seem like another possibility and an automatic bracing happens so we can endure living.
There is a deep yearning at the body level, to be felt and seen, to connect and at the same time defending, so our signals are mixed and confusing.
In moments of resting as awareness, this relaxes but to embody unconditional love moment by moment is rare, as the field we inhabit reinforces this sense of not being seen and felt.
How does this show up in society? Does this mechanism show up as the political/banking system we have?
I will post again soon on what I find helpful in bringing this to peace. I know that for those expressions of totality that see through the filter that there is no one here and nothing to do, these words may be confronting or confusing. If there is any touch than this presents a beautiful opportunity.
Isaac on Facebook 04.01.2015
These expressions of totality called humans are designed to be social. Our nervous systems get the info from our caregivers about life. Any undigested experience gets passed on way before there is any capacity to discriminate, so we find ourselves with automatic habits and filters that function in a way that produces identification or to say it in another way a sense of I.
These automatic habits which no one does produce a sense of I. When life is lived through this feeling sense of I, it seems as if the I is the doer, chooser etc, is responsible for actions and that the sense of separation is real.
The habit of attention from this perspective generates a field of attention that we are quite used to, which is quite painful as it projects us, everybody and everything as objects that don’t quite measure up.
These habits can only function unconsciously. No one decides to suffer consciously.
1st step is the recognition that these movements or habits are happening by themselves and that there is awareness of them, including the sense of “I”, which upon examination reveals itself to be movements, as the moment we enter deep sleep or stillness, the sense of I disappears.
Isaac on Facebook 06.01.2015
Awareness. which is our true nature, has no wants and need.
The expression called the body does. The movement of these wants and needs is experienced as “I” so usually there is identification with the wants and needs.
If in the womb or after birth, our nervous system never received the info that all is well, that “we” were welcomed, seen and felt, then a residue of wants and needs based on a sensation of all is not well, remains.
Our thinking tries to help and comes up with what looks like will make us happy. This keeps our attention on getting, which as long as that movement remains automatic and unconscious, keeps our attention busy, without the capacity to enjoy this moment as the beloved.
The habit of attention of most people is wanting and needing, so our systems never get the info they yearn for. If we are lucky enough to come into a field of attention where we are received completely, sometimes called transmission, our systems may temporarily relax and the recognition that there is another possibility that is indescribably beautiful, arises.
A yearning to live like this, is a fire that burns everything and enquiry is born.
Isaac on Facebook 08.01.2015
What is enquiry?
There is the enquiry advocated by Sri Ramana Maharishi.
No matter what arises, ask who is aware of that and remain as that which is aware.
There is the enquiry of Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj.
See how you function, watch the motives and results of your actions. Study the prison you have built around yourself, by inadvertence.
We discover it by being earnest, by searching, enquiring, questioning daily and hourly, by giving one’s life to this discovery.
Byron Katie . The 4 questions and turn around. Is it true?
Can you absolutely know that it’s true? (Yes or no.)
How do you react, what happens, when you believe that thought?
Who would you be without the thought?
Somatic Enquiry. Noticing the sensations and the automatic responses to the sensations and how that all functions.
I love them all.
Isaac on Facebook 09.01.2015
Somatic Enquiry.
In the recognition that this universe is an experience to us and that the nervous system automatically and unconsciously responds to the experience, and that both the feeling sense of “I” and the felt sense of the universe we live in depends on these responses, it makes sense to me to include and gently notice these responses.
Isaac on Facebook 15.01.2015
The sensations of now are all we have. The nature of experience is constant change.
Is it possible to receive the sensations of this moment as the beloved?
Is that dependent on the sensations?
What is required to received the sensations as the beloved?
Isaac on Facebook 16.01.2015
©Isaac Shapiro 2023