Mind Filters...

[Anthem]

Hi EMC,

I have really enjoyed your posts over the last few days,[] are you willing to share the details of what the Bernie Prior retreat was like?

thanks,

A

[emc]

Thanks for reflecting back, Andrew. I am glad you enjoy my recent posts. I enjoy writing them, since they are written mostly without emc being the writer. My hands and arms fly weightless in the air and write whatever is to be written.

Bernie Prior is not very well known. He is one of those great ones whose teachings go so deep you realize there's no point in storytelling, since it refers to the past. So how shall the word be spread about his teachings?

Attending the retreat was truly a journey from ego to I in a rapid pace. I had attended his satsangs and workshops for 2 weeks during the summer, and he said "You must come to the retreat as well". I felt the urge and went. During the retreat I understood how a Master is serving. All participants were transparent to him - he knew our hearts and minds - and all of us got exactly what we needed to go forward. He held satsangs but first and foremost what he does is he teaches a movement - dance - called The Form. It is extremely transforming without leaving any overload symptoms at all. It's literally mirroring the whole universe and integrates it to be inside you instead of outside - making that shift in perspective! I feel perfectly ok, and actually the overload symptoms (eczema, head ache, heat) I had when I came to the retreat disappeared. (I have come to realize that it's only the ego that has overload symptoms, headaches, heat etc. Staying in the presence gives no symptoms at all. I feel that quite clearly when I flip-flop in and out of time. Heat and headaches disappear in an instant when I become real and true.)

I really don't know what to say. Bernie as a person is absolutely nothing. He is THAT in a character called Bernie, and he has a very deep realization. The contact with him leaves no attachments, since there's nobody there to be attached to. If you try to chat with him from your mind, he barely hears you and seldom answers. Talk to him from your true heart and you get instant direction of what is true for you in the moment. Try to ask a mindy question and he immediately pin points where your wounds are that made you ask that question. You don't get away with anything. Actually, I discovered you don't need to ask any questions at all. He sees what's in people's minds and just brings it up as a topic or turns directly to you and comment on it before you blink, or more common later during the retreat: appears as the inner guru talking to you! He sees all that takes place in the room since his awareness is so wide. Scary for the mind, but after a while your mind has freaked out so much so you understand it's your being that is the one who directly drinks his words, in order to awaken the individual consciousness (which is being a part of the One Supreme Intelligence Consciousness - The One exposed as multiplicity and therefore able to know itself).

I just opened my heart more and more, surrendered to WHAT IS, and learned how my mind works. Just interacting with the other participants was helpful since they all were quick to point out "That's the mind" whenever it took over and presence was lost. You could soon feel the drop in energy whenever someone was mindy. Insight after insight hit me, often giving me a real beautiful buddha laugh. Sometimes I overcame mind obstacles with the help of Byron Katie's voice asking "Is that really true?" I cried and cried whenever my heart opened, I dove with full awareness into whatever painful emotion that bubbled up, and I laughed and laughed when I realized oneness, mind function, the ridiculous seriousness with wich we live in duality, and I often stopped to talk to the trees or cats who caressed me gently whenever I needed. In the beginning I held the daily meditations, but at the end my mind could not bring itself to it and The Self just didn't bring my body-mind vehicle to meditate on the mantra. And I chose to stay present and follow the flow.  

Bernie can't be talked about or described. He must be experienced, just as the Silence. They are the same. Meeting Bernie is meeting pure silence in action. And realizing Bernie is in me, that I am Bernie, is freedom, equality, love, sameness, oneness, bliss, wonder, awe, universal glory, passion... Love of the Love that I am. On top of that, he's a really, really funny guy! We got a 9 day stand-up comedian show on the retreat!

Go see for yourselves. He comes to USA in September...

[emc]

PS: I'd like to add that he gives The Form to realized persons as well which brings them deeper into the mystery! There's no end to how much the consciousness can expand.

The Way that can be experienced is not true;
The world that can be constructed is not real.
The Way manifests all that happens and may happen;
The world represents all that exists and may exist.

To experience without abstraction is to sense the world;
To experience with abstraction is to know the world.
These two experiences are indistinguishable;
Their construction differs but their effect is the same.

Beyond the gate of experience flows the Way,
Which is ever greater and more subtle than the world.

Tao Te Ching

You bewilder us with your grace,
all evils transformed into goodness.
You are the master alchemist.
You light the fire of love in Earth and Sky,
in heart and soul of every being.
Through your loving,
existence and non-existence merge.
All opposites unite.
All that is profane becomes sacred again.
/Rumi

I did not grasp the last sentence before. All that is profane becomes sacred again. But it does. Absolutely everything existing on earth is sacred, no matter our opinions about it. Because it's not real, only experienced. It's a wonderful reflection of the Self, constantly giving birth, constantly dying in existence. We step in an out of existence as we live and die, we bring our patternings and we dissolve it and create more of it.

The Source, the one, the Way is a big AAAAAAAAAHHHHH. How is the world of existence? It is SO! It is what is. Two sides of the same coin. The insight may be like: Ah, so! (German: Achso!) aaah, sooo haaahh. And this eternal truth brings a long yummie yummie nodding MMmmmmmmmmmmmmm!!!! That is actually: So! Haaaaaaaaaaaahhhhh Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmm. So'ham. The mantra So'ham is the inherent in everybody, in all of us; it repeats itself continually, along with our breathing, mirroring all of IT.

[Anthem]

Thanks EMC.

A

[emc]

Thank you, Andrew. I love you. I love you endlessly. My heart wants to burst in gratefulness for you being there for me to perceive and receive reflections from. I cry constantly when I write.

Endless gratefulness to Yogani and the I AM meditation, without which I don't think I would have been ready to taste this shift in identity. I haven't got a clue where it will go from here - this current tango dance. I am aware of the fact that I'm high after a retreat. I am also aware that I flip-flop a lot. Time will tell where I'll go from here. Ego's don't let go easily...

[Jim and His Karma]

quote:Originally posted by emc
the overload symptoms... I had when I came to the retreat disappeared.

but....

quote:Originally posted by emc
I cry constantly when I write.

There are bhakti overload symptoms, too, EMC.

Walk. Ground.

[emc]

Thank you for your concern, but I do not understand what bhakti overload would be. I do not find this to be overload if that implies any types of discomfort or problems. I am well grounded and manage to work and deal with the world perfectly while this cleansing and dissolving is going on. Could you make me more aware of what bhakti overload means?

[Jim and His Karma]

For me, constant crying would be something other than "grounded". But everything's relative!

[Shanti]

Firstly, Jim thank you for your post. Like I said above, I don't get it.. and I did not.. till last night.. I get it now.. what you mean by love it all.
 
In my own experience, the term "Love" has always been attached to many emotions and sentiments (mind filters:)). I had no idea there was something like pure love.. a feeling that is not associated with any emotion.. It does not feel like romantic love for a partner, or caring, protective love for a child, or grateful, respectful love for a parent, etc. It is just pure feeling arising from the heart with absolutely no emotions/labels attached. We have all experienced this at some time or the other, however they may have been very fleeting feelings that we have not realized existed, and that we may not have recognized as Love.
 
Yesterday I was reading  the Alchemist by Paul Coehlo.. and there was a part where he says "He tried to deal with the concept of love as distinct from possession, and couldn't separate them". Later during meditation a though arose "you can love without possession".  This thought started expanding.. it was spreading and automatically being applied to  people in my life.. a feeling of just pure love with no stories attached. I stayed with it for a bit.. then finished my meditation.
 
Later I was driving  alone when the thought of someone who has been a very negative influence on my life came to me. I saw her in my mind.. and before last night , any time I thought of her, my emotions  took over and I would get sad and depressed and drown in self pity. But this time was different. I could see very clearly.. I realized that she really did love me and all her possessive, controlling, trying to change me, was her own distorted way of showing me her love. That is  the only way she knew how to show love. When that filter of all the mental and emotional abuse she put me through dropped, all I saw was the love behind it. I am not saying what she did was right or it was OK for her to treat another human the way she did. All I am saying is when I saw the story, I could drop it and become free from it. I realized that it was not how she treated me that kept me imprisoned, it was the story my mind made around the situation that kept me imprisoned.. and when I drop the story, all that is left is love.
 
I realized what the statement, "you can love without possession" meant. Possession does not have to mean physical possession.. just holding on to a mental story is also a kind of possession.. and dropping this mental story is really loving someone without possessing.
 
I went through the entire evening, enjoying this new opening, this new freedom.. it was such a tiny switch, but such a huge relief. All through the evening, my ego tried to create another story to show me how flawed my thinking was.. but it just could not stick. I could appy this to many other situations in my life.. and it was so easy to feel love (even for the stubbed toe:)..).
 
As I sat with this all evening, I felt love emanating from my heart. Such pure emotionless, sentiment-less, story-less love. It expanded and took over me.. and then around everyone I knew.. I had no identity.. I was not Shanti, I was not a woman, nor was I a mother or wife or daughter or friend.. I was just love with no boundaries. I looked up to thank Ma, and my awareness was drawn within.. I realized, Ma was in me, Ma was me, I was Ma. I had tears of love and gratitude rolling down my cheeks.
 
And the best part of this whole thing.. None of it was mystical, no lights and bells and angels and aums.. No image of Ma.. No blessings from the skies.. Nothing.. just a pure feeling of love, a pure essence of Ma and a pure joy in my heart. Nothing changed in my life.. and yet everything has changed. I am lighter and see more clearly.. and yet every one of the situations that existed before last evening are still there. I just don't have an attachment to it. It is such a minuscule shift in perception.. and yet such a life changing shift.
 
I don't know if I manged to convey anything in this post. It is so hard to put these experiences into words. All I can say is, it comes your way when you least expect it.. and is as normal a feeling as looking at the palm of your hand. You may be looking at it everyday.. and suddenly one day you will see it.

[Sparkle]

Beautifully explained Shanti, clear as a bell

Sounds wonderful, send some this way please[]

 

quote:Later during meditation a thought arose "you can love without possession". This thought started expanding.. it was spreading and automatically being applied to people in my life.. a feeling of just pure love with no stories attached.

I find this very interesting, the way a thought arises in meditation. One could say the thought triggered the awakening but how did the thought arrive, i.e. was it a result of a thought process going on at the time, or did it just pop in out of the blue?
and was what followed, similar to a samyama experience?

[emc]

Shanti, thanks for writing that!

Yes, we are all that love. We are what Jesus preached about.

It becomes very clear what Katie means when she says "It only takes one to have a great relationship, and that's me!"

Love that love. Drink from that well and get to know thyself!

I love thee, my love!

All we need is love... tamtadadadaaaaaaa

[Shanti]

Thanks EMC.

quote:Originally posted by Sparkle

I find this very interesting, the way a thought arises in meditation. One could say the thought triggered the awakening but how did the thought arrive, i.e. was it a result of a thought process going on at the time, or did it just pop in out of the blue?
and was what followed, similar to a samyama experience?

 
I dunno Louis . I am not good at the "under the hood" stuff. Maybe someone else has an answer?

I have known for awhile I had to get over the issue I stated above.. however it was pretty painful and very hard to inquire into. So, no, I don't think it popped out of the blue.. however when I was reading the book I had no clue that that line had anything to do with my "letting go".

There was another line in the book the Alchemist.. "When you want something, all the universe conspires to help you achieve it".
I have seen, when you know what you want, and give up the attachment to it, everything falls in place to reveal the way to achieve it. The trick is to let go. So you may have something in what you say above.. "similar to a samyama experience".

[Sparkle]

Ok sorry for introducing analysis into such a beautiful way of "being".

I'm often curious where thoughts that pop in during meditation come from. Whether it is out of inner silence and out of the intelligent love energy or out of the ego mind, or whether there is a cross over between to two.
There is no doubt that no matter which way it works, the essential ingredient is inner silence.

All the best and congrats on your luuuuuuuving[]

[emc]

quote:There was another line in the book the Alchemist.. "When you want something, all the universe conspires to help you achieve it".
I have seen, when you know what you want, and give up the attachment to it, everything falls in place to reveal the way to achieve it. The trick is to let go. So you may have something in what you say above.. "similar to a samyama experience".

To me that is the law of attraction... still the mind wanting, finding a way to play the game in existence.

Oh, how wonderful to completely and utterly let go of trying to rule the play in any way... peace entering when no wantings occupy the mind... when all is total, complete and perfect as it is. No thoughts needed. Just happening as an urge to act on if they have truth in them, and seen as shadows of air if they are unreal.

No decisions to make, ever! No responsibilities but to stay true and stay home. True integrity. Stillness constantly creating the living of life. Love embracing it all.

[Anthem]

quote:Originally posted by emc

 To me that is the law of attraction... still the mind wanting, finding a way to play the game in existence.

Hi EMC[],

The law itself is what it is, but I agree completely, consciously trying to use and apply it, is the mind at work trying to fulfill desires. This is tricky business and keeps us away from what Is.

It's funny, my mother asked me to visualize her "getting" this house she had been looking at the other day and I felt on some level like I couldn't understand why to do this. Yes I understand the theory, to help her create the reality she thinks she wants, but deep down, I wanted only to ask for life to bring her exactly what she truly needs. How could I or her know for certain that this house is the best thing for her? Maybe it has a cracked foundation, who knows? I'd rather leave it up to the universe.

 

quote:Oh, how wonderful to completely and utterly let go of trying to rule the play in any way... peace entering when no wantings occupy the mind... when all is total, complete and perfect as it is. No thoughts needed. Just happening as an urge to act on if they have truth in them, and seen as shadows of air if they are unreal.

No decisions to make, ever! No responsibilities but to stay true and stay home. True integrity. Stillness constantly creating the living of life. Love embracing it all.

Beautifully said.

A