So how do you realize the truth.

[mus3cho]

Today I was running by the river and tried to cross it without getting my shoes wet. I still had to get home and didn't want to run in soggy shoes. But my foot missed a rock and SPLASH. ..wet shoe. I just thought "the hell with it" and splashed in with both feet. The truth is I don't know what I was so uptight about. The truth is I had fun and that's what it's about for this spiritual being trying to be human. The truth is where did I get this idea that running tip-toe across the river is how it should be done?
Conditioning.
I have lots of superstitions deeply conditioned in my ego structure. As long as I can be aware of them, they can be dissolved.

[Sighclone]

Great realization, mus...

Andy

[Craig]

How do you realize the truth.

There is a two-fold process. One is recognizing what you are, awareness prior to consciousness, and seeing clearly through your own direct experience that this, and not your body, mind or anything else, is what is you. Second, the sense of personal self needs to be thoroughly investigated and seen to be completely non-existant. When there are unpleasant thoughts that appear in your awareness, there seems to be some centre that they swirl around- they seem to be organized around a sense of a limited, separate person. But look and see if you can really find that person. Especially notice your direct experience when those thoughts seem to be real. In your direct experience- which is actually seen or noticed- it will be found that there are thoughts being perceived in awareness, and also objects that are perceived, but the individual person will not be found. Even if there is an insistent thought that you are a person, closely investigate- what happens to that sense of separate person when the thought disappears? Where was that person prior to the thought passing into awareness?

This seeing will destroy any possibility of "buying-into" thoughts about being an individual person.

[pretend]

What makes up the difference between being thought and watching thought. How do you stay conscious and why there is falling to unconscious.

[Webwanderer]

What makes up the difference between being thought and watching thought.

"Being" thought is an identification. It's so pervasive in consciousness that it's unconscious. Ask an unconscious person who they are and you will get a name, a profession, a gender, a nationality, a political party, a race, and the list goes on. But it's also temporary emotional identifications - I'm happy, I'm sad, I'm bored, I'm afraid, I'm weak, I'm strong, etc. Then there's conceptual identifications - I'm right, I'm wrong, I'm smart, I'm dumb, etc. The common denominator is I am some identifiable thing. From there life is viewed through the combined sense of those identifications that one has adopted as being a unique and separate me from all the other beings that one encounters or imagines. It's constantly reinforced through encounters with other identified beings who are equally invested in separation perspective. But it's just one way to experience life. Awakened being where one is aware of the nature of identifications is another.

Watching thought is the perspective that has no definable qualities. It's aware being without qualification. Even "awareness" is a defined quality of mind that must be dropped if one is to perceive from the pure state of clarity. In other words (here we go again) be aware of being aware.

How do you stay conscious and why there is falling to unconscious.

One stays conscious through the clear recognition of the basic state of awareness as distinct from identification perspective. For most it comes in a breakthrough moment of recognition. Then it fades as one drifts back into the conditioned mental habits of familiar identifications. It happens, it's okay. But an unforgettable truth has been realized. One begins to seek pointers that help recall this basic state. One then may begin a practice of short moments of clear awareness, consistently repeated, until it becomes the norm. Don't set a time frame. Familiarity as clear presence will grow with experience. Be patient. Be diligent. Allow clarity to be. Rest whenever possible in thought free presence. Do not force mental shut down, just observe the content of the moment as it flows by.

Life does not stop just because we begin to drop long held identifications. What it does is take on a new perspective of aware engagement. Moments of clarity will begin to transform the quality of our engagements at a natural pace. There's nothing to do but recognize the nature of thought from the perspective of clear awareness. A natural compassion arises in clarity. Condemnation of self and others is an indication that identifications are influencing perspective. Just recognize what's happening. It will transform naturally in time.

WW