FROM A SITE VISITOR: You say that this is easy, but it is very difficult to grasp. My body and mind have existed for 30 years. How can they be discounted? And of cource I want eternal life. How can that be discounted? Why should it be discounted? Brian
F.: Hello Brian. The AS IF living that is happening is easy; what is difficult is living a relative existence in bondage…in the bondage of identifying with a body and with a “mind” and with multiple identities. Living free is easy; thinking that you are limited and time-bound but desiring eternal continuity of a body-mind-personality is difficult to the degree that wanting the impossible and working to attain the impossible is insane.
Your difficulty in trying to Realize, but not being able to, begins with the fact that you are trying to use your body and “mind” to find truth and eternal life. You will never see truth, however, unless your entire way of seeing is drastically altered. And your entire way of seeing cannot be drastically altered as long as you are trying to use that which is time-bound and limited to comprehend that which is beyond time and limits.
How warped is the thinking that can look at the first picture ever taken of a combination of elements called “Brian,” that can look at a recent picture of a combination of elements called “Brian, age 30,” and then conclude that those are the same set of elements? How warped is the thinking that a combination of elements that has had no continuity in this “realm” could have continuity in “some other realm”? And why should that desire for continuity be discounted?
No declaratives that you “should” discount that desire have been offered. Pointers have been offered that misery and depression and anxiety are rooted in fears and desires. Most persons will cling to both. To cling to fears and desires is to perpetuate misery, depression, and anxiety. What happens with these pointers as they are exposed to that corrupted consciousness that takes itself to be “Brian” and “Brian’s body” and “Brian’s mind”? Typically, with most persons, nothing will happen with the pointers. Typically, it is the pointers that are “discounted” as the bastardized consciousness prefers its lies.
Finally, no “mind” has existed for the “30 years” that you mention. The elements associated with the space called “Brian” have included a brain for 30 years, but a “mind” only seemed to form as the manifest consciousness began to be warped via programming and conditioning and enculturation. In fact, there is no “mind.” There is an accumulation of memories regarding concepts and beliefs and attitudes and ideas and dogma and lies, and that accumulation is called “the mind.” Why discount that accumulation which so many persons are so proud of? Again, that suggestion is not offered.
Instead, the invitation is to see a mirage for the mirage that it is, not to “discount”—or increase—the value of a mirage. In touch with Reality, neither discounting nor increasing happens. “Life” is a mirage. “Eternal life” is upgrading that mirage. To believe that the body and mind and personality can exist forever in a paradise is an upgrade of the mirage. To believe that a body and mind and personality can be cast into eternal flames and suffer unlimited pain forever is downgrading the mirage. It is the corrupted consciousness that is involved in discounting (and upgrading), not the pointers on this site.
Therefore, there is no need to either discount the body or “the mind” or personal desires and fears or to try to increase the body or “the mind” or personal desires and fears. If one would be free of the corrupted consciousness, however, then all belief in illusions and lies and distortions must be cast aside. Most consider the familiar more comfortable than the unfamiliar, so most will cling to their beliefs about such lies as “my body,” “my mind,” “my desires” and “my fears.” So it is. Please enter the silence of contemplation.
F.: Hello Brian. The AS IF living that is happening is easy; what is difficult is living a relative existence in bondage…in the bondage of identifying with a body and with a “mind” and with multiple identities. Living free is easy; thinking that you are limited and time-bound but desiring eternal continuity of a body-mind-personality is difficult to the degree that wanting the impossible and working to attain the impossible is insane.
Your difficulty in trying to Realize, but not being able to, begins with the fact that you are trying to use your body and “mind” to find truth and eternal life. You will never see truth, however, unless your entire way of seeing is drastically altered. And your entire way of seeing cannot be drastically altered as long as you are trying to use that which is time-bound and limited to comprehend that which is beyond time and limits.
How warped is the thinking that can look at the first picture ever taken of a combination of elements called “Brian,” that can look at a recent picture of a combination of elements called “Brian, age 30,” and then conclude that those are the same set of elements? How warped is the thinking that a combination of elements that has had no continuity in this “realm” could have continuity in “some other realm”? And why should that desire for continuity be discounted?
No declaratives that you “should” discount that desire have been offered. Pointers have been offered that misery and depression and anxiety are rooted in fears and desires. Most persons will cling to both. To cling to fears and desires is to perpetuate misery, depression, and anxiety. What happens with these pointers as they are exposed to that corrupted consciousness that takes itself to be “Brian” and “Brian’s body” and “Brian’s mind”? Typically, with most persons, nothing will happen with the pointers. Typically, it is the pointers that are “discounted” as the bastardized consciousness prefers its lies.
Finally, no “mind” has existed for the “30 years” that you mention. The elements associated with the space called “Brian” have included a brain for 30 years, but a “mind” only seemed to form as the manifest consciousness began to be warped via programming and conditioning and enculturation. In fact, there is no “mind.” There is an accumulation of memories regarding concepts and beliefs and attitudes and ideas and dogma and lies, and that accumulation is called “the mind.” Why discount that accumulation which so many persons are so proud of? Again, that suggestion is not offered.
Instead, the invitation is to see a mirage for the mirage that it is, not to “discount”—or increase—the value of a mirage. In touch with Reality, neither discounting nor increasing happens. “Life” is a mirage. “Eternal life” is upgrading that mirage. To believe that the body and mind and personality can exist forever in a paradise is an upgrade of the mirage. To believe that a body and mind and personality can be cast into eternal flames and suffer unlimited pain forever is downgrading the mirage. It is the corrupted consciousness that is involved in discounting (and upgrading), not the pointers on this site.
Therefore, there is no need to either discount the body or “the mind” or personal desires and fears or to try to increase the body or “the mind” or personal desires and fears. If one would be free of the corrupted consciousness, however, then all belief in illusions and lies and distortions must be cast aside. Most consider the familiar more comfortable than the unfamiliar, so most will cling to their beliefs about such lies as “my body,” “my mind,” “my desires” and “my fears.” So it is. Please enter the silence of contemplation.
