[Pay no attention to this post]

I found out that the main content of my site (on the tabbed Pages at the top) is not indexed for searching unless I link to it. So this is just a set of links to the six main pages of the site. "Move along, there is nothing to see here."
Perspective - getting a handle on Awakening
Stages - tendencies that make Awakening easier
One - a self with Ego "off-line": the Neo state
Gone -  the no-self stage of development
Return - everyday life as the Nondualist hobby
Ocean - Why you are precious to me
All except the Ocean page were written June 17, 2014, the day before I went in for open heart surgery.

ICE (In Case of Emergency)

• Derail Deficiency Thinking. Replace it with Being.
• Always turn away from Story.
• Remember that no one will understand or relate.
• Stop idolizing Choice.
• Think less. Merge thoughts.
• Meditate. (yes, start doing it again)
• Hobby? ("something that doesn't talk back")
• Go "Uh" more often.
• Strive to impart info, not a point of view.
• Don't tell Story.

attributes

The other day my girlfriend said something very profound. She was talking about someone she knew and she said that "he realized he was not his own God" or something like that. What an amazing phrase!

I still have not fully seen the implications, but of course the first thing to come to mind was that one certainly must be beyond ego to have that awareness, and beyond Neo also, because the Neo state still has a center. As long as there is something to hang attributes on, the hope persists that it can be "improved".

Which building am I in?

This morning I was thinking that the idealization of others is part of the ego's program for self-deification. The ego sees people with desirable characteristics, and it tries to emulate, copulate, counterfeit, steal or whatever it has to do to climb to the top of the great hill and be God. Not so much from a cause of having power, or being seen, but because a self cannot help but feel lack. Anywhere the shoe pinches, it is not satisfactory, and the self wants perfection. So Buddha's foundational statement, "life is unsatisfactory", is the absolute truth of the ego perspective.

I have admired traits and achievements in others, like my friend with 2 PhD's and 4 patents and a 500 page book. My idealization of her is not truly seeing her, it is me seeing how small and insignificant I am. Cheering her on is me wishing someone would cheer me on. My point is not that there is something wrong with her at all. She is fine as she is. My point is that my view of her is from standing in a hole in the ground, looking up. I am the one with the problem. Psychologically, this has already been explained. But I do not think it has been addressed in terms of spiritual growth.

The answer is not to dismiss others, or the self's frailties. It will not help to reason or re-condition myself, or fault the culture. Everything is what it is. The only fault, is in the "star" inside myself that is its own God. Knock that idol down, dethrone the self to its rightful position as an agent, not an agency, and all will be well.

The Naughtism Spectrum

I was thinking that people (yes, I know they do not exist...) seem to vary in their experiences of nonduality, from: maybe happened a bit as a young child, to a few adult experiences, to some awakening but still integrating, to "fully involved" (A candle was made to become entirely flame - Rumi), to beyond comprehension. So, I created the phrase, the 'Naught'ism Spectrum, since it is another one of those things we thought was a lot of things, but it is really just one big hairy ill-defined thing, and lets get it over with. (I think that is actually the definition of "normal variation", but OK.)

Peace of Mind - 25 cents

Apparently the word is used in a variety of other contexts, so I probably could not get away with introducing it in to my writing. I looked at Not-ism (w/o hyphen) instead, and it is the name of a design and collaboration tool. Not so bad, actually, but likely to result in a lot of wrong search results. Like my "Bare Eyes" name being the same as a brand of makeup... oops. One person said that Notist Art is about trying to preserve some personal history in the face of everything going ephemerally digital. Interesting coincidence.

The WWW is just too darn big and popular these days! Huh.

But back to my point: there is a spectrum of nondual experiences. One satori doth not awakening make. I found a nice article about "Premature Claims to Awakening" and it said that there is a "head awakening" and then it has to move through your being / personality and all the old crap has to get worked through. Otherwise you have "masters" going off and doing bad things. (Bad things? Nevermind... Never... mind... That is funny. Stop talking to yourself! OK, jeez! Wasn't there another article about having a Voice that leads us through the growth process? Hmm.)

The Yoga of Everyday Life

I wrote this list down November 17th:

• get up anyway
• eat anyway
• go to work anyway
• do the ordinary things now, today
• stifle the urge to be special
• be interested, not interesting
• watch the story unfold, forget Story

"Story" is a term from Byron Katie referring to what we tell ourselves over and over. I often neglect to eat, which is not helpful. This list is a set of prompts to remind myself to "get on with it" and stop making issues of nothing, or wishing to draw attention to myself. I find it uplifting.