Comments on: Who you are really… AS IF!

By: sashen

sashen — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 14:26:48 +0000

(it was a joke )

By: ellen

ellen — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 12:52:47 +0000

My brain is now desperate to know who got the stitches and who the restraining order, but I am taking a stern tone and wagging my finger; ‘We do not need to know this, not our concern.’

By: Tim

Tim — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 06:35:41 +0000

This “sales pitch” is used, as you know, by about 99.9% of the non-dualers out there today. Including some of the very few who I have respect for. But you’re right, the “as if” is always missing.

There are a few canny ones who will add “and not even THAT” (emptiness).

By: sashen

sashen — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 01:34:43 +0000

You reminded me, Ellen, of something my father said, WAAAAY past the point it stopped being funny, “You can pick your friends, and you can pick your nose… but you can’t pick your friend’s nose.”

It was a quite the day when he tried to prove that theory to my sister and me… resulting in 30 stitches and a restraining order.

By: ellen

ellen — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 00:55:13 +0000

Duh,
As soon as I hit the button my brilliant brain said ‘Ever tried walking backwards?’

By: ellen

ellen — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 00:46:59 +0000

We seem to have a great need for complexity where none may exist. I remember being told once to ‘follow my nose’–I couldn’t accept that as a simple instruction, there had to be more to it and I plumbed every possible connotation of those words. My brain, being an answer-seeking machine even when the question is non-sensical (as in ‘How do I follow my nose?’), produced some very weird stuff but it still took me weeks to realise that I literally couldn’t do anything else-ever-than to follow my nose.
I think that one was lifted from Douglas harding too.

By: sashen

sashen — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 22:32:59 +0000

Oh, let me add the first comment (I’m not in the mood to edit the post and, in a way, this comment is better as something separate from the post itself).

Some of you may recognize my “experiment” as a variation of something taught by the late Douglas Harding.

Let me be clear. I love Douglas’s experiments. They’re great fun. I appreciate Douglas’s ability to create these state-changing experiments.

I’m not trying to single out Douglas (who did a great job of being non-guru-ish, as far as I know).

I’m merely pointing out that without the “AS IF”, without the language explaining the experience-as-metaphor, it’s easy to make up these silly stories about “true nature” and “really am.”

Paradoxically, WITH the understanding of the metaphor, the experience of this mystery of the experience of “me” becomes MORE interesting, more curious, and more fun to explore than it is when you have the silly stories.