You say, "Attention to what one is as opposed to what one is not, that is the key." Hmmm. I wouldn't put it exactly that way. I would say there is nothing you are not. Yes, I'm pointing to waking up from believing in the content of thoughts, the stories they tell, and from the illusory sense of there being an autonomous "thinker" authoring them, but I'm not suggesting a split between awareness and everything else.
Estoy de acuerdo contigo. No era mi intención señalar esa división como dualidad.
Ese punto explica la unidad; sin embargo, si se está identificado con cualquier representación de un personaje y su devenir, estarás conmigo que es apegarse a una apariencia.
Cierto es que, cualquier apariencia es también unidad, pero tener claro lo que es Ser de lo ilusorio (lo que no es), es a lo que me refería.
As I sit here I delight in your words, the ringing in my ears, my seat on the chair - yet "delight" is not quite adequate.
Your words seem to suggest just being "open" to the sound of the traffic, the chirping of the birds, the sound of the wind in the trees - being vulnerable, not necessarily safe, yet safe.
It is this sense of safety I still have trouble with: danger seems to lurk in the background and it often overrides the openness, and I end up with a tight throat.
I don't seem to be able to stop buying into this story, i.e. that I'm not really safe (as a body) and that peace is a chimera.
When I have the experience of decades that I am not truly safe, can meditation of the type you describe bring about peace and a sense of safety?
Later: I read your piece on hopelessness and my question was answered:
"There may be a preferencing for an experience of peace over an experience of agitation, and a belief that the cloud cover is something alien that needs to be banished. There is nothing wrong with sitting down and meditating if you enjoy meditating, and if it seemingly brings about a certain calmness in the organism, or a certain insight into the nature of reality, that's lovely. But the idea that calmness is the true spiritual state and that agitation or restlessness is unspiritual and off the track – and that there's “me” who has fallen off the track – and if only “I” would be good and meditate more often, then “I” could be always calm and spiritual and on track – all of that is agitation! Which is perfectly fine. Nothing wrong with agitation. It's an aspect of what is."
Beautiful! Yes! And I would add, the body is never entirely safe. The body is vulnerable to pain, illness, disability, old age and death. The senses are vulnerable--we can go blind or deaf. The mind is vulnerable to dementia and various neurological and psychiatric disorders. The imprint of various past traumatic events can remain for a lifetime (PTSD). Life is full of unexpected events: wars, earthquakes, fires, floods. Although they can relax and rest, animals in the wild are always alert for potential danger. Some people have a greater or lesser tendency to anxiety or depression or anger or fear than others for ten million reasons (infinite causes and conditions of nature and nurture). So this isn't about always feeling great. But we can begin to discover how we amplify and worsen the pain by the ways we think about and resist it. We can't make ourselves stop doing this, but the more the light of awareness illuminates these tendencies, the more they tend to loosen their grip. Thanks for your comment. 🙏
Yes, I understand. These tendencies have indeed loosened over time, which has been such a blessing. Resistance still keeps coming, but from what I understand you are saying it too is part of the picture and need not be subjected to strategies to reduce it or get rid of it. This so subtle, but so obvious, ultimately. Thank you, Joan.
Yes, resistance shows up here sometimes too. It happens. But then it can be seen that resisting resistance, or judging judgment, or trying not to try, are all layers of the same habitual pattern that only makes it worse. And although these knee jerk reactions can still arise, they are seen more and more quickly and clearly for what they are, and in the seeing, they gradually relax. And if they don't relax, we learn to relax with being tense--very much like when we have a charley horse in a muscle.
i like this a lot: "There's an old Zen story where somebody asks the Zen master, “What is your teaching?” The master writes the word “Attention” on a piece of paper and holds it up, and the questioner says: “Attention, yes, but what does that mean? What is your teaching?” Again the master writes the word “Attention” and holds it up. And the questioner says, “Could you please say a little bit more about that? What do you mean by that? I don’t get it.” The master writes the word “Attention” again and holds it up: “Attention, attention, attention.” Maybe that is the purest and most radical kind of religion – simple attention. Present moment awareness. Instead of a belief system, awareness sees through all beliefs. "
I’m going to write something here that makes no logical sense. You can postulate that reality is an unfathomably complex stream of interwoven causes and effects. But how to explain why so often a new post here seems to specifically and accurately hone in on what’s going on in me right now? How the light from your mind illuminates and clarifies the path I’m walking just now? Good thing I don’t need to figure that out, because sure as I feel love and gratitude, these coincidences are unfathomable. So, love and gratitude, Joan.
This last paragraph in "The Simplicity of What Is" soothes the anxiety behind the seeking energy into nonexistence. Here it is again for all of the imaginary seekers among us:
Here / Now is the placeless place, the timeless presence, the formlessness appearing as ever-changing forms. This seamless unicity is not something complicated, exotic and hard to get. It is inescapable and impossible to avoid. What makes this so apparently hard to get is how simple it is, how obvious, how effortless. Here / Now is present in spite of whatever experience shows up, never because of any experience. This boundlessness is prior to every experience; it is what remains when every experience is gone; it is what every experience is. This boundless unicity is causeless and depends on nothing. It requires no shift, no transformation, no understanding, no figuring things out, no attainment, no special experience or state, no “being here now,” no becoming in order to be.
Joan, you’re a rare gem. I have been seeking truth and certainty. Your message points to it clearly without fluff but you include the wonder and mystery that is at the heart of the spiritual journey. Thank you
Glad to hear, but FYI, it's not my latest book. It was published back in 2010, and I've published two books since then (Nothing to Grasp in 2012, and Death: The End of Self-Improvement in 2019). Painting the Sidewalk is based mostly on transcriptions of meetings I held in Chicago in the early 2000s. https://www.joantollifson.com/books-joan-tollifson.html
An old Bob Dylan song, Black Diamond Bay. It features a series oof vignettes about the unhappy guests at a tropical hotel ona volcanic island on the verge of an eruption. They are all too involved in their personal dramas to pay much attention to disquieting rumbles that the staff assures them happen every day. The final verse switches to a narrative by an equally inattentive guy watching the news of it on television. It’s quite wonderful
"One of the more sophisticated dramas that consciousness produces is 'me' trying to step out of 'my story,' the character trying to free itself from itself."
This line, though.
At one point some years ago, my efforts to become enlightened suddenly felt like trying to pour a concrete foundation for a home on top of a large flat table of thick granite. As if that was better or even necessary.
I love the way you use words about what can't be named...you're truly awesome 🙏🏻🥰❤️
Excelente, en efecto: la atención en lo que uno es a diferencia de lo que no es, esa es la clave
You say, "Attention to what one is as opposed to what one is not, that is the key." Hmmm. I wouldn't put it exactly that way. I would say there is nothing you are not. Yes, I'm pointing to waking up from believing in the content of thoughts, the stories they tell, and from the illusory sense of there being an autonomous "thinker" authoring them, but I'm not suggesting a split between awareness and everything else.
Estoy de acuerdo contigo. No era mi intención señalar esa división como dualidad.
Ese punto explica la unidad; sin embargo, si se está identificado con cualquier representación de un personaje y su devenir, estarás conmigo que es apegarse a una apariencia.
Cierto es que, cualquier apariencia es también unidad, pero tener claro lo que es Ser de lo ilusorio (lo que no es), es a lo que me refería.
Your writings are so clear, thank you Joan.
As I sit here I delight in your words, the ringing in my ears, my seat on the chair - yet "delight" is not quite adequate.
Your words seem to suggest just being "open" to the sound of the traffic, the chirping of the birds, the sound of the wind in the trees - being vulnerable, not necessarily safe, yet safe.
It is this sense of safety I still have trouble with: danger seems to lurk in the background and it often overrides the openness, and I end up with a tight throat.
I don't seem to be able to stop buying into this story, i.e. that I'm not really safe (as a body) and that peace is a chimera.
When I have the experience of decades that I am not truly safe, can meditation of the type you describe bring about peace and a sense of safety?
Later: I read your piece on hopelessness and my question was answered:
"There may be a preferencing for an experience of peace over an experience of agitation, and a belief that the cloud cover is something alien that needs to be banished. There is nothing wrong with sitting down and meditating if you enjoy meditating, and if it seemingly brings about a certain calmness in the organism, or a certain insight into the nature of reality, that's lovely. But the idea that calmness is the true spiritual state and that agitation or restlessness is unspiritual and off the track – and that there's “me” who has fallen off the track – and if only “I” would be good and meditate more often, then “I” could be always calm and spiritual and on track – all of that is agitation! Which is perfectly fine. Nothing wrong with agitation. It's an aspect of what is."
Thank you!
Beautiful! Yes! And I would add, the body is never entirely safe. The body is vulnerable to pain, illness, disability, old age and death. The senses are vulnerable--we can go blind or deaf. The mind is vulnerable to dementia and various neurological and psychiatric disorders. The imprint of various past traumatic events can remain for a lifetime (PTSD). Life is full of unexpected events: wars, earthquakes, fires, floods. Although they can relax and rest, animals in the wild are always alert for potential danger. Some people have a greater or lesser tendency to anxiety or depression or anger or fear than others for ten million reasons (infinite causes and conditions of nature and nurture). So this isn't about always feeling great. But we can begin to discover how we amplify and worsen the pain by the ways we think about and resist it. We can't make ourselves stop doing this, but the more the light of awareness illuminates these tendencies, the more they tend to loosen their grip. Thanks for your comment. 🙏
Yes, I understand. These tendencies have indeed loosened over time, which has been such a blessing. Resistance still keeps coming, but from what I understand you are saying it too is part of the picture and need not be subjected to strategies to reduce it or get rid of it. This so subtle, but so obvious, ultimately. Thank you, Joan.
Yes, resistance shows up here sometimes too. It happens. But then it can be seen that resisting resistance, or judging judgment, or trying not to try, are all layers of the same habitual pattern that only makes it worse. And although these knee jerk reactions can still arise, they are seen more and more quickly and clearly for what they are, and in the seeing, they gradually relax. And if they don't relax, we learn to relax with being tense--very much like when we have a charley horse in a muscle.
Yes, very helpful and clear. Thank you so much.🙏
“The only eternity is now”
So many liberating words & phrases!
Thank you, Joan!🙏🌊✍️
dear joan,
thank you for sharing as always!
i like this a lot: "There's an old Zen story where somebody asks the Zen master, “What is your teaching?” The master writes the word “Attention” on a piece of paper and holds it up, and the questioner says: “Attention, yes, but what does that mean? What is your teaching?” Again the master writes the word “Attention” and holds it up. And the questioner says, “Could you please say a little bit more about that? What do you mean by that? I don’t get it.” The master writes the word “Attention” again and holds it up: “Attention, attention, attention.” Maybe that is the purest and most radical kind of religion – simple attention. Present moment awareness. Instead of a belief system, awareness sees through all beliefs. "
thank you for sharing!
much love
myq
I’m going to write something here that makes no logical sense. You can postulate that reality is an unfathomably complex stream of interwoven causes and effects. But how to explain why so often a new post here seems to specifically and accurately hone in on what’s going on in me right now? How the light from your mind illuminates and clarifies the path I’m walking just now? Good thing I don’t need to figure that out, because sure as I feel love and gratitude, these coincidences are unfathomable. So, love and gratitude, Joan.
We're one whole undivided happening. Sometimes that seems beautifully evident in the synchronicities we experience. Much love to you, David.
David, that DOES make sense to my experiencing- it is so uncanny how often that happens.
Joan, you are a treasure ❤️
I repeat once more: I love your simplicity, this is wisdom!
This last paragraph in "The Simplicity of What Is" soothes the anxiety behind the seeking energy into nonexistence. Here it is again for all of the imaginary seekers among us:
Here / Now is the placeless place, the timeless presence, the formlessness appearing as ever-changing forms. This seamless unicity is not something complicated, exotic and hard to get. It is inescapable and impossible to avoid. What makes this so apparently hard to get is how simple it is, how obvious, how effortless. Here / Now is present in spite of whatever experience shows up, never because of any experience. This boundlessness is prior to every experience; it is what remains when every experience is gone; it is what every experience is. This boundless unicity is causeless and depends on nothing. It requires no shift, no transformation, no understanding, no figuring things out, no attainment, no special experience or state, no “being here now,” no becoming in order to be.
Joan, you’re a rare gem. I have been seeking truth and certainty. Your message points to it clearly without fluff but you include the wonder and mystery that is at the heart of the spiritual journey. Thank you
Love this, Joan. ♥️
Pretty clear stuff here,
Just purchased this latest book on Kindle so didn’t read this post. Looking forward to reading it Joan. 🙏🏻
Glad to hear, but FYI, it's not my latest book. It was published back in 2010, and I've published two books since then (Nothing to Grasp in 2012, and Death: The End of Self-Improvement in 2019). Painting the Sidewalk is based mostly on transcriptions of meetings I held in Chicago in the early 2000s. https://www.joantollifson.com/books-joan-tollifson.html
Oh Ok! I have read Nothing to Grasp and Death:The End of Self Improvement. Love your writing Joan, it is really helpful to me. Thank you
So Good!
I’ve been listening lately to
An old Bob Dylan song, Black Diamond Bay. It features a series oof vignettes about the unhappy guests at a tropical hotel ona volcanic island on the verge of an eruption. They are all too involved in their personal dramas to pay much attention to disquieting rumbles that the staff assures them happen every day. The final verse switches to a narrative by an equally inattentive guy watching the news of it on television. It’s quite wonderful
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=73N211qQCZU
"One of the more sophisticated dramas that consciousness produces is 'me' trying to step out of 'my story,' the character trying to free itself from itself."
This line, though.
At one point some years ago, my efforts to become enlightened suddenly felt like trying to pour a concrete foundation for a home on top of a large flat table of thick granite. As if that was better or even necessary.
Thanks again Joan. Much love to all