Hey All.
For far too long, I've been just posting over on Facebook because it's simple, it's easy, and I just wasn't caring much about where I posted. That needs to change because Hive is my home on the Internet and has been since the middle of 2016. I want my memories here on the blockchain. So... I'm going to make an effort to not just post on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bestoked but also on my home. I'll start with a post from September:
I’m 43 years old and recently (when this was written in September of 2022) had what I might describe as THE Experience. It’s what many gurus, mystics, and spiritual teachers talk about regarding direct experience with the oneness of source consciousness. You can’t understand it via the mind, lectures, books, etc. It has to be experienced directly.
That always annoyed me a bit along with the idea that sometimes gets sprinkled in there regarding devotion to enlightenment including ten years living in a cave or some such thing. I intuitively knew that wasn’t for me, that striving down some arduous path isn’t actually required because everything needed is already within. Having had an experience, I now see the perfect timing in it. It will happen as it is meant to.
Todo as perfecto.
What is required? Quieting the ego to eventually let it fall away. There are many ways to do it, including meditation practices in the Finders Course materials. Moment-in-time experiences like I recently had (for the curious, it was a specifically crafted set of medicines / wisdom technologies with a beautiful set and setting and facilitation) are certainly life-changing and amazing, but as the video below says, the value they bring to you isn’t in the magnitude of the “Ah ha!” moment, but in how much of the ego consciousness falls away. This video explains things so well. It’s not about reaching altered states of consciousness (which many ”spiritual seekers” and practitioners seem to fixate on). On the contrary, it’s about letting the most altered state, that of egoic separation, fall away.
If you’ve experienced something like awakening, this video will resonate with you well. If you’re interested in awakening, this video may help you understand the path you’re on and in the right moment and timing within the story when you do wake up (and it will be perfectly timed for your story which you won’t want to change any part of), you will recognize the value it has.
The key takeaway: don’t feed the altered state of consciousness known as the ego. Part of my path has simply been to carve away aspects of my life that feed my ego. That includes recognizing situations where someone else wants to build something using aspects of my personality, experience, reputation, skills, etc. That can be all fine and good within effortless action as an unfolding of the story this individuated unit of consciousness is here to experience, but beyond that it just gets distorted. The path is very simple: don’t feed the ego.
Triggered? That’s usually ego.
Resistance and Avoidance? That leads to Shadow, a particularly stubborn aspect of ego.
Identification (in all forms)? The bedrock of what ego is built on.
This doesn’t mean you can’t “have” an avatar with a story and even a purpose or quest (with side quests, etc). Just remember you are not that thing because ultimately there is no thing to be observed by an observer. There is just… THIS.
To be clear, I'm not claiming to be enlightened or awake or anything like that. I'm just experiencing experience.
I'll try to get more consistent about posting on Hive again. I may go through the last few months of posts on FB and share some here as well. I've been enjoying sun gazing, pottery from clay in our yard, and more.
It's been... wonderful. :)