
That experience was at least 10 years ago now, but otherwise the memories & the knowledge how to overcome them endure.
Shifting from the "person" channel to the "awareness" channel...how beautifully said. Awakening, in my opinion does not end the old triggers...it just ends their powerful and continual adverse impact on living. A strict Advaitist, a nondual policeman might get their shorts in a wad about doership here..."So just who is 'shifting' channels...and what are these separate channels, anyway." The reality, at least for me is that the arising of difficult thoughts or feelings into a now-expanded consciousness does continue. There is just too much egoic inertia and autopilot habitual energy in the system. Page 68 in "Buddha's Brain" discusses the 'Negativity Bias of Memory' - (and the solutions are just as dijmart has suggested!) With respect to the nondual cops, since our true identity, our deepest identity is the "Awareness" channel, that is the new default condition. Speaking personally, for most of the day, minor and incidental stresses surface and dissipate quickly...(like ETs ducks who just shake off conflict.) But sometimes a big old Velcro belief climbs out of the memory banks and thrashes around in present awareness, and can call up emotional responses. Most of mine are ancient parental "shoulds" about how I should have led my life...and they have those shaming fingers waving. But like those, and others, they all require a fragile and hypersensitive egoic self to nod in agreement for them to occupy awareness at all, let alone actually bring grief. And that old ego is not really in the driver's seat anymore. So what tends to happen is I'm bumping along through my day and some old "guilt baggage" thought arises...I automatically begin "Standing as Awareness" (Goode). The thought/feeling dagger remains for a minute or two, then falls back into the swamp, exactly as dijmart describes.If it's "sticky", but doesn't need attention I shift from the "person" channel to the "awareness" channel, then this negates it. I watch it...I witness the mind and the thoughts arise, peak and descend back to where they came from. I do the same with unpleasant feelings and emotions (which are both caused by thought). I sit with them and offer them some tea, until they're ready to leave.
Great post Andy.... A strict Advaitist, a nondual policeman might get their shorts in a wad about doership here..."So just who is 'shifting' channels...and what are these separate channels, anyway."
So, now the nondual police want to know from you, "who" automatically begins standing as awareness?So what tends to happen is I'm bumping along through my day and some old "guilt baggage" thought arises..I automatically begin "Standing as Awareness" (Goode). The thought/feeling dagger remains for a minute or two, then falls back into the swamp, exactly as dijmart describes.
Again, what is this isolated decider, "the intellect?" Is it some kind of disembodied agent of Ishvara / Satya?the intellect is the decision maker
Bear with me while I try to explain this, I hope I don't fudge it up and confuse you. Before I start though...everything subtle and gross is Ishvara (awareness + maya), including the intellect, which is a function of the mind. Of course, we call this particular "jiva/person" separate, but really, it's an aspect of Ishvara.the intellect is the decision maker
Again, what is this isolated decider, "the intellect?" Is it some kind of disembodied agent of Ishvara / Satya?
Nice, sometimes I've wondered if anyone gets what I'm saying...I know exactly, from "personal" experience what you are saying, and always smile when I read your posts, because it sounds just like what's going on in my awareness, expressed with slightly different words, and much more Pali and Sanskrit!
Right, it's not an "either/or", it's a "both/and"...I agree completely!It is exactly a "both/and" paradox. There is both oneness and diversity. "Little me" is an operational identity that functions in the manifested relative world. And it has a name and many roles to play.
I have occasionally disagreed with Gary regarding the concept of "personality." He maintains that "personality" is an epiphenomenon of the body-mind. I say "so what," it is a handy term to use when cataloging the infinite variety of "people" we know. All gamepieces in the large enterprise of lila in maya, or "play" in Mithya. All good, for sure!
Ishvara is always in control of the intellect. But as long as the apparent individual is ignorant of its true nature, it thinks it is controlling the intellect. Once the apparent individual has gained self-knowledge, it knows that the intellect is simply an inert mechanism that is brought into being through the power of maya and operated by Isvara as a means of perceiving, processing and projecting subjective meaning onto the holographic “picture show” of the apparent reality and thereby “creating” or coloring the apparent individual’s experience of it. ~By Ted Schmidt
Sighclone wrote:Dij -
Thanks for clarifying "intellect" as a function within the mind, and for reminding us that mind is not a product of the brain.
And for re-introducing modern interpretations of Vedanta to the forum!
Andy