of laughter and lots of people who know each other very well. You might witness the bar staff exchanging words with the punters on a very informal basis and feel rather uncomfortable because you are clearly a strange face to others. It’s like catching a glimpse of a movie half-way through and not knowing the characters or the plot.
When self-consciousness ceases, there are only flashes of light and sound and lots and lots of storytelling. The mind constructs scenes complete with people and places to make sense of the infinite. Boundlessness and lack of definition scare the life out of an engineered self.
I can assure you that liberation does not stop thought, though. Thought is seen as this incredible phenomenon that arises out of nothing and falls back into nothing. Like a lucid dream, it is taken to be entertainment—no different from reading a novel or going to the cinema. It has no power to do anything. It is always playing catch-up, interpreting from old knowledge and ignoring the present appearance of everything in and as this timeless realm.
If you see what I am trying to convey, you will never be bored again. The mystery of what is will be a constant travelling companion for you. So, sitting in traffic with others becoming frustrated at the one metre per minute progress will be a source of pleasure while you are looking at the surroundings and hearing the tutting and cussing of your fellow passengers.
In liberation, the very thing seeming to be a constant cause of anxiety can morph into utter fascination and interest. Listening—real listening—where you seek clarification from another to really grasp their thoughts shows the utmost respect for someone. Rather than stored knowledge becoming activated or crass stock phrases being used, you give another the space to express themselves. You can still misunderstand someone, however, but you seem to have the confidence to admit it, and you are intrigued and interested all the same. There is no inner structure to sway about and become unstable after an attempt to criticise you and your lack of knowledge. There is no separate person in residence to receive and interpret this. What you are becomes unbounded and free and unaffected by the neurotic needs of others.
Fear can come in all guises and so my fears are not your fears. But I think fear of other people is ubiquitous and the source of a lot of depression, anxiety and cruel vindictive behaviour designed to belittle and control others. Fear of others is not just the withdrawing from social situations so as not to be exposed as an unworthy human candidate; it can appear as always wanting to be the best around others and the withholding of praise and love if someone achieves more than you. The self which emerges from early unsatisfactory encounters with parents and teachers strives for perfection. If this perfection is clearly out of reach, the fear of being found out and having your Achilles heel on show will activate aggression as well as self-pity. It is much easier to inflict harm on others if we feel ourselves threatened and in danger.
Judging others and creating a personality for them has very little to do with who or what they are. In a way we are always writing two scripts—ours and theirs. This is inevitable and comes with the package labelled: I am a separate person . Not only do we imprison ourselves, we create an accomplice and share a bunk bed with him or her in jail.
Interactions are influenced by the internal drama. This is the dynamism that drives so much misery and unsatisfactory behaviour. It is as if you are a talent scout searching for someone to play a role in your production. If someone leaves you to star in, or play a supporting part in, another drama, then there is a role that needs filling. You cannot put on the performance without a cast; who would come to see that? A drama with no actors is a non-entity. It makes me wonder if it’s
When self-consciousness ceases, there are only flashes of light and sound and lots and lots of storytelling. The mind constructs scenes complete with people and places to make sense of the infinite. Boundlessness and lack of definition scare the life out of an engineered self.
I can assure you that liberation does not stop thought, though. Thought is seen as this incredible phenomenon that arises out of nothing and falls back into nothing. Like a lucid dream, it is taken to be entertainment—no different from reading a novel or going to the cinema. It has no power to do anything. It is always playing catch-up, interpreting from old knowledge and ignoring the present appearance of everything in and as this timeless realm.
If you see what I am trying to convey, you will never be bored again. The mystery of what is will be a constant travelling companion for you. So, sitting in traffic with others becoming frustrated at the one metre per minute progress will be a source of pleasure while you are looking at the surroundings and hearing the tutting and cussing of your fellow passengers.
In liberation, the very thing seeming to be a constant cause of anxiety can morph into utter fascination and interest. Listening—real listening—where you seek clarification from another to really grasp their thoughts shows the utmost respect for someone. Rather than stored knowledge becoming activated or crass stock phrases being used, you give another the space to express themselves. You can still misunderstand someone, however, but you seem to have the confidence to admit it, and you are intrigued and interested all the same. There is no inner structure to sway about and become unstable after an attempt to criticise you and your lack of knowledge. There is no separate person in residence to receive and interpret this. What you are becomes unbounded and free and unaffected by the neurotic needs of others.
Fear can come in all guises and so my fears are not your fears. But I think fear of other people is ubiquitous and the source of a lot of depression, anxiety and cruel vindictive behaviour designed to belittle and control others. Fear of others is not just the withdrawing from social situations so as not to be exposed as an unworthy human candidate; it can appear as always wanting to be the best around others and the withholding of praise and love if someone achieves more than you. The self which emerges from early unsatisfactory encounters with parents and teachers strives for perfection. If this perfection is clearly out of reach, the fear of being found out and having your Achilles heel on show will activate aggression as well as self-pity. It is much easier to inflict harm on others if we feel ourselves threatened and in danger.
Judging others and creating a personality for them has very little to do with who or what they are. In a way we are always writing two scripts—ours and theirs. This is inevitable and comes with the package labelled: I am a separate person . Not only do we imprison ourselves, we create an accomplice and share a bunk bed with him or her in jail.
Interactions are influenced by the internal drama. This is the dynamism that drives so much misery and unsatisfactory behaviour. It is as if you are a talent scout searching for someone to play a role in your production. If someone leaves you to star in, or play a supporting part in, another drama, then there is a role that needs filling. You cannot put on the performance without a cast; who would come to see that? A drama with no actors is a non-entity. It makes me wonder if it’s
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