But we can’t bring about the new because we are the old…the past. Every move I make is aimed at gaining the security of the known…the past.
Just consider the possibility that that’s all wrong. We don’t “bring about the new”, the new is always there and it can’t not be there.
Tom: "Every move I make is aimed at gaining the security of the known…the past.
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The ‘continuation of the past,’ etc,. But that continuation is a movement of degeneration. That is the mechanical movement of thought. It is the “house burning”. Is it necessary to be ‘identified’ with it?
Do we have a choice? If we are, then that is ‘what is’. Can we be aware of all the movement of what is…what we are… without judging or wishing to change it? Or trying move beyond it? Just questioning?
As I see it Tom, the awareness of the arising of thought allows the possibility of dying to that thought. Obviously not the thought that is necessary to accomplish some task or make some plan that needs to be made, etc. But the thought that identifies with a self-image. It can be seen which is which, through experimenting with it. I’d say, only by experimenting with it. The habit of aimlessly thinking about this or that, past experiences, future desires, fears, worries, hopes is very ingrained. It is who we think ourselves to be, no? It, the movement of thought, seems almost constant with me. But throughout the day there are ‘awakenings’ to this stream or trickle and an interest to be aware of the ‘arising’ moment. To be present at the ‘birth’. Present from a very quiet place. The concern of ‘doing’ that you mention is to me just one of those thoughts that arise. Deeper, subtler ones also appear if there is absolutely no ‘resistance’ to them. It seems that there is an art for that empty place of observation to not be 'swept away, (or filled?), but to let go or ‘die’ to every thought / feeling as it appears.
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PS The ‘emptiness’ has to be at the ‘beginning’ not at the ‘end’…as I see it.
PPS This is all very important (the emptying of the contents of consciousness) if Mankind is not going to continue to wreak more and more havoc.
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Dan: PS The ‘emptiness’ has to be at the ‘beginning’ not at the ‘end’…as I see it.
Yet isn’t there noise at the beginning…right where we find ourselves now? Speaking generally. If there’s noise at the beginning, how does emptiness enter the picture?
PPS This is all very important (the emptying of the contents of consciousness) if Mankind is not going to continue to wreak more and more havoc.
Yes, we can all see that intellectually…or almost all who take this ‘teaching’ of K’s seriously. Personally, I don’t see the ‘emptying’ as so important as the understanding of how the contents divide and create the havoc in the first place. Seeing/understanding the danger of what the mind does, perhaps there will be some freedom from it? Perhaps it won’t continue to rule our behavior? Just questioning.
Was just watching an interesting video which touches on the point Dan has been discussing. Here’s part of what K was saying near the end of the video:
“Can you, as a human being, be aware of the stream (the content of consciousness), of which you are, and not contribute one iota to that stream”? Ending the stream At the very end of the video he concludes with: “the ending(of the problems, attachments, etc.)…and while living, end…every day when the problem arises. Psychologically, end every thing every day.”
I will watch the video but I wanted to try to answer your questions from my experiences with my experiments with this ‘emptying’. I say at the “beginning” because there is no other moment than Now when the ‘dying to’ could possibly take place. Awareness can only be Now not in the past or future. And yes there is always it seems this chattering of thought but that is not to rule out that the ‘silence’ is always there also? So for me the awareness can come in the middle of some thought ‘stream’ and then by being a ‘mirror’ to what is taking place, that is the emptying or dying to as I see it.
I think what you say is right, there must be an understanding that thought is behind all this…but this is ‘analysis’ isn’t it? And that will never have an ‘end’. Without the ending each moment, nothing will radically change. Just to see and not “add one iota” to that stream which is the ‘contents’ of myself.