Control vs. Letting Go

_____________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________

_________________________________________________________________________

(7a) control: seeking, searching, striving and struggling

the addiction of being in control

C O N T R O L . . .

LETTING GO & CALLING OFF 'THE STRUGGLE'

_______________________________________________________________________

"The most difficult thing for 'spiritual seekers' to do is to stop struggling:

demanding, defining, controling, striving, seeking and searching.

Why?

Because in the absence of complex struggle –

you simply wouldn't know who you think 'you' are.

'You' so defines itself through it's 'identification'

with the whole 'my struggle story'.

In Stopping: 'You' loose the stubborn separateness –

In Stopping: 'You' loose your resistive, defended 'special-ness'.

'You' loose your artificially 'conceived' boundaries, you loose yourself. Scary !

'You' looses the illusory 'dream' you have lived through all your life. It lets go.

_______________________________________________________________________________

It is only when your love and desire for Truth outweighs the personality's

compulsive need for preserved 'security' - that you can begin to stop struggling

and now be swept up into the wide open arms of an ever unfolding revelation of

the Truth and Freedom of Pure Being.

_______________________________________________

There is a very Simple Secret to being happy.

Just let go of your 'demand' on this moment.

Any time you have a demand on the moment

to give you something or remove something,

there is suffering. You're Arguing with 'What Is' –

Your demands keep you chained to the 'dream-state'

of the conditioned mind. The desire to 'control' is,

ultimately, our unwillingness to just be awake.

~ all above edited notes from an Adyashanti satsang 2001

( "What ME ? - give up Control & my always Needing to be Right ?" )

________________________________________________

________________________________________________

How A Monkey Gets Caught in a Coconut Trap

“A hollow dry whole coconut shell with a morsel of succulent food inside -

is attached to a long thin rope stretching across the ground - a small hole

just big enough to slip an open monkey's hand into, but not big enough

to remove the hand - IF the hand is clenched in a fist around the food.

The native huntsmen silently wait behind a bush for a hungry monkey.

The monkey could get free - But that would mean letting go of the food.

You hang on to this, you hold on to that – tenaciously !

Like a forest monkey with a closed fist in a narrow coconut trap.

Your fear, your rage, your resentment, your need to control & be right !

You just won't let it go. You argue and complain. You fully defended !

And you yourself defined by your suffering anguish. Just bars in a prison

that you build for your Soul. Open your monkey-hand and just let go." ~ Akasa Levi

______________________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________

"You Need To Be Somebody

Before You Can Be Nobody" ~ Jack Engler

__________________________________________________________

______________________________________________

" Self-Inquiry Mediation

is not a path that leads you anywhere !

It is a path that Stops you in your tracks

~ right in the present moment ~

so that you can fully discover

directly, for yourself –

Who or What you truly are

right in the Now "

~ Gangaji ~

“You can 'know' it - IN the mind,

but you cannot possibly

express it in words

through the mind.

No one can.”

Sages say that Non-Self is 'beyond' the mind –

and yet the 'realization' is within the mind.

It's simply that the mind just cannot "Think" it –

it just cannot ‘conceptualize’ it. It is non-cognitive.

It just cannot be 'thought' of BY the mind in the mind –

and yet - only the mind alone can fully Realize 'It'. ~ Ramana

( ok, maybe the rare art-maker, mystic, poet, performer, composer, songwriter, thinker, yogi etc. )

______________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________

Ahhh ! Here’s the really BIG one

The Humungous one . . .

The Hum-Dinger of them all !

♦ below is from the " WHO AM I ?" • " WHAT AM I ?"

Basic Teachings of Sri Ramana Maharshi ( India,1938 )

– On Trying to FIND "Yourself"

this piece below will either be Disappointing or Enlightening for you, for sure !

“ There is no ‘Try’ – There is either ‘Do’ or ‘Not Do’ - No Try.” ~ Yeoda

_______________________________________________________________________

“Trying to FIND ‘Yourself’ – seems to be the #1 Westerner's obsession

in coming to India: ‘To find MY-Self’ - and you're looking in all the wrong places.

It is not any 'where'– neither inside nor outside ! Not Anywhere –

You ARE Awareness! 'Awareness' is actually another name for the real 'You'.

The I AM - The You that is not 'you'. Since you ARE 'Awareness' i t s e l f,

there is no need to 'attain' or cultivate it. It's already there! All that you have

to do is to give up being stuck on the vast multitude of other distracting things.

If one simply gives up the 'grasping' of - always being caught-up by attentions

to 'them' - like clutter - becoming unstuck - then pure awareness alone remains.

It is NOT the giving up of the physical 'Object(s)' of your attention themselves -

it is the 'giving up' of the misguided, grasping, obsessive, stuck 'Attention'

that you unconsciously, repeatedly and habitually keep placing ON the Object.

It's the Wrong Object: Look Within. Be Free of all 'relationships' with Objects -

Here, right now, in this very moment - see that pure awareness alone is what

remains. Within pure awareness, enjoy your 'objects' of mind or body or the

'world' - just do not be attached to them. 'Awareness' alone is what remains.

Unless you make tremendous efforts, you will not be convinced that this 'Effort'

of 'stopping' - and repeatedly loosening your 'grip' will take you anywhere

( failure ). The 'Self' is so pseudo, falsely self-confident – that unless it is

totally discouraged { Zen does this } in that Self-'Belief' - And it is an actual

"Belief" in Itself – it will not give Itself up. So a mere intellectual, mental or

verbal conviction "to give mySelf up" is not enough. Only 'Experience' Alone

can show the absolute 'nothingness' of the Self-image.

_______________________________________________

Nature is seamless. Any thought 'divisions' are simply for the convenience

of the isolated mind – compartments which need 'comparison' - simply in order

to realistically and practically understand things in the everyday world, just to live.

But Nature, itself, is actually of one-impersonal-fabric - it comes up perpetually

changing - but unceasing as a Single Event – like the moon, like clouds and

like the weather - only to melt back into the emptiness of pure sky and space

once again in the same way.

Sages say that Non-Self is 'beyond' the mind - and yet the 'realization' is within

the mind. It's simply that the mind just cannot "Think" it - just cannot ‘conceptualize’ it.

It just cannot be 'thought' of BY the mind in the mind - and yet - only the mind alone

can fully Realize 'It'. Now how are these contradictions to be reconciled? Inquire.

Keep up your practice of Inquiry into true nature of this thing you call Self."

______________________________________________________________________

* "There is no greater Mystery than this –

That we keep seeking "reality" –

though in fact we are Reality.

We think that there is 'something' hiding Reality

and that this must be destroyed before Reality is gained.
How ridiculous! A day will dawn when you will laugh
at all your past efforts. That which will be the day
you laugh, is also here and now. We are Reality."

~ all above - Sri Ramana Maharshi - Arunachala - South India (1938)

________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________

"Reality" cannot be avoided, if only because it is All That Is -

including all of our own untapped potentiality, and all of our

as yet unperceived, unrecognized and unnamed dimensions

of being. Allowing ourselves the freedom to 'intuit' this understanding,

and thus to feel our way into the Immediacy of the Real is the greatest act

of faith and insight we can individually muster. It is a courageous step that

will be richly rewarded with nothing less than the Essence and totality of All That Is.

~ metta zetty

"You are all Buddhas ~
There is nothing you need to achieve.
Just open your eyes."

~ Osho – "You are all Buddhas – sleeping, dreaming, but you are all Buddhas all the same.

My function is not to make Buddhas out of you, because you are already that,

but just to help you remember it, to remind you."

______________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________

"Standing back

to view

all of 'nothing'..."

If I could jus' walk away from me ?

an old Velvet Underground – Lou Reed lyric

from the song about a young "Candy Says"

"Candy says ~ I still hate the 'quiet places'
That cause the smallest taste of what will be.
Candy says ~ I still hate the big 'decisions'
That cause endless revisions in my mind...

~ endless anxieties ~

So, I’m jus' gonna watch the blue birds

fly over my shoulder. No more hate...
I’m jus' gonna watch them pass me by.
Maybe when I’m much older –
What do you think I’d see
If I could jus' walk away from me?"

~ Lou Reed ~

____________________________________________

again ~ "You Need to Be 'Somebody' Before you can Be Nobody" ~ Jack Engler

The 5 Phases in the 'Dilemma' of

The Separate Existence of the "Self":

1) NOBODY is Somebody / Somebody is NOBODY

2) You’re " NOBODY till Somebody Loves You "
You’re NOBODY till you love Somebody
You’re NOBODY till you love One Self

Yours

3) I can’t make you Love me – or me Love you,

I can't make Love to you or you to me –

If you won’t form a resonance,

synergy, connection or bond

4) NOBODY 'asks' to be born,

Somebody does....

5) What will become of me?

Who will take care of me?
— NOBODY but OneSelf ~ Leslie Levy

"It is as though you have a Miraculous Eye

That sees All Forms –––

But does not yet see 'Itself'.

This is how your proud intellectual mind is –

Its bright light of brilliant intelligence

penetrates everywhere,

and engulfs everything,

possessing it all –––

So why,

why does your mind

still yet not know itself ?"

~ Zenji Foy'an

We asked an elder Brentwood psychoanalyst

who was himself a student of Freud in Vienna:

"What is the main and most difficult aspect of doing therapy?"

His response "Resistance, and resistance, and more resistance"

~ in menmory of Rudy Eckstein

AN IRRITABLE BUDDHA ~

"Why are you still Suffering by Resisting 'Awakening' ?

Do you think you can't handle your own impending Sainthood ?

You are already on your Way to being a Holy-person, a Yogi,

or becoming an Everyday Awakened Bodhisattva in this very life.

Riding the 21st Century Spiritual Express to Nowhere. My friend,

you’d rather go in circles. Actually good, keep up the connection.

But you still 'suffer' in holy frustration and depressed ‘identities’ –

simply because you're almost already 'here' Now – peek-a-boo –

It comes n’ goes – and you just don't integratively ‘Know’ it yet.

Or even trust it – or Be it, if you do. “You can’t handle the Truth”.

Ohh, that ole' Ego, that "Survival of Self" conflict is suffering so.

Meanwhile, son, just pretend to be a Buddha: it’s a noble practice.

Pre-Stream-Entry, yes, yes – 4 more joyously terrifying levels to go.”

~ Ole' Buddhist Joe

A monk and Zen-master Ja'ko-ji meet on a bridge.

The monk is flustered, exasperated and frustrated.

He says to the master - "I'm so very close now –

but Enlightenment's eluding me & driving me nuts –

sometimes I'm "there" - sometimes I'm not "there".

Zen-sensei Ja'ko interupts him saying ...

"... but at least you do know that you're here."

The master then walks off.

The monk is flabbergasted.

'The Collected Stories of What Ja'ko-ji Said'

“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate.

Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.

It is our Light, not our darkness that most frightens us.

We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous,

talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be ?

You are a child of God.

Your ‘playing small’ does not serve the world.

There is nothing ‘enlightened’ about shrinking

so that other people won't feel insecure around you.

We are all meant to shine, as children do.

We were born to make manifest the glory of

a God that is within us. It's not just in some of us -

it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine,

we unconsciously give other people permission

to do the same.

As we are liberated from our own fear,

our presence automatically liberates others.”

~ Marianne Williamson ~ “A Return to Love”

Correction: This quote is often found on the net incorrectly credited

to Nelson Mandela. He simply quoted it in his Inauguration Speech, 1994.

"The goal is to make the ego

as strong - and yet as small as possible" ~ C.G. Jung

Our best traditions and thinkers tell us that happiness is found in "the small" –

in celebrating the details of everyday life and living wisely with limits. They

teach us the joys of simplicity and modesty, and that by embracing diminishing

experiences, we can make our suffering truly sacred. By promoting a sound,

wholesome existence for both the individual and society this perennial teaching

offers a viable alternative to the visible, grandiose thinking that is responsible

for so many of our personal and global problems.

In our own exploring this archetype of the Small,

our aim will be to understand

why very little

is needed

to be happy.

Practicing ‘Silence’ is one possible true Opening to

a truly liberated ”Present Moment of an Infinite Now”.

It's all about NOW ... when or what else could it be about ?

‘Now’ is very Real. And only in 'Now' is it Real.

If even Real is Real. Now, there ‘really’ is Nothing else.

Stay in Touch. Stay in the Now as much as ya’ can, man !

~ Billy Bo Sat

_____________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________

_________________________________________________________________________