Friday, January 8, 2010

On Vigilance versus Letting Go

Writer's Comments (on Previous Posting of Today):

Rather than speak for "Us" I will ask and inquire unto my self, each time I feel and believe myself to be above or beyond darker emotions like fear, anger, greed, envy or jealousy, if my sensation/thought of liberation and transcendence is based wrongly on denial and escape or rightly based on an accurate/precise under...standing, following clear seeing and keen observation(s). Letting go without any further resistance.

When exposed to a situation of potential jealousy, for example, I may shrug it off and say "I am no longer affected this way"... if there is a shadow of jealous behavior that follows, maybe not today but soon enough (or a hint of unspoken denial in tone), then there is denial present. Conversely, when one effortlessly shrugs it off, as the potential situation arises, and there is no shadow of doubt or unease THEN you know that this individual has "gone into it" already and thus no longer needs to give jealous feelings any attention. The shrug off is genuine because this individual has already *done the work*...

There is indeed a fine line between the denial and indulgence of a thing... when that thing is perceived as having great unconscious power over one.

There is self-centered occupation and then there is meditation on that which is "ultimately true" (and not of Samsara.. or "this world of confusion, desire and sorrow"). Self centered occupation is to be honored as well, but quite simply is not to be confused with what is true and eternal... that Source from which all individualized activity emanates from which all individual persons ultimately sustain their individual existence(s). We use the power of thought to manifest the Divine Reality upon this Earth, through this Body... yet if one chooses to go deeper it becomes true that "thought is the denial of love"* and that all ego-centric activity must end, even if only for a moment in the day, if one is to know what lies beyond the human realities of mind and creations, at the Source. To end all seeking, cease all desiring, and allow all to happen or unfold as it will, finding in this very process the will to transform or "be the change you want to see in the world" and in your own life.

* As The Vedas of Vedanta mean "the end of knowledge"

While the background (and foreground) of self, its past conditioning and the inspired visions, feelings and higher sentiments, are wonderful inner projections, creations and inventions in themselves... still, the realm of meditation, connecting with "that which is nameless", is independent of all of this... and the first step or beginning of meditation practice is to acknowledge the self or personality and let go with ease.

Whatever concepts we speak of... attaching versus letting go, action versus surrender, sensitivity versus firm boundaries, desire and not desiring, EVERYthing in life is a balancing act, extremes of view always relative to the immediate matter at hand... and if I am not mistaken, THIS IS the Great Way, the Tao or "middle path", that so many sages speak of... and it is the honoring of all polarity, light and dark.

JDZ

Vigilance is the realm of immortality; negligence is the realm of death. People who are vigilant do not die; people who are negligent are as if dead. The vigilant are attuned to objective reality, which is eternal; not fixated on subjective delusion, which is temporal ~~ Dhammapada The Sayings of Buddha ~~

2 comments:

  1. By referring to 'everything' I say this inclusively... everything altogether is an act of balance, though particular situations may call for extremes of attitude, behavior or action. The notion of balance, as ordinary and cliche as it may sound, is very profoundly important in the sense that one not cling to extremes, though one is inclined to them now and again.

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  2. To be vigilant, awake and watchful, without subjective judgment or interpretation, is to observe a thing or person (or situation) as is... and in that act of confronting rather than denying the negative or toxic thing drops off instantly. This is the miracle of understanding, of direct seeing and the healing (often rapturous) release that follows.

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