Waking Up From Our Illusions – Alan Watts

Worth reading from off the web!  Posted by

“This is IT! So you don’t need to do anything at all… It’s just the way it is. What’s required is a sort of act of super relaxation.. It’s not just letting go. It’s being with yourself as you are without altering anything.” ~Alan Watts

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“When you look for your own mind, that is to say, your own particularized center of being which is separate from everything else, you won’t be able to find it. But the only way you’ll know it isn’t there is if you look for it hard enough, to find out that it isn’t there.

And so everybody says ‘All right, know yourself, look within, find out who you are.’ Because the harder you look, you won’t be able to find it, and then you’ll realize it isn’t there at all. There isn’t a separate you. You’re mind is what there is. Everything. But the only way to find that out is to persist in the state of delusion as hard as possible….

So if a person believes that the Earth is flat, you can’t talk him out of that. He knows it’s flat. Look out the window and see; it’s obvious, it looks flat. So the only way to convince him it isn’t is to say ‘Well let’s go and find the edge.’ And in order to find the edge, you’ve got to be very careful not to walk in circles, you’ll never find it that way.

So we’ve got to go consistently in a straight line due west along the same line of latitude, and eventually when we get back to where we started from, you’ve convinced the guy that the world is round. That’s the only way that will teach him. Because people can’t be talked out of illusions.

There is another possibility, however. But this is more difficult to describe. Let’s say we take as the basic supposition–which is the thing that one sees in the experience of satori or awakening, or whatever you want to call it–that this now moment in which I’m talking and you’re listening, is eternity.

That although we have somehow conned ourselves into the notion that this moment is ordinary, and that we may not feel very well, we’re sort of vaguely frustrated and worried and so on, and that it ought to be changed.

This is IT! So you don’t need to do anything at all. But the difficulty about explaining that is that you mustn’t try and not do anything, because that’s doing something. It’s just the way it is. In other words, what’s required is a sort of act of super relaxation; it’s not ordinary relaxation.

It’s not just letting go, as when you lie down on the floor and imagine that you’re heavy so you get into a state of muscular relaxation. It’s not like that. It’s being with yourself as you are without altering anything.

And how to explain that? Because there’s nothing to explain. It is the way it is now. See? And if you understand that, it will automatically wake you up!”

~Alan Watts~

Christopher Chase's avatarCreative by Nature

“This is IT! So you don’t need to do anything at all… It’s just the way it is. What’s required is a sort of act of super relaxation.. It’s not just letting go. It’s being with yourself as you are without altering anything.” ~Alan Watts

luxfon.com_17596

“When you look for your own mind, that is to say, your own particularized center of being which is separate from everything else, you won’t be able to find it. But the only way you’ll know it isn’t there is if you look for it hard enough, to find out that it isn’t there.

And so everybody says ‘All right, know yourself, look within, find out who you are.’ Because the harder you look, you won’t be able to find it, and then you’ll realize it isn’t there at all. There isn’t a separate you. You’re mind is what there is. Everything. But the only way…

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Loving Without Exception

An Interview With Byron Katie

 ~ Worth reading! … from off the web

Omega: Your experience of “waking up to reality” was very dramatic. Such experiences won’t happen to most people, so how can the rest of us awaken?

Q_ThoughtLetsGoOfYouKatie: Thought by thought.

People think that they need to get “enlightened” in order to be free, and nobody knows what enlightenment is. Yes, it’s in the sacred texts, and yes, this guru or that lama says he has attained it, but that’s just a concept; it’s the story of a past.

The truth is that there’s no such thing as enlightenment. No one is permanently enlightened; that would be the story of a future.

There’s only enlightenment in the moment. Do you believe a stressful thought? Then you’re confused. Do you realize that the thought isn’t true? Then you’re enlightened to it. It’s as simple as that.

And then the next thought comes, and maybe you’re enlightened to it as well, and maybe not.

Omega: Most of our actions seem to arise out of thoughts and beliefs, even ones we perceive as altruistic, like caring for others or ending injustice. Where does the impulse to act come from once thoughts like “it’s not right to treat people like that” are dismantled?

Katie: I’ve heard people say that they cling to their painful thoughts because they’re afraid that without them they wouldn’t be activists for peace. “If I felt completely peaceful,” they say, “why would I bother taking action at all?”

My answer is “Because that’s what love does.” To think that we need sadness or outrage to motivate us to do what’s right is insane. As if the clearer and happier you get, the less kind you become. As if when someone finds freedom, she just sits around all day with drool running down her chin.

My experience is the opposite. Love is action. It’s clear, it’s kind, it’s effortless, and it’s irresistible.

Omega: What is your opinion on the state of the world today? What do you feel we can do about it?

Katie: The world will be at war as long as the mind is at war with itself. The mind at war with itself wages war with any other mind, and that produces war in the world—all of it. If we can’t find peace within ourselves, where’s the hope for peace in the world?

I love the world, because I love the mind that created the world. I see the goodness and beauty in everyone, and everything is a gift given for me and for all of us.

If you don’t love it, question your mind until you do. That’s the best thing you can do for world peace. Create peace in your world, and then the rest of the world will follow.

Omega: What do you believe in?

Katie: I believe in the power of every human being to end suffering.

Omega: Can you describe the freedom that comes from not believing anything?

Katie: No. When I first woke up to reality in 1986, I felt that if my joy were told, it would blow the roof off the whole planet. I still feel that way.

Omega: What has life taught you?

Katie: To question everything, to remain open-hearted, and to serve the freedom of others as though it were my own. Because it is.

Omega: Do you have a daily practice?

Katie: To love without exception.

Source: http://www.eomega.org/learning-paths/body-mind-spirit-personal-growth/loving-without-exception

What do you think? Does Byron Katie’s simple wisdom appeal to you?