A Window is Where the Wall is Absent

The life impulse to express and to connect arises in me and in all of us. This blog is a celebration of these life impulses. Please feel free to join in the conversation or to just visit. There is a Family Photo Album beneath the posts so you can "meet" my family and I. Welcome!

Monday, July 19, 2010

Uncontrived authenticity




Meaning is not found in thought, but in an immediacy closer than thought. Meaning is the substance, the clay, out of which everything is made. It is the suchness of what is, before the mind pulls it into the funnel of thought.

Reality is what we are. Not what the mind says. Mooji points out that in a crowded restaurant the cacophony around us is naturally overlooked as we experience the sweet conversation with a friend, and in the same way, all the voices in the mind telling us who we are can become no more than peripheral background noise when attention is no longer fixated on them.

The uncontrived authenticity of being alive is happening right now and every moment without a single word, and it is this above all that we want- to be real. We already have what we want, we already are real and authentic. When the mind starts going (out of habit) with endless notions of "should be more," all that can be like background noise in a restaurant, easily overlooked, while the flow of consciousness is naturally present to the suchness of This Life, felt fully within and without. The flow of aliveness is felt within the body, and awareness plunges effortlessly through the eyes and ears, breath moves in and out, and there is nothing to search for but everything to enjoy and be grateful for.

"...the meaning we are experiencing is not the conceptual meaning; it is the very presence of reality."

A.H. Almass, The Unfolding Now, p. 77.

Seeing the waves and being the ocean is happening right now for everyone, it is the natural state.

The anxious restless energy pattern of "something not right" or "needing to find enlightenment" is recognized as simply a transient energy pattern and nothing more. No energy pattern can disturb the vastness in which it occurs.

Not needing to be special. Not needing to be awakened or saved or enlightened or different in any way from this as it is now. The beauty of anonymity, of being undefined and unseen and image-free even in the mind's eye.

The reality of being- this present wealth- eases the misguided longing for personal specialness or enlightenment.

"The preciousness of being is your true specialness." Eckhart Tolle




~

18 comments:

Leslie said...

Beautiful...thank you for posting this Colleen.
XOXO
-Leslie

Colleen Loehr said...

Thank you Leslie- cyberspace can feel a bit cavernous sometimes and I love your presence here. Kind of a zany day here, that's the way of it sometimes. Love, Colleen

Leslie said...

Hi Colleen,
It was nice to hear this clip from Mooji...had never heard him before. I found it beautifully down to earth. And simple. I can use all the 'simple' I can get my hands on these days :) Maybe with the open hand of letting go...or of just looking. There was a very intense dream last night -- a 'crack-the-heart-open-one, to use a phrase of Christine's. It was hell in this dream and, at one point, I thought it was such that one could wake up from that. Anyway...maybe there was some kind of opening as Mooji's words were such balm when I read them this AM.
Zany is definitely the 'way of it' sometimes. :O I think I signed up for 'zany' lock-stock-and-barrel. Life dynamics are getting more bonkers by the minute.
Your peaceful presence is so appreciated.
XOXO
-Leslie

Colleen Loehr said...

Hi Leslie,

"Crack-the-heart-open"- Christine's phrase- is very descriptive- of pain, but the helpful pain of crumbling the reifications in the mind. I love dreams, even the disturbing ones which often indicate some type of deeper inner shifts are underway- perhaps somehow parallel to whatever upheavals are going on in your life dynamics. I'm glad you enjoyed the Mooji video. He has been through major loss such as the death of his oldest son, which he talks about in his you tube video "The Darshan of Death." I believe Mooji worked as a street musician for years before he underwent a radical opening (or whatever words we want to use to point to realization).

Speaking of dreams, you may want to check out the new movie "Inception" with Leonardo Dicaprio and Ellen Page- it rocks! Time to get back to my bonkers mind and life...

Love,
Colleen

Leslie said...

Hi Christine,
There definitely seems to be parallel upheavals. Not that I have a choice in the matter, but whatever works.
I'll check out 'Inception'-- thanks for the recommendation. A large part of my practice -- or of what I have to 'hear' -- has involved going to the movies. Good thing there are comfortable chairs...'Lives of Others' almost gave me a heart attack so much so...'I' left the scene momentarily.
XOXO
-Leslie

Anonymous said...

Thank you for sharing the post.
I am going through a difficult time right now but just reading your post brought a shift in perceptive.
Its a blessing to be always reminded of my true nature.

Tim Goulding said...

Love the Eckhart quote and the Mooji snippet. He is a regular visitor to Ireland.

I love too the phrase 'bonkers mind'.

xt

roseduncan said...

I have to say I've been unable to still the digressions lately, life takes its toll. (Not to be confused with Tolle). But I appreciated reading this post. I know this is what one should strive for, and sometimes it's possible, often in the corners of the day you find the place where you can let go . . . rather than in the busy center.

Colleen Loehr said...

Hi Leslie,

Like you, movies have been for me a great crow bar for opening the mind from its limited notions. I loved "Ground Hog Day" and many others. Sometimes I experiment with watching movies from a place of motionless, conscious openness, which is the same way I like to experiment with being conscious of but not lost in the movies of mind. There can be a kind of relaxed playfulness to opening to the energy of consciousness, the "screen" on which all these movies play...Thanks for commenting Leslie.
Love,
Colleen

Colleen Loehr said...

I am reminded of the one true nature that we all are when I read your comment Triza. Feel free to email me if you ever feel like as you go through difficult times- I feel a sense of oneness with you on that level too. On our recent family vacation we spent time with a family member with Alzheimers, and it was very sad and strange. I'm always so glad to see you hear Triza.
Love,
Colleen

Colleen Loehr said...

Hi Tim,

Yes, Mooji has a grounded energy that is deeply calming to me. He seems very settled into the depths of his being, comfortable, at home, at ease with the simple space of the ordinary present moment. I hope you are able to spend time with him when he is in Ireland. He's not in a hurry to get anywhere, and somehow that brings me to a halt from the wild goose chase of the moment.

The Eckhart quote is from the talk he gave at Findhorn.

I am making friends with my bonkers mind in a way, and - surprise- it is sometimes soothed by this friendship. Thanks for your comments Tim.

Love,
Colleen

Colleen Loehr said...

Hi Naomi,
Tolle can take a toll in a way- funny how similar the words are...Attempts to still the digressions of the mind often seems to backfire and add to the turbulence. Definitely a conumdrum. You have a lot going on and are about to go on a big vacation yourself- I hope all is going well with that. I am behind on reading everyone's blog posts since I have been on a recent road trip to Ohio, and I'm looking forward to catching up. I'm also trying to do some volunteer work for Never Not Here TV (of Chicago) which has been fun but reduced time for exploring all the wonderful blog posts out there.

Good luck with finding those quiet corners where we can let go of the usual mind fuss for a bit, that is also where my heart is pulling me- always drawn to the elusive magnet of peace beyond mind. Thanks so much for visiting and joining the conversation Naomi. I'm always grateful not to feel alone out here in the blogosphere.
Love,
Colleen

Leslie said...

Hi Colleen,
"Sometimes I experiment with watching movies from a place of motionless, conscious openness, which is the same way I like to experiment with being conscious of but not lost in the movies of mind." What a great way to put it Colleen. I do that so rarely but when I relax into what is..right here..I see that it is the only way to live. The only life. Inception was great! Thanks again for the recommendation...as the structures dissolve we wake up out of the dream. Tolle reiterated that in this week's 'reminder'. It seems as though everything is pointing to a radical breakdown. Good thing Cobb was there to remind Adrienne what-was-what in that (one of many) scenes where all hell broke loose. Definitely had me quaking in my boots (on some level) as there are many indications the dissolution may happen before I 'see'.
Love,
-Leslie

Colleen Loehr said...

Glad you enjoyed Inception Leslie. A dream within a dream...makes you wonder. Speaking of dreams, I am ready for some sweet sleep after a long day. Thanks for your comments Leslie.
Love,
Colleen

Anonymous said...

.....I am making friends with my bonkers mind in a way, and - surprise- it is sometimes soothed by this friendship....
allowing everything to be as it is has a soothing and loving effect.Thanks colleen.

Colleen Loehr said...

You're welcome Triza- giving up the fight is the only way to win. Byron Katie says, "I don't do war with God. To me, reality is God, because it rules."

Genuinely letting in all the painful stuff in the head- sadness, fear, anger, confusion, greed, insecurity, arrogance, you-name-it- seems to be a radical change from the age-old habit of rejecting anything unpleasant. Very often there is still a clamping down against all the "forbidden" feelings...and then sometimes there is an opening even to this clamped-down knot of resistance.

Thank you so much for visiting and commenting Triza.

Lostnfoundation said...

Hi Colleen:
I am happy I came to your blog today. I liked this a lot so it is now on my blog too.

Mahalo,
Alton

Colleen Loehr said...

Thanks Alton, nice to see you :)

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