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It is as easy as turning over your hand. Turn the light around. Your own mind, just because it is taken over by habit awareness, is one.
Remember, the "in between" isn't a thing. Reversion, or reversal, is just in this "turning the light around." The Mysterious Female is the aperture between the Absolute, and Creation's perpetual cycles of birth and death (the so-called "two extremes"). This is the meaning of the term, "Neither ordinary nor holy."
One's reversion by virtue of awareness (the light) itself, is possible because awareness isn't created. Following the light of Creation is the normal course. Turning the light around is Essence, shining back on its source. By one's own mind right now, one has direct affinity with Essence with no intermediary. This is how adepts see potential and adapt to conditions without "going along" with karmic psychological awareness. This is so, simply due to the light not shining on Creation, so they do not see karma; they only see potential. It's the same light, after all. This is not philosophy.
There is no need to expend oneself physically or psychologically. In turning the light around, chronic habituation to temperament and pattern-consciousness is interrupted. Formal meditation regimens are a remedial, reformative, provisional approach to reality. Since reality has no pattern, the most effective method is no method. As above, so below. Whatever one works with is what one ends up with. Work with the psychological apparatus to quell its arbitrary activity only amounts to temporary psychological clarity (in a perfect world). As such, effective provisional practice of any sort will eventually need to be dispensed with, as such remedial effort is still employing duality. The number one sickness of students is mistaking the temporary stillness of the human mentality for the shining mind of essential nature.
The Science of Essence, turning the light around, that is, ceasing the use of one's ego-reifying psychological apparatus to interface with conditions (delusion), cannot be taught. Why? it is already your own mind right now. Subtle continuous concentration (observation) of mind by mind in the midst of everyday ordinary situations is a gradual starting point that takes little energy and no time.
In tuning the light around, "all things resolve in the Unborn." This is a Zen reference to nonorigination, the inconceivability of Essence, the nature of your own mind right now. Nothing is different in turning the light around, excepting that one does not automatically depend on mental references relative to the person to see reality. Just this small boon is a tremendous savings of energy. In turning the light around, energy reverts to potential on the spot. When one sees potential, its absorption is the basis of the Science of Life, which can be taught.
This is why taoism says to see essence on your own, then seek a teacher.
OK, so this sounds like Ouspensky's self-remembering. Perceiving yourself as you live a normal life. Similar to Abrahamic "prayer without ceasing"... And the next step is perceiving yourself, the object you are perceiving (psychological normal stuff) and the "sun" (the Absolute in your language)... Am I making the right connection here?
And you are saying there is no practice that leads there except for everyday self-remembering itself? This actually makes sense... It is sort of contradictory to perceive something and yourself at the same time. Just as it is contradictory to be male and female at the same time. So the means to do it is anima, as you say, aperture. I need to digest that. This is just an intellectualised interpretation. I don't "feel it" yet.
Once that self-awareness is continuous, I suppose it would be possible to interject whatever one wants into the flow, without having to bother with karmic cause-effect relationship. Tell me if I am paraphrasing your thought right.
Dangs, Magpie~ you are simply awful-- and so widely read too!!
Can't/won't comment directly on the philosophical or Judaic references, but "prayer without ceasing" is a good analogy (minus any bias and inclination toward subjective faith, devotion or (possibly) related anticipatory consciousness. The key regarding continuous subtle concentration is the application of unbending intent. Not dissing faith and devotion, per se, but the implication is such that both are relative (a subject/object duality), which is precisely what is do be forgotten, only because (until one sees reality for the first time) these relationships perpetuate the fallacy of the self-reifying thinker, knower and liver of life. In the aftermath of reversal's climax, one, so to speak, realizes that indeed, mountains are mountains, rivers are rivers, and one proceeds to resume chopping wood and carrying water, no different than before.
Reversal is the activation of real knowledge (lead) balancing out the aberrations of polluted mercury. These are the medicines cooking in the cauldron of the alchemic furnace (Creation). In taoist spiritual alchemy, once the lead has done its job, it is removed and gotten rid of. The buddhist analogy is "removing all traces of enlightenment."
The process of rejuvenating the proper relationship between the psychological and the nonpsychological, regardless of the teaching tradition, is to bring the aberrations of conditioning to light until the habituation to personal subjective patterning gradually dissolves, while bringing the balance and harmony of neglected nonpsychological attributes to light. The result is ego-function that assists the expression of enlightenment.
In terms of the device being employed, Don Juan stated that ego simply cannot stand up to such unbending "scrutiny" and will eventually crap-out. In my experience, ego isn't the problem, it's just the nexus of habit-conscious conglomerates sintering and concretizing around the aperture of awareness. As the dissolution of calcification gradually breaks down one's dependence on (self) reifying thought, open consciousness is already the space that has been heretofore obstructed by habit-awareness. The whole process is a re-set where neither aspect is harmed. Authentic practice by any means results in just this. Reality having no pattern does not change the deluded; it is the same.
As for "perceiving yourself, the object you are perceiving (psychological normal stuff)" and "It is sort of contradictory to perceive something and yourself at the same time." Let me put it this way: Perceiving reality in terms of the relativity of the ego-conscious conglomerate cloys the aperture of awareness by virtue of the perspective itself. The convention of seeing reality in terms of the person is certainly ordinary, but not normal. hahaha!
Conditioning's ancient conventions being what they due to their convenience by causal effect is an aberration of the model afforded by the Creative. The model is already perfection, whose image has no pattern. For those who see potential in everyday ordinary situations, the work of adaption looks as if it is modeled on the image of the Creative, simply because that's the way reality works— but no body knows why.
The only reason I mention it is because I started seeing and adapting to situationally inherent potential years before I fell through the veil independent of any intention on my part. It was many years after experiencing the sudden that I began to realize the significance of the Vortex and its particulate of liquid pearl and its value as a model for practice relative to the aftermath of seeing essence in terms of the Absolute.
The point is that enlightening activity/self-refinement IS seeing potential, and such is in no way dependent on sudden illumination, because real knowledge is already your own mind right now.
Getting back to "And you are saying there is no practice that leads there except for everyday self-remembering itself?" is absolutely plausible because, ultimately, that's all sudden illumination is, as it is a pure abstraction of the quality of awake experiencing itself in terms of itself. How could ordinary self-reifying consciousness be any different? Mind is one.
Once that self-awareness is continuous, I suppose it would be possible to interject whatever one wants into the flow, without having to bother with karmic cause-effect relationship. Tell me if I am paraphrasing your thought right.
No. That's what we already do without even knowing it by seeing reality and turning it into delusion by said interjection of continuous self-referencing unawares. Buddhahood is said to be permanent stabilization of selfless awareness (real knowledge). Permanent stabilization does not assume constant usage of such (per total habituation to psychological awareness by the deluded). Furthermore, sudden illumination does not confer buddhahood; it may be described as merely "planting of the seed of (potential) buddhahood in the homeland of nothing whatsoever."
Nevertheless, I shouldn't be too strict regarding the way I deliberately chose to interpret the way you expressed "Once that self-awareness is continuous, I suppose it would be possible to interject whatever one wants into the flow, without having to bother with karmic cause-effect relationship." But let me quickly follow that up with an aside in terms of how authentic enlightening practice is described in terms of "following desires without stepping over the line.", because self-awareness as you expressed it is indeed how it is used in selfless (spiritual) subtle adaption to conditions.
Self-awareness in terms of the phrase "the world is the sage" takes into account the total situational potential at hand. Seeing potential is a matter of NOT using psychologically self-reifying pattern-awareness in the ordinary course of situational assessment. Potential is seen, as such, by virtue of the fact that potential and karma are the same aspect viewed as karmic momentum by the deluded and enlightening potential by those awakened to reality. Buddhism employs various terms to describe enlightening relationship with Creation. One such term, "hooking and releasing", describes how one keys on potential relative to situational potential in such a way as to tap into "desire" (relative to self/selves) while gradually interjecting (introducing) wisdom (selfless real knowledge). The saying is, "go along with desire in order to introduce wisdom."
Now this brings up a KEY element in alchemic praxis. Taoism calls this critical juncture the yin convergence. Without getting into it, every created cycle builds with generative (yang) energy and, at the peak of the yang cycle, yin arises. Yin, in this regard, is referred to as the "killing energy." Sanskrit/Hindu culture and the Hawaiian goddess Pele are illustrative of this actuality. Here is the curious vampirism aspect of taoist spiritual alchemy whereby adepts follow desire in waiting until yang peaks in development. At the moment yin arises, the taoist is said to "steal potential from Creation and store it in the empty vessel, void of intellectualism." I will not elaborate here.
Touching on "without having to bother with karmic cause-effect relationship." Well, Jesus was nailed to the cross, but, how else would he have risen from the dead and then further, ascend into heaven in broad daylight? Just because adepts see potential, remember that potential and karma are identical. Hooking and releasing being a mechanism for subtle spiritual adaption isn't up to the adept, it is just a way to describe how the world gets what it wants while the adept goes along without going along. There is a parting of the ways for those who have gained entry into the inconceivable. Jesus' trials and tribulations are also a model for practical adaption and emblematic of such practical adaption.
Dangs, Magpie~ you are simply awful-- and so widely read too!!
Can't/won't comment directly on the philosophical or Judaic references, but "prayer without ceasing" is a good analogy (minus any bias and inclination toward subjective faith, devotion or (possibly) related anticipatory consciousness. The key regarding continuous subtle concentration is the application of unbending intent. Not dissing faith and devotion, per se, but the implication is such that both are relative (a subject/object duality), which is precisely what is do be forgotten, only because (until one sees reality for the first time) these relationships perpetuate the fallacy of the self-reifying thinker, knower and liver of life. In the aftermath of reversal's climax, one, so to speak, realizes that indeed, mountains are mountains, rivers are rivers, and one proceeds to resume chopping wood and carrying water, no different than before.
Reversal is the activation of real knowledge (lead) balancing out the aberrations of polluted mercury. These are the medicines cooking in the cauldron of the alchemic furnace (Creation). In taoist spiritual alchemy, once the lead has done its job, it is removed and gotten rid of. The buddhist analogy is "removing all traces of enlightenment."
The process of rejuvenating the proper relationship between the psychological and the nonpsychological, regardless of the teaching tradition, is to bring the aberrations of conditioning to light until the habituation to personal subjective patterning gradually dissolves, while bringing the balance and harmony of neglected nonpsychological attributes to light. The result is ego-function that assists the expression of enlightenment.
In terms of the device being employed, Don Juan stated that ego simply cannot stand up to such unbending "scrutiny" and will eventually crap-out. In my experience, ego isn't the problem, it's just the nexus of habit-conscious conglomerates sintering and concretizing around the aperture of awareness. As the dissolution of calcification gradually breaks down one's dependence on (self) reifying thought, open consciousness is already the space that has been heretofore obstructed by habit-awareness. The whole process is a re-set where neither aspect is harmed. Authentic practice by any means results in just this. Reality having no pattern does not change the deluded; it is the same.
As for "perceiving yourself, the object you are perceiving (psychological normal stuff)" and "It is sort of contradictory to perceive something and yourself at the same time." Let me put it this way: Perceiving reality in terms of the relativity of the ego-conscious conglomerate cloys the aperture of awareness by virtue of the perspective itself. The convention of seeing reality in terms of the person is certainly ordinary, but not normal. hahaha!
Conditioning's ancient conventions being what they due to their convenience by causal effect is an aberration of the model afforded by the Creative. The model is already perfection, whose image has no pattern. For those who see potential in everyday ordinary situations, the work of adaption looks as if it is modeled on the image of the Creative, simply because that's the way reality works— but no body knows why.
The only reason I mention it is because I started seeing and adapting to situationally inherent potential years before I fell through the veil independent of any intention on my part. It was many years after experiencing the sudden that I began to realize the significance of the Vortex and its particulate of liquid pearl and its value as a model for practice relative to the aftermath of seeing essence in terms of the Absolute.
The point is that enlightening activity/self-refinement IS seeing potential, and such is in no way dependent on sudden illumination, because real knowledge is already your own mind right now.
Getting back to "And you are saying there is no practice that leads there except for everyday self-remembering itself?" is absolutely plausible because, ultimately, that's all sudden illumination is, as it is a pure abstraction of the quality of awake experiencing itself in terms of itself. How could ordinary self-reifying consciousness be any different? Mind is one.
No. That's what we already do without even knowing it by seeing reality and turning it into delusion by said interjection of continuous self-referencing unawares. Buddhahood is said to be permanent stabilization of selfless awareness (real knowledge). Permanent stabilization does not assume constant usage of such (per total habituation to psychological awareness by the deluded). Furthermore, sudden illumination does not confer buddhahood; it may be described as merely "planting of the seed of (potential) buddhahood in the homeland of nothing whatsoever."
Nevertheless, I shouldn't be too strict regarding the way I deliberately chose to interpret the way you expressed "Once that self-awareness is continuous, I suppose it would be possible to interject whatever one wants into the flow, without having to bother with karmic cause-effect relationship." But let me quickly follow that up with an aside in terms of how authentic enlightening practice is described in terms of "following desires without stepping over the line.", because self-awareness as you expressed it is indeed how it is used in selfless (spiritual) subtle adaption to conditions.
Self-awareness in terms of the phrase "the world is the sage" takes into account the total situational potential at hand. Seeing potential is a matter of NOT using psychologically self-reifying pattern-awareness in the ordinary course of situational assessment. Potential is seen, as such, by virtue of the fact that potential and karma are the same aspect viewed as karmic momentum by the deluded and enlightening potential by those awakened to reality. Buddhism employs various terms to describe enlightening relationship with Creation. One such term, "hooking and releasing", describes how one keys on potential relative to situational potential in such a way as to tap into "desire" (relative to self/selves) while gradually interjecting (introducing) wisdom (selfless real knowledge). The saying is, "go along with desire in order to introduce wisdom."
Now this brings up a KEY element in alchemic praxis. Taoism calls this critical juncture the yin convergence. Without getting into it, every created cycle builds with generative (yang) energy and, at the peak of the yang cycle, yin arises. Yin, in this regard, is referred to as the "killing energy." Sanskrit/Hindu culture and the Hawaiian goddess Pele are illustrative of this actuality. Here is the curious vampirism aspect of taoist spiritual alchemy whereby adepts follow desire in waiting until yang peaks in development. At the moment yin arises, the taoist is said to "steal potential from Creation and store it in the empty vessel, void of intellectualism." I will not elaborate here.
Touching on "without having to bother with karmic cause-effect relationship." Well, Jesus was nailed to the cross, but, how else would he have risen from the dead and then further, ascend into heaven in broad daylight? Just because adepts see potential, remember that potential and karma are identical. Hooking and releasing being a mechanism for subtle spiritual adaption isn't up to the adept, it is just a way to describe how the world gets what it wants while the adept goes along without going along. There is a parting of the ways for those who have gained entry into the inconceivable. Jesus' trials and tribulations are also a model for practical adaption and emblematic of such practical adaption.
I am terribly sorry for dropping a "Judaic" reference and provoking your Jesus reference as well... haha. Of course no devotion, faith or any other red herring is allowed here. Even modern Buddhism and Hinduism messes it up most of the time, with their theistic devotion to deities, gurus or bodhisatvas... Worth adding that, according to Ur Group, there are two ways of self-realisation: dry and wet. The wet path would involve devotion, but in the end it has to be reversed anyway. Not something I am doing. Taoist and Buddhist (proper Buddhist) paths are dry, conscious all the way.
So you say one needs to get rid of all the conditioning and attachment to ego-self. And that the enlightenment itself can't become the new "identity" and attachment, or else it is not full. And that under the pressure of scrutiny, impurities are dissolved and what remains is pure awareness... That resonates. I'd say this feels like being more empty and whatever comes your way does not "stick" to your thinking patterns so fast. There is like a room for you to engage or not engage. However, what is that "unbending scrutiny" - is it a will/intent to stay "present" and aware of what is going on? I.e. remembering self?
Now, regarding "ordinary" vs "normal" perception: ordinary is where ego-self clouds the view of reality, including the aperture to the Absolute (which is the Anima). So seeing both self and outside, hence seeing all as one, is your "normal" - as you see, I am mostly just translating you into B2 English and checking if I am getting it right ; )
"No. That's what we already do without even knowing it by seeing reality and turning it into delusion by said interjection of continuous self-referencing unawares. Buddhahood is said to be permanent stabilization of selfless awareness (real knowledge). Permanent stabilization does not assume constant usage of such (per total habituation to psychological awareness by the deluded)."
So what do you do once you reach enlightenment? If you can see potential, why not go where you want? Does an enlightened person just go where he is supposed to go anyway? Where he would have gone anyway even if he did not awaken?
Those posts from you are something I am going to revisit. Took me 3 rounds of reading before I responded. Thanks for de-psychologizing anima. I am not 100% on what it is (probably won't be until I get there in terms of practice), but it is good to have a de-psychologized version of it here.
If i maybe so bold as to jump into a thoroughly enjoyable rigorous exchange. “Before enlightenment, chop wood and carry water. After enlightenment, chop wood and carry water.” And the zen ox herding parable is great for this. “Enlightenment“ happens on slide 4.
Or just notice that the separate self is an illusion. Nothing truly is separate. and the desires born of ego are usually momentary and fleeting. Lex Hixon’s book Coming Home is a fascinating read on this. That enlightenment is actually our natural state and the the distance to enlightenment is actually the seeking of enlightenment itself (usually born of egoic desire (i have personal thoughts on this)). That’s why beginner mind and child mind play such a pivotal role.
p.s. I suspect the scrutiny simply refers to noticing patterns of the egoic or sleeping/reflexive self (aka the self who is always reacting not responding). Noticing its neurosis and obsessions are (practically) inevitable.
I would typify the Chan buddhist schools as dry (fire/essence) with an underlying directive being an emphasis on seeing one's nature (Mind). Quanzhen taoism's emphasis on de-psychologizing energy by real knowledge (metal in water) puts it in the realm of sense/body. Complete reality praxis dismisses most formal energetic practices as sidetracks— there are a few exceptions. At any rate, as you said, the various schemes are ultimately reversed upon themselves to include the complementary dialectic (water>fire or fire>water). Curiously, even though I was utterly given to the Complete Reality praxis for the critical years I was being "graced" by circumstance, I never knew "enlightenment" was a thing to want, or to "do."
"Scrutiny" simply refers to the 24/7 subtle continuous observation of mind by mind, as in "prayer unceasing." Just a very subtle mindfulness, with nothing in terms of a focussed attention. Usually, in noting errant (arbitrary) thought, such unconscious psychological content dissolves of its own. If necessary, one employs "martial fire" to burn away parasitic psychological aberrations.
De-psychologizing. This is brilliant. Bravo, Magpie. I had been studying the I Ching for ten years before discovering Thomas Cleary's translation of the Taoist I Ching. This translation with commentary by Liu I ming, (for me) is an analysis of types of time in terms of potential, that is, types of time analyzed as de-psychologized energy momentum (karmic content stripped of its self-reflexive characteristics). A great aid for such as myself who was (at the time) able to use the overwhelming love/devotion/surrender resonances relative to the situational evolution I was experiencing as fuel for (de-psychologized) storage. This fuel is what projected "my" spiritual potential, in terms of the sudden. Obviously, it was an amazing gift of grace to be situated in the flow of such an inconceivable volume of very powerful and relentless erotic energy for such a long time, which wasn't used by physical sense, and therefore turned into "elixir" for the purpose of realizing immortality (nonorigination), in terms of the Absolute.
All that is necessary at such a time, or any time, is to de-psychologize the karmic momentum, thus turning it into potential on the spot. Just this is the working definition of self-refining enlightening activity. This is gathering the medicines. De-psychologizing the energy turns it into unrefined potential whereby one then seals it away, void of intellectualization (not ruminating about experience in its aftermath— including sudden enlightenment). Otherwise, "the spoils of war are lost in celebration." Overall, the storage part of the refining process is much like eating. Your body digests food wordlessly. When the process is finished, you know. The alchemic firing process, from start to finish, repeating endlessly, is much the same way. The ancient saying goes, "Empty the mind and fill the belly."
Another issue with teaching traditions emphasizing provisionally applied devotional aspects, aside from the issues of working with duality in the first place, and the cloying device of guru/deity worship (suitable only for those who must be protected from themselves while living by provisional (non-direct) affirmation, is that, unlike the much more subtle emphasis of east Asian buddhism— "enlightenment" is THE goal.
This brings us to… why?
Magpie wrote:
So what do you do once you reach enlightenment? If you can see potential, why not go where you want? Does an enlightened person just go where he is supposed to go anyway? Where he would have gone anyway even if he did not awaken?
The vast majority of "affluent" souls in the various developed civilizations the world over from time immemorial, whose idle motivations being materially consumptive, and are inclined towards spiritual materialism, and just want their enlightenment (like anything else) to be a done deal, no different than whatever else will always be self-triggered afflictions to scratch the itch of bored, yet fixated ego-consciousness. The countless impoverished who have no thoughts for such frivolity, have their relentlessly ready-made afflictions to attend to, womb to grave.
So who wants to know? Every time I read this line, I start laughing again, and again huaradr'jdujdfk,jfjkldssdsl;,87283- there, I got over it.
Well, I must admit, even afterwards, I didn't know what the experience of the Absolute really was— what had happened. I had no one to ask and no one to tell. Gautama said that absolutely nothing is gained by complete perfect enlightenment. Anyway, as little as I know about Anima conceptually, other than it is a relatively current construct to help map the (deep) psychological— so here Magpie is basically saying SO WHAT?
I get it. But the OP is about, in terms of Anima, the means, the purpose of such potential symbolized by this and her allied constructs. So forget about enlightenment, because it is simply a signpost along the dusty path of an endless gradual incline that every prior illuminate will, is and has trod. One thing I can say about such experience is that in its aftermath, the psychological circuitry of beginningless compulsions has been fried to a crisp. Unfortunately, should one NOT get to work immediately, to stabilize nonpsychological function in the forefront of one's clarified consciousness, habit energy will re-map its inroads moment by moment, day by day, and one's accomplishment will have been in vain.
So now you know what to do in the aftermath of the sudden. Basically more of the same that got you there in the first place. The reality symbolized by Anima is intact, whatever that may be. Seeing potential is the actualization of Complete Reality; the Dharma Eye, the Supreme Vehicle of those whose lives express suchness, the "middle way", neither ordinary nor holy. Utterly in the midst of deluded existence by virtue of one's own everyday ordinary experience in intimate and extended relationship within the totality of Creation's nonoriginated essence is the site of enlightenmment. Seeing reality is seeing potential, being that it is the real within the false, that is, enlightening potential is perceived by virtue of karmic situations. How would you [want to] go anywhere? Just this is it, in its entirety. Thee is nowhere to go, nothing to escape and no way to escape your own neurosis, other than to forget it and see reality on the spot. You might say that enlightening beings follow the laws of god without even knowing. I don't even know.
As for "Where would he have gone anyway even if he did not awaken?" He never goes anywhere because he is already awake, whether he knows it or not. The entirety of Creation operates by virtue of potential per the model afforded by the Creative. There is no coming or going within the totality of undifferentiated unity.
Seeing Creation as such in truth, in reality, by real knowledge, is potential. Seeing Creation relative to the person is karmic evolution. Reality and delusion look the same because they are the same. Either go along with everyday ordinary and extra-ordinary situations or pass through them while "absorbing" (witnessing) each situational nexus of potential. Potential will mass of its own accord and transform your existence accordingly.
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Thank you so much for the opportunity to express what is essentially entry into the inconceivable, Magpie. I cannot go on further, other than to say such is not accessible to thinking. Knowing is seeing is being which is beyond the rubric of the Created. It is your own mind right now.
