who am I

2011-12-28T12:42:00.000-08:00

The most important thing is to find out what is the most important thing...

Shunryu Suzuki

2011-12-15T13:13:00.000-08:00

2008-03-27T17:08:00.000-07:00

Innocence fragile looks into the mirror.....smiles....
"Will we be friends forever..."
mirror echoes the phrase....
...no answers in the world
just questions...and tales...
yours and mine....

xx

Dove White

2007-06-15T11:06:00.000-07:00

question: Do you want us to learn what you are telling us?

Or is it all a sort of example, an illustration of something else?

answer: Yes, indeed!

*** but an example of what? ***

2006-10-15T06:21:00.000-07:00

A sort of freedom

"A sort of freedom comes from recognizing what is necessarily so. After that is recognized, comes a knowledge of how to act. You can ride a bicycle only after your partly unconscious reflexes acknowledge the laws of its moving equilibrium."

Gregory Bateson

2006-08-23T02:37:00.000-07:00

At first I didn't know who I was
and I was content
then came language,
and a name

some what later I became "me"
not the same as "you"
with properties, good and bad
and judgements...

now, again, I don't know who am I
I see myself everywhere
in a thousand mirrors,
am I a magic ball?

2006-08-16T04:19:00.000-07:00

Duality...

Question:

If you are nothing and I am nothing ... where is the difference
between you and me?

Answer:

Nothing... But you are observing this from within the duality, so we
will never be able to experience "us"
Because we are subject! Just like I can't observe "my" real self, I
can't observe "your" real self, because it's the same and subject... Not
object...

Question:

Ever thought about the sense of duality?

Answer:

Ofcourse... Everything is duality, there's a balance, there's no white
without black, no peace without war...

http://hinduism.about.com/library/weekly/aa031002a.htm

Shiva dances with himself... Consiousness plays with itself!

Question:

... no heaven without hell, no god without devil ... no me without you.

I'm just playing today with my own thoughts to sort some of them. What I don't understand is ... where does duality leads us to? Is there an end of it?

Answer:

Well, no... It's duality that makes conciousness able to play with itself...

It's like the sun that sees it's light by reflection on the moon... It can't see itself, only the reflection...

While in the case of conciousness it also plays the moon... :-)

Impossible for us to understand... since “we” are part of it…

Question:

Why?
Isn't it a big step for the most of us to understand that we need duality?

Answer:

Well... WHO needs duality? We are never going to be able to understand, because once we do understand, there's no "we" anymore...

and... imagine Conciousness... if "everybody" would understand... then it's game over!

2006-08-12T06:08:00.001-07:00

Hunting the I
(according to Sri Ramana Maharshi byLucy Cornelssen)
IINVESTIGATION
Are you happy?
When you reply with the counter question ‘What is
happiness?’ that means that you have already observed how brittle,
how transient and short-lived your so-called happiness is.
But maybe what we have in mind was not happiness at all,
but only pleasure?
‘Pleasure’ means the fulfillment of some desire or the
removal of something unpleasant. But experience teaches that,
after one desire has been fulfilled, two other ones will emerge,
and after something unpleasant has been removed, something
else of a similar kind will present itself and obstruct our intention
to enjoy ourselves. We try and try again to change circumstances
and conditions; is it not our birthright to be happy?
It is.
Then why have we to struggle and to fight and still miss it?
Because of a single error of ours: We do not know ourselves
properly, and by that same error everything else is spoiled. Nor
do we know what happiness is.
Real happiness needs no struggle nor endeavour, no reason
nor cause; it is inherent in the real ‘I’. However you and I, we
live on a wrong ‘I’, as it were. That is the mistake which has to
be removed before we can claim our birthright on real happiness.
So says Ramana, the Maharshi. And he advises us to dive
deep into ourselves with the question: ‘Who am I?’
Don’t expect an answer to it; there is none, because every
possible answer which might come to our mind is wrong.
However, he promises us that one day, provided our
perseverance and patience keep us on the path, there will
emerge a real ‘I’ the identity of the Great Experience, and
together with it the true happiness, which is Satchi-dananda,
the Bliss of Conscious Be-ing.
Somebody asked Sri Ramana:
“When we start this enquiry, who is doing it?”
Sri Ramana’s answer: “The Self does no vichara. That which
makes the enquiry is the ego. The ‘I’ about which the enquiry is
made is also the ego. As the result of the enquiry the ego ceases
to exist and only the Self is found to exist.”
(Day by Day, 21.11.45.)
But there are people who feel unable to attack the wrong
idea of themselves immediately. They want first to be shown an
intellectual approach. There may also be some who do not even
know how to ‘go within’. To those we recommend first that
they take a closer look at their own ‘person’, at that which they
take as ‘I’.
You say: ‘I sit, I walk’, obviously taking the body as ‘I’,
because it is the body that sits or walks.
But don’t you also say; ‘I think, I believe, I decide’, etc.?
This ‘I’ seems rather to be of the nature of the thinking mind!
And what about your being glad or sad, elated or depressed?
Isn’t it an ‘I’ of some sort of feeling? And at another time there
emerges an ‘I’ which is intending something, planning,
designing, an ‘I’ which seems to be sheer willing?
The conclusion seems to be: ‘I’ means all this together as
my body-mind-person.
‘My?’ Whose? By looking at these ‘I’s quite frankly, we see
that this body-mind-person also is not ‘I’, but ‘mind’. So whose?
Where is the ‘I’ to be found in this case?
A strange whim of language?
Let us consider the body. It cannot be ‘I’, because everybody
talks about ‘his’ body. Apart from that, it has been born without
having asked its ‘I’ beforehand, and it shall die without asking
its ‘I’ whether it agrees to it or not. And in between it is living
upto its appointed hour without any consideration for its ‘I’, a
mere biological phenomenon, a product of this planet, and it
seems rather presumptuous to say even ‘my’ body. Moreover
‘my’ body does not at all obey me, its ‘I’. Does ‘my’ thinking
mind do that? The answer is: ‘No, on the contrary.’
Thus it seems that thinking, feeling and willing are
functions of the body, or, to be more specific, of its brain, a
biologically reacting mechanism which serves the body properly
without needing an ‘I’ for that purpose.
But still there seems to be an ‘I’, because we are conscious
of it vividly even now, at this moment, when it appears to lose
its last foothold!
Hold it!
Keep very quiet and observe: This ‘I’ does neither think nor
will; it has no qualities, is neither man nor woman, has neither
body nor mind; it has no trace of the ‘Person’ which you had in
mind during your previous questions about the ‘I’. It simply is
conscious of itself as ‘I am’. Not ‘I am this’, ‘I am that’; only ‘I
am’.............................................................................
But beware: It’s not you who has this ‘I’...Consciousness
as an object, but this Consciousness is your real ‘I’!
This pure be-ing ‘I am’ is the first glimpse of the real ‘I’,
the Self, which is by nature Pure Consciousness.
When your attention is keen, then you will discover
simultaneously that there is not now and never has been a wrong
‘I’. It has always been the same ‘real I’, only your mind has
covered it up with the idea which it has about your ‘person’.
There are other opportunities, when we could experience
this pure ‘I’ consciously. One such is during the tiny gap between
two thoughts, when the attention has given up its hold on one
thought and not yet caught the next one. But since we never
tried our attention is not trained this way, and we will hardly
succeed in the attempt.
There is a better chance to catch it between sleeping and
awaking. It is very important to try it, if you are serious in your
hunting the ‘I’. Take care of a few conditions: Try at night just
before you fall asleep to keep as the last thought your intention
to catch as the first thing of all on waking in the morning the
experience of your true ‘I’.
Another condition: You should take care not to awaken
too abruptly such as by an alarm clock, and also not to jump
headlong into your daily morning routine. The moment you
awake, don’t stir, but remember your intention from last night.
You will succeed after a few attempts. And what is possible
once even for a moment can be extended by practice.
This experiment gives you the advantage that you now
know the aim of your endeavour. It will help you in your further
sadhana like leavening in the dough.
Ramana Maharshi named it the transitional ‘I’ and stressed
the importance of this experience again and again.

2006-07-16T23:22:00.000-07:00

Last Night... My father died...

Well, he was ill for a few weeks, pancreas cancer... and with his age of 85, this was an irreversible illness. The specialist though said it would take slowly, 3 to 6 months... well... this diagnosis happened 3 weeks ago and... he's not here anymore.

Well, what's nice about dieing? I went to see him quite a few times, before the end, my parents live in Bruges, about 130km of were I live. And I observed the process... of dieing... being ill first, and then going back, to childness, to innocence, to purity... no more personality, no more identification, no more ME... While especially this ME was soo strong for him the last 20 years, it seamed the only thing he lived for... But the last week, it was gone... and he was happy again like I never have seen him before... Living in the identification in general, never brings hapiness, at the countrary, it creates desires, fears, anger and expectations... so this was all gone... he was happy with the little things, with us being there, while he never knew what was happening to him, there was no need to do so, no need to confront him with the word... but he knew it was the end, and he thanked life and all what is... It was beautiful... I cryed... but not of sorrow... I cryed of hapiness, to see him the way he really is... Like the parable of the empty boat by Chang Tzu... While in the past there was always someone in his boat, and people he crossed shouted at him when he bumped into their boats, this wasn't the case anymore... now he was floating in an empty boat, and who can be angry at an empty boat?

so last night he finally died, I went looking at him in the evening, he was really quite. Not able to look, talk, move anymore... just be... nothing else... pure, innocent and loved... we were all there... me, my brothers, sister and mother... each one dealing with this in his/her own way...

Me, I am happy, joyfull, releaved...
it is a beautiful day...

2006-06-15T12:46:00.000-07:00

a course into silence, into stillness...

Last week I went to the french Pyrénées... I subscribed to a course called: "stilteweek"... (silenceweek)
purpose of the course: to discover the silence in one self, to get used to it and start liking it. Just like a horse that encouters his new stable, he has to get used to it... little by little and after a while, he will start liking it...

so... why this silence, why this stilness? Well... if I pose myself the question: "who am I?" I get silence as an answer... If I observe my surroundings and really question everything, defining subject or object, knowing that object is not I, what else is left but stillness, but silence...

just like a moviescreen silence and empty in it's origin but with huge potential, wonderful movies can bring the screen alive...

What else are we then this enormous potential, this source of everything, this environment where everything happens...

Without that nothing would be, without silence, there can not be sound, without empty space there can not be an object that becomes present.

so... there I was... driving for more then 11 hours towards the course... not knowing, not expecting about it...

I started my journey early in the morning... 6 am... to arrive at my destination arround 6 pm... stopped a few times, for fuel, toilet, lunch... mmm... a french "entrecote with fries", I knew that this course was going to be vegetarian...

after 10 hours driving I arrived at the french Pyrénées and started climbing, the house, and old farm was situated at about 1000m... the roads became smaller and smaller... I was alone on the road... I stopped at a certain moment because I saw a snake on the road... snakes are very uncommon in Belgium... Or perhaps I wanted to verify if it was a snake or a rope... It still looked like a snake...

moving on... smaller... lonely roads, lots of curves, climbing into the mountains. The further I drove, the more desolate the country became...
having the road description next to me, I went onto a hard trail, stones, sand, dust, and very bumpy... Two kilometers to go... first gear and carefully driving... finally I arrived at the end of the road, a fence and the farm... quite... nobody home?

I parked my Car and looked for the entrance...

oh... I'm not going to bore you to death with all details.... so... cut!

The agenda was like this: each day in the morning course from 10 till 12 and in the afternoon from 4pm till 6pm

and most session were quite alike... this is how it goes: the cours starts first with a quite meditation in a meditation room inside the farm. Then we all went outside and started a walk of about 3-4 Kilometers walking up and downhill. The people that felt unable to do this were given a shortcut.
Purpose of the walk was stay quite and practise the same meditation, but now in a different environment.

A shortcut to the final destination, a cromlech (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cromlech)
The cromlech here was between 3 and 5000 years old. It's considered a powerfull place and on the 21st of march the sun enters the circle through the porte.

so... destination the cromlech and we all went there, lieing or sitting on the ground, meditation moment again, same way...

so what was the mediation all about? simple... finding our silence... but... how? well... what is disturbing your silence? Your thoughts! Aren't they?
the exercise gave us a way to point our attention away from the thoughts, infact thoughts popping up where ignored and attention is pointed on someting, some place where you can easily go to. Like the breathing, or the sound in your ears, when you really listen... or anything else that works for you. The focus point is not important, only the attention is. Not on the thoughts...
So you start to do this and you have to redirect your attention again and again away from the thoughts... the more you do it, the more you realize that these thoughts are not interesting at all... They are commenting on everything, without reason, popping up out of the blue, without any cause or relation. Just annoying and craving for attention.
but the more you succeed on staying with your attention away from them, the less they appear, after a while and stilness, silence comes...
mmm... what more do you need... :-)

So basicly this was wat we did, with some alternatives too... we visited a dolmen closeby, laying about 500 meters from the cromlech...

We walked uphill, for one hour and a half, part of a GR (grand randoné), up to the mountain, enjoying the marvelous view...

And each time, at the end of the third part, there was room for questions...

well... not much questions for me, but I do like the silence, I do like the stillness and the thoughts... well... they don't have anything to tell me anyway... thoughts are good when you have to solve something, when you have to do something, but they go on and on... commenting everything and everybody... telling you stories...

So... me... I found the silence... along with the presence, the attention and the knowing

In fact we bring our attention to the present moment... opening up to what is and not to what can be or what what has been (thoughts are never talking about the presence)

2006-05-29T03:13:00.001-07:00

how could I let my silence sing, tell me,koen
how could I fill my emptyness...
it was born with me and,
I never understood
what I was missing or
maybe I'm afraid
to find it out!

My emptyness is , full of tears,
full of melancholies,
full of friends
- that are gone
full of love
- that was not given
full of time
-that was not lived
full of thoughts
-that were not shared
full of loneliness
-among the crowd
my emptyness
is full of memories
of imaginary lives...
tell me, my dear friend,
how could I ...

2006-05-10T16:23:00.000-07:00

"Consciousness in the strict sense, or consciousness properly speaking, and
consciousness of the infinite cannot be separated from each other; a limited
consciousness is no consciousness; consciousness is essentially infinite and
all-encompassing. The consciousness of the infinite is nothing else than the
consciousness of the infinity of consciousness. To put it in other words, in its
consciousness of infinity, the conscious being is conscious of the infinity of
its own being".

"We pursue knowledge in order to know; love in order to love; will in order
to will, that is, in order to be free. Truly to be is to be able to think, love,
and will. Only that which exists for its own sake is true, perfect, and divine.
But such is love, such is reason, and such is will. The divine trinity in man,
but transcending the individual man, is the unity of reason, love, and will.
Reason (imagination, fantasy, conception, opinion), will, and love or heart are
powers that man does not possess, although he is nothing without them but is
what he is through them. As elements constituting his essence which he neither
possesses nor makes, they are the very powers that animate, determine, and
govern him – divine, absolute powers that he is powerless to resist".

"...man becomes conscious of himself through the object that reflects his
being; man’s self-consciousness is his consciousness of the object. One knows
the man by the object that reflects his being; the object lets his being appear
to you; the object is his manifest being, his true, objective ego".

Even the moon, the sun, the stars say to man: Gnthi seantou – know thyself.
That he sees them, that he sees them the way he does, bears witness to his own
nature.

"What man calls Absolute Being, his God, is his own being..."

"Consciousness is self-sustained activity, self-affirmation, and self-love
– it is joy in one’s own perfection. Consciousness is the characteristic mark of
a perfect being; consciousness exists only in a plenitudinous, accomplished
being."

I dare you to say who wrote this (even though, at the end, i doesn't matter that much, it matters considering that one of you might have interest on reading something more from him)

2006-05-04T16:04:00.000-07:00

No Self - Rumi

Think of the phoenix coming up out of the ashes, but not flying off.

For a moment we have form.

How can we be conscious and you be conscious at the same time and separate?

Copper when an alchemist works on it loses it copper qualities.

Seeds in Spring begin to be trees, no longer seeds....

It’s not that I’ve done anything to deserve this attention from you.

Predestination and freewill: We can argue them, but they are only ideas.

What’s real is a presence, like Shams.

note: Shams was Rumi's sufi master

2006-05-04T14:47:00.000-07:00

Sensations - disbelief ?

I do admit I am struggling with the same feelings as described in below posts - if this is what you can call the sensation.

Although I do understand, or at least 'I' do think so, the whole being which is 'Bart' resists the 'concept' of the uniqueness, the BE-factor.

I think so I am is not true -> I AM, and 'I' whoever this is, just needs to accept this. But the 'Bart' identity is resisting the I AM, and fills it in with I AM ...., and I AM ..., and so on, and so on.

Yes, both of you, Koen & Elena have started the thinking and challenging process (Koen knows what I am talking about, for I do not hesitate to go and meet with him just for this reason).

'I' should not think though, not challenge, the 'I' should accept that the 'I' IS.

But what does IS mean ?

2006-05-02T23:36:00.000-07:00

The Eye of My Eye

By whose touch does the lily smile
And open its beauty – bud?
Whose moonlit beauty
Do I see in the lily?
Who is the Eye of my eye;
Who is the Heart of my heart?
Alas, then why do I not see Him,
His face of transcendental Beauty,
Even in my dreams?

2006-05-02T22:49:00.000-07:00

Know Thyself
"Know Thyself." This famous Greek maxim is attributed to any number of ancient Greek philosophers, including the great Socrates. However, according to the ancient historian Plutarch, "Know Thyself" was originally the admonition "Gnothi se auton" ("Know Thyself") inscribed on the Sun god Apollo's Oracle of Delphi temple in ancient Greece. Plutarch should know about the inscription on the Oracle, since he was once one of its caretakers. In deference to Socrates, it's known that Apollo's Oracle of Delphi identified him as being the wisest of all men.

Located on the slopes of Mount Parnassus, the Oracle of Delphi stood at the crossroads of the ancient world. The story goes that - once upon a time - Zeus, the chief Olympian god, released two eagles. One he released from the East (the Ascendant), the other he released from the West (the Descendant). At the point where the two eagles met, Zeus then threw a Sacred Stone marking the center of Earth - the navel of the world - at Delphi.

For thousands of years, the Sacred Stone of Delphi was zealously guarded by a fearsome snake, Python.

Apollo killed the Python of Delphi and took over that oracle, so he is vanquisher of unconscious terrors. He is golden-haired like the sun; he is an archer who shoots arrows of insight and/or death...

*** mmm... some resemblance with the story about the snake and the rope... So Apollo killed the snake in a metaphoric way, by seeing that it was a rope instead of a snake... By seeing the truth***

The Oracles of the Delphi were given through the intermediary of the Pythia, priestesses of Apollo. The Pythia entered into an altered state of consciousness and then uttered what some say were unintelligible verbalizations.

For most pilgrims, an encounter with the Delphi Oracle was to be a once-in-a-lifetime experience.

it was normally considered impious for a pilgrim to ask the Oracle for predictions of the future. It was, however, considered proper to ask Apollo's Oracle how one could become aligned with their destiny.

The ancient Delphi Oracle life task of "Knowing Thyself" never has lent itself out to easy "one size fits all" answers and/or solutions to life.
In Jungian psychological terms, the natural internal movement of the psyche toward "wholeness" or "completion" is called the process of "individuation."

The ancient Christian philosopher Irenaeus wrote that "the glory of God is a life fully lived." In his statement, Irenaeus was very likely inspired by the familiar passage from the Gospel of Matthew where Jesus of Nazareth said: "You must therefore be perfect just as your heavenly father is perfect." Unfortunately, modern translations of this passage - making use of the word "perfect" - are more than a wee bit misleading. The original Greek word used was teleios, meaning "brought to completion." Therefore, a better translation might be: "You must therefore be complete just as your heavenly father is complete." You must learn to be who you are.

What many folks don't know is that, according to Plutarch, there was yet another inscription on Apollo's Oracle of Delphi temple. "Thou Art."

*** indeed... the answer on the question who am I?***

well for hinduism, the deepest spiritual insight of the Upanishads is in the very title of the book: "That Thou Art." There is no loftier thought in all of human reflections than the assertion that each one of us is nothing less than a flicker of the Cosmic Effulgence that undergirds the world. The very idea elevates us in our introspection, and when it is sufficiently internalized, we truly make a cosmic connection.

That Thou Art - Tat twam asi.
What does it mean? It means that you are no other than God. Who else is God, if not you?
A God-lover knocked at God?s Heart-door. God from within, said, “Who is it?”
The God-lover said, “It is I.” The door remained locked. The man knocked and knocked. Finally he went away. After an hour he came back again. He knocked at God’s Heart-door. God, from within, said, “Who is it?”
The God-lover said, “ It is I.” The door remained locked. The man knocked and knocked at the door in vain. Finally he left.
After another hour, again he came back and knocked at God’s Heart-door. From within, God said, “Who is it?”
The God-lover said, “My eternal Beloved, it is Thou.?” God immediately opened His Heart-door.

2006-04-22T14:50:00.000-07:00

Pay no attention [to your thoughts]. Don't fight them. Just do nothing about them, let them be, whatever they are. Your very fighting them gives them life. just disregard. Look through.

2006-04-15T14:57:00.000-07:00

YESTERDAY, I lived bewildered,

In illusion.

But now I am awake,

Flawless and serene,

Beyond the world.

From my light

The body and the world arise.

So all things are mine,

Or nothing is.

Now I have given up

The body and the world,

I have a special gift.

I see the infinite Self.

As a wave,

Seething and foaming,

Is only water

So all creation,

Streaming out of the Self,

Is only the Self.

Consider a piece of cloth.

It is only threads!

So all creation,

When you look closely,

Is only the Self.

Like the sugar

In the juice of the sugarcane,

I am the sweetness

In everything

I have made.

When the Self is unknown

The world arises,

Not when it is known.

But you mistake

The rope for the snake.

When you see the rope,

The snake vanishes.

My nature is light,

Nothing but light.

When the world arises

I alone am shining.

When the world arises in me,

It is just an illusion:

Water shimmering in the sun,

A vein of silver in mother-of-pearl,

A serpent in a strand of rope.

From me the world streams out

And in me it dissolves,

As a bracelet melts into gold,

A pot crumbles into clay,

A wave subsides into water.

I adore myself,

How wonderful I am!

I can never die.

The whole world may perish,

From Brahma to a blade of grass,

But I am still here.

Indeed how wonderful!

I adore myself.

For I have taken form

But I am still one.

Neither coming or going,

Yet I am still everywhere….

I am the infinite ocean.

When thoughts spring up,

The wind freshens, and like waves

A thousand worlds arise.

But when the wind falls,

The trader sinks with his ship.

On the boundless ocean of my being

He founders,

And all the worlds with him.

But 0 how wonderful!

I am the unbounded deep

In whom all living things

Naturally arise,

Rush against each other playfully,

And then subside.

Ashtavakra Gita

2006-03-31T00:14:00.000-08:00

What is there beyond the fog?

Being the ocean, not the wave, means to accept the unknown, the things that are way too far from our understanding. It is to erase our individual condition and to accept that we belong to something bigger but uncertain, something that is ours, the essence of ourselves, and yet a mistery. What is a water drop among the sea? Nothing. What is an individual life among death?

Nothing.

Yes, but we are something... that thinking tells us that we are alive and that we are single and unique. This might be a wrong idea, but can we fight it?? Can we go against our natural desire to contain the world within the mind...that desire of catching the everything from the part...the asking? Can we stop asking the world for answers? Can we stop the rebel voice in the head who wonders, who wants to know??

Attachement to earthly things is for sure the cause of all suffering, but also of all pleasure. Are we willing (and prepared, and ready) to let go that?? Are we made to just be?

Not thinking, not feeling, not having despair...just be....are we capable of just being? Are we capable of avoiding "the temptation to exist"?

No wonder we will have time to that, when death comes...but we're not dead just yet.

Koen, what do you think?

2006-03-30T12:35:00.000-08:00

Darkness

imagen that you've been blind since you were born...
you would never be able to understand what darkness is...
though you must know it very well, since it's all the time there...
It's very near to you... you don't have to look for it...

Imagen if you, the real you, is all the time there...
when you are awake and even if you sleep...
indeed, something is aware that you are dreaming...
and is aware that you are not dreaming...
so, you are constantly aware...
You are always there even when your boddy is asleep.

But you are not able to see this, because it's always there...

You can not experience it... no duality...

2006-03-23T16:15:00.001-08:00

Clarify...hmmm LU, i'm not sure i'm good at that...perhaps, as Bertrand Rusell does, i like to mess up things a little bit...but well, my friends say i'm "apolinean", so i guess it's clarity towards i'm going.
Anyway, i'm very interested in this topic that Koen has been suggesting, since i have thought a lot (too much maybe) about the self, and my-self, but i had made it so far from another point of view, the so called "Western" point of view, that is, from philosophy as the western world invented it.From that point of view, the self is like a number, right? since it is a part of the "subject-object equation". When self and subject are identified as the same thing (as happened with Kant and almost every other philosopher) we beggin to talk about a part of this equation...that is some being that's only determined in terms of knowledge, so we discard a being that is also feelings, emotions, body, experiences, fears, desires and needs...
When i realized that, i got disappointed, didn't like that poor concept of the subject and tried to find a richer one.
I also had some experiences that made me feel that this kind of subject is helpless when it comes to understand things like life and dead. This kind of subject (one who only "knows") then becomes afraid...afraid of the things he's not able to understand, to catch within a subject-object equation.
Talking about 'me' (excuse 'me' for that).. i had some experiences in which i was unable to UNDERSTAND or to KNOW, and became afraid of those things that seemed to be so far away from my understanding...(that's why i told you i am the queen of all fears:)
Uh, i hope i'm being a little bit clear, not doing the Bertrand Russell thing because of my poor english :-(
So, there's Koen...and he's talking about the self, but that other concept, a much richer one...one that conceives (hope the word is right) the self as a part of a bigger thing...as a bigger thing itself.
Anyway, i can't speculete much about this from a theoretical point of view, but from a personal one, since i feel the need for a transformation, and i see a transformation coming
souds too profetic? :-)
Hugs to you two.

2006-03-21T00:48:00.000-08:00

"O mundo tem a cara que pomos diante dele"

...

Hi! First: this is an apologize-post… Since I was invited to join you I've been missing. Sorry! Not only a "lack of time" problem, but a lack of "philosophical" inspiration. I haven't been thinking too much. Maybe it's good… : )

I must confess… I don't know much about the main subject of this blog. Not in theory… not in practice: balance…? self-conscience…? oriental philosophies…? alternative ways of living…? I haven't been this good in answering questions but… the subject triggers me. Makes me curious.

I'm also shy when it comes to comment your statements and the depth of your thoughts and analysis… once I have been only floating on surface lately. I read that part about how, in our contact with the world and objects (should I include people?), what we really experience in terms of "senses" is our own response to the world. It's so true… And, in fact, as everything we experience is drawn by our senses… should we be aware of (taking it as a "methodological" point of view…) our responsibility when giving the world a "face"? Or giving people a reason, an explanation of their acts... a judgment?

It's the kind of analysis that may be judged as "simplistic" but can also awake us to a more flexible and inquisitive standing toward our conclusions: is it what we think and what we see and what we feel really true? Well… I know, talking about truth is a dangerous thing… I like to think about these topics anyway. I almost can remember my classes at the university… Merlau-Pointy, Kant and others who questioned the way we interpret reality and so its definition. I hope Elena will clarify me…. : )

I liked the idea of subjectivity… I see it too. It's kind of poetic… in an anti-poetic way. And I agree with Elena's questions, what made me remember a text by Bertrand Russel. Well… is not that this text would give another perspective or corroborate with the idea but… something I like about Russel is that he is always throwing questions on the air… letting others to respond. He likes deranging formal (and accepted) concepts… planting the "seeds of doubt" everywhere, as if he was thrilled (like a child having a huge cup of ice-cream) by making a mess with people's minds… just like my mind usually is (!). The text is "What is the soul?" (1928). I thought it was too long to post here… so I posted in: http://dedalea.blogspot.com/

Ah… and I particularly liked this phrase… "don't think I'm going to tell you everything that has been said.. but you are welcome to ask" ; )

(pleeease… tell me everything!)
...

p.s. Im trying to remember the author of the quote above (...)

2006-03-21T00:38:00.000-08:00

Brasilian fish? Or just mine...?

["Peixes Azuis e Amarelos" by Oscar Araripe]

2006-03-17T13:33:00.000-08:00

Stop this day and night with me and you shall possess the origin of all poems,
You shall possess the good of the earth and sun, (there are millions of suns left,)
You shall no longer take things at second or third hand, nor look through the eyes of the dead, nor feed on the spectres in books,
You shall not look through my eyes either, nor take things from me,
You shall listen to all sides and filter them from your self.
W.W.

2006-03-08T15:24:00.000-08:00

Out of the rolling ocean the crowd came a drop gently to me,
Whispering I love you, before long I die,
I have travel'd a long way merely to look on you to touch you,
For I could not die till I once look'd on you,
For I fear'd I might afterward lose you.

Now we have met, we have look'd, we are safe,
Return in peace to the ocean my love,
I too am part of that ocean my love, we are not so much separated,
Behold the great rondure, the cohesion of all, how perfect!
But as for me, for you, the irresistible sea is to separate us,
As for an hour carrying us diverse, yet cannot carry us diverse forever;
Be not impatient--a little space--know you
I salute the air, theocean and the land,
Every day at sundown for your dear sake my love.

W.W.

2006-02-19T19:45:00.000-08:00

"You sea! I resign myself to you also - I guess what you mean,
I behold from the beach your crooked fingers,
I believe you refuse to go back without feeling of me,
We must have a turn together, I undress, hurry me out of sight of the land,
Cushion me soft, rock me in billowy drowse,
Dash me with amorous wet, I can repay you". W.W.

The ocean, the universe...myself,
the three things i am afraid of,
i am a wanderer and seeker,
and yet i refuse to drown in one of them,
still the claws of the orphan reason
try to keep me "safe" ashore,
from the ocean, the universe...and myself.
But i do, i do want to surrender.

I do want to surrender.

2006-02-19T13:45:00.000-08:00

today... I went to a satsang with Jan Van Delden...

mmm... as always, these encounters are very rich...
We were only a small group, Jan is from holland and while his meetings are very popular in holland, up to 150 people, in Belgium... he's not... we were about 20... Well, I must say, I liked it!
Such a small group. Jan started to talk about non-duality, about self realization, enlightment.
and about hapiness...
Hapiness is what we all are looking for... but never seem to find... and that's normal, you can not find hapiness, it's not an experience. it doesn't happen to the object, the body, the thoughts or the feelings... you can onle BE happy! It's the subject who is happy! Love and happiness can not be found, you can only be it! And if you look at it very closely... you will discover the truth about this words..
And he told us... about beiing enlighted... self realization...
about the experciencing vs. the expernience
the subject vs. the object... how in the end... there are no object neither
how we experience our sences only within... so.. we can never eperience something outside our body... if you touch something... how do you feel that? well.. you feel a pressure on your finger, you don't feel the actual object... it's your finger you feel...

oh well... don't think I'm going to tell you everything that has been said.. but you are welcome to ask..

2006-02-17T09:34:00.000-08:00

The ocean... vs. the waves...

What if... there's only one, well if there's not even one, since... if there's not two... the word one is obsolete... and we... are not the ones and twos we think we are... but we are THAT...

so... how would it be... just like the ocean and the waves... We are the waves... we think...

we think we are seperate waves, but in reality... we are the ocean... What more is a wave then just the ocean?

We look at other waves and say: "I'm a better wave" or " I want to be just like that wave" or "I hate that wave" or even... "I love that wave"... but... all waves are the ocean... so.... who do you hate? who do you love? Yourself?

And... what happens if two waves collide? What happens to the ocean? Nothing! what happens when a wave crashes on the shore, on the rocks? Nothings happens to the ocean.

And for the waves... the ocean looks rude and unfriendly, but they only look at the surface... and below the surface... the ocean is calm... Nothing happens...

Aren't we the ocean in stead of waves?

2006-02-13T15:13:00.000-08:00

imagen that you are the sun...
how would you know that you are the sun?
You are the subject looking at objects...
What do you see?
the planets, the moons, the stars...
Wouldn't you think that you were one of them?
Wouldn't you think that you are a planet?
How would you know that you are the sun?
Probably not...

2006-02-13T14:55:00.000-08:00

So... Here's the ridle about Subject vs. Object...
About thoughts and feelings...
How I see it...

do you think that it is possible to be subject and object at the same time?
For instance... Your eye... Is subject... And everyting it sees is object..
So...
Can it see itselfs?
Don't think so!
It can see the mirror, but never itself...

Same for your finger...
Can feel an object, but never itself...
Can feel another finger, but not itself...
So...
Beeing subject means that everything you can observe is object...
And thus NOT you...

Let's move on...
Can you observe your thoughts?
Do you think you can not? Mmm... Don't think about a pink elephant!...
You see? You can observe your thoughts!
But... If you can observe them... They are object! And you are subject...
So they are NOT you!

And... Can you observe your feelings?
Pain... Sadness... Sure you can... So they are object too...
So they are NOT you!

And... Can you oserve your body? ...
This is a hard one! Because...
That means... That you are not your body! It's object!
...

2006-02-12T03:26:00.000-08:00

Do not talk to me about past and future--they exist only in your mind.

2006-02-12T02:52:00.000-08:00

I exist as I am, that is enough,
If no other in the world be aware I sit content,
And if each and all be aware I sit content.
The suns I see and the suns I cannot see are in their place.
The palpable is in its place and the impalpable is in its place.
And will never be any more perfection than there is now,
Nor any more heaven or hell than there is now.