I have never heard a teacher say that age was good for anything related to self-realization. Of course, I might not have been listening well. I’m 75 years old and certainly lead a more satisfied life than in the past, but that is only an effect in the relative. I also feel “closer” to self-realization, but that, too, is just a feeling in the relative. I see no actual evidence that I have been any closer or farther from self-realization at any age at all, from birth to my current age. Just my opinion!
Thanks for your comments, David. I agree: None of the teachers I read or hear mention age as a factor.
These essays are often triggered by a topic that comes up in our zoom meetings. I go away and “think” or meditate on the issue. In one meeting, several people seemed to be saying that as we get older, our experience in life and our maturity may make us more open to, or less resistant to, realization. When I look at my own life (I’m 74), it appears to me that it’s more a matter of courage to let go of everything you think you are. I could not do that at 20, and I’m still working on it.
I’ve been re-listening to the morning meditations from the Garrison retreat I attended. In one, Rupert says, “We seem to have acquired the qualities and thus the limitations of experience…This apparent qualification of the self…is a powerful illusion and one that requires charity and sensitivity and courage to see through.”
He acknowledges courage as a factor. My main point is that courage is more important than age.
Holger, I’ve read this twice: It’s beautifully “stated” in long form, and I agree with it all. And I think it supports my main point that age has nothing to do with it. In fact, I almost included one of Jesus’ parables about field hands who come late to the fields (Matthew 20:1-16–of course, I had to look that up).
It’s only “a state” if you’re still trying to get there, struggling to open that door. If you’re there, it’s the only “place” that exists. And I agree that “thinking” is just a tool that can be tossed away, can only get us to the threshold, is another “object” of duality.
I know my words cannot lead anyone to Awareness; unfortunately, they can only express where I am. Maybe they will be breadcrumbs that will help me get “from here to there.” Maybe not. I remain in the “don’t know mind.”
Thank you for reading my essay, and for your thoughtful comments.
Dear David, to what degree are practices just candy for the mind, or props for the so called teacher to hide behind?
How to clarify and ease the seeming transition from “me” as I believe myself to be, to simply being as “I am”?
Theoretically it is super simple: just become aware of your mental effort (attention) and relax awareness back into its source.
But can the thinking mind (suffering) understand and agree to its own dissolution? Is the caterpillar afraid losing its familiar “me” while becoming a butterfly?
To what degree can “practice” be highjacked by a separate-self to endlessly prolong its fake reality?
What role plays the discernment between thinking and experience?
Love, trust, bravery, friendship…
David, please don’t take my mental confetti here personal… my boring empty words, just lifeless husk.
Not to split hair, but what is meant with “spectrum of nonduality”?
Does “non-secondness” – the cause of the phenomena of life – have a spectrum?
Maybe a “spectrum of nonduality pointers”?
Sorry, I don’t want to get lost in words.
Thank you David for your article!
Mr. Jesus [Awareness] says: “Come now, let us reason together.”
We all sit in the same boat, one Awareness seemingly hypnotized by me, myself and i.
Thank you David, what would be the qualitative difference if we would replace the idea of ‘seeker’ with ‘truth lover’?
Doesn’t ‘seeker’ by itself sound already very heavy; implying that there is something missing, whereas enlightenment is the taking away of faulty thinking, the recalibrating of the erroneous sense of “me” (memory-based) to the effortless presence “I am”.
Instead of “seeker” maybe “spiritual loser” would be more appropriate?
Losing attachment, losing misidentification, losing thinking errors, losing the sense of a separate-self…
I really like George’s poem. It’s the koan for the week.
My comment on the koan: Many times I have tried to trace the cord back to the Self. But I hit a wall. I thought I was plugged into the body/mind. But it was just emptiness. I was unplugged. You won’t die alone; you are everyone.
Kevin, I agree with the spirit behind these words. But any attempt to be so specific about consciousness will never be fully satisfying, because it is trying to use the truth of the finite mind to describe the truth of infinite consciousness. These will always be separate and different truths until the mind is let go, after which it will be seen that there is only one truth. In particular, describing ‘now’ as being a tiny moment sandwiched between past and future does not really describe how the mind takes time seriously but inconsistently, or how consciousness is actually timeless. Hope this helps.
Hi David, thanks for your comments. I know something of your background and I appreciate where you are coming from. My description of my thoughts and experience is the best I can come up with for now. I understand your objections and see why you might raise them, from your view point. But allowing for the plain fact that no, I cannot know the absolute but only at best articulate what I think and perceive then for me what I expressed in my muse is valid. I am open to any alternative views, this is why I post.
Be good to talk this through with you in the Garden when I finally find my way back.
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