Why Don't We Change After All These Years?

Yes to see if you can be aware of the interval between two of your thoughts…”pedantic “ or clever or whatever they are. There has to be a degree of sensitivity but as I said it’s very important for an understanding of the thinking process. The approach I’d say was that of a scientist looking at this process for the first time but as it is taking place In oneself.

I’m not sure about that - if we start from the known, where can we go?

Thought is conditioned to get somewhere…each thought is a kind of conclusion with a beginning, middle and end but this isn’t about assessing the quality of the thought but of keeping one’s eye on the ‘interval’ between them. This not a one-shot deal. If you try it hopefully you’ll share what you find.

We live our lives in accordance to our memories and the self created personas that reside in memory. The personas, which have an extremely strong influence on our lives, exist only in thought. Thought keeps the personas alive so any intention of diminishing thought will be strongly rejected by one’s personas. So thought convinces oneself that we are secure where we are and there is no need to explore the unknown.
Those of us that are more conditioned face greater hurdles as the conditioning has us convinced that our thoughts and beliefs are actual truth. We reject anything that conflicts with our thoughts and beliefs because to do otherwise forces us to ‘see’ that we are wrong. We can not accept that because it implies that our whole life has been wrong as our life has been constructed around our thoughts and beliefs.

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Nothing to say except that I really appreciated your honest answer, Donato, seriously. Thank you! :pray:

I don’t want to appear as something that I am not nor do I pretend that you believe me, but I can tell you that since I was 5 years old I never questioned another without first questioning myself deeply … and I am almost 61 years old now.

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As confused humans our understanding is probably a bit confused - that might be a useful concept in order to be able to let go of the known?

Rather than starting from an understanding of the process of thought - what about a faith that thought is not the foundation of intelligence?

NB - Apologies to Dan - I misunderstood what you wrote - I’m not actually addressing what you said.

Thus the “utility” of suffering and confusion?

In Buddhist cosmology : being born as a god is not considered particularly lucky as all that perfection dulls the mind
Whereas in Sufi cosmology : being born as a chickpea is cool because all that boiling water makes you yummy.

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I see now that you are new too here… we better slow down a bit untill we get to know the older members.
Good night! For me it’s bed time…

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You are better than me at wisecracks! (:slight_smile:

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Not quite, I have already been on the old forum (Clive’s Quiet Space) for some time in the past (Juan E.), so I have met some of the older members before :relieved:

Good night Donato!

Correct me if I’m mistaken, but isn’t this ‘keeping’ a thought? An effort? A goal? A resistance? A desire to get somewhere? Is it something K himself suggested?

Desire to be ,is not to be.
Is desire.
Desire to change,is not to change.
Is desire.
The begining of change,is the ending of the desire to change.

Is this “end of desire” possible without having “talked” to desire before?

Also sprach Zarathustra
(So spoke Zarathustra)

Yes I’m sorry, I thought you would recall it from being discussed briefly in the ‘old’ forum…John Raica put up a 1948 talk which was the last group dialogue in Madras. Which were about why this ‘regenerative’ change hadn’t taken place in us, called ‘The Silent Action of the New’…I think there were some other talks regarding the importance of this ‘interval’ between thoughts…maybe if there is interest some other examples could be found.
But for what its worth, I strongly recommend looking into it experimentally.

Dan: but of keeping one’s eye on the ‘interval’ between them.

T: Correct me if I’m mistaken, but isn’t this ‘keeping’ a thought? An effort? A goal? A resistance? A desire to get somewhere? Is it something K himself suggested?
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Yes I’m sorry, I thought you would recall it from being discussed briefly in the ‘old’ forum…John Raica put up a 1948 talk which was the last group dialogue in Madras
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Dan: this isn’t about assessing the quality of the thought but of keeping one’s eye on the ‘interval’ between them.

Tom: And this is the same K who said that there is no ‘how’? Very odd. I find it puzzling.

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Sounds suspiciously like picking and choosing - notwithstanding that meditation is essential - but picking and choosin ain’t

Seems like awareness through making a ‘choice’/choosing to be aware , rather than K’s famous, “‘choiceless’ awareness”.

I’d say even choosing what to be aware of - but if I may, would it be fair to say that for Thomas paine, meditation is basically a taboo?

Why? It’s all about experimenting as he has said. Try this try that…see what you discover for yourself, everything else is second hand. Is there an interval between each thought? How wide is it? Can it stay open or does my thought ‘close it down’? What is the sensation if any of an awareness of this space? Is this the ‘silence’ that is spoken about? Etc, etc,etc

Unknown territory…nobody can describe it and if they do, that’s not it…investigation, experimentation is not a “method”…(I would suggest a quiet place though :shushing_face:)

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