So too with awareness, joy, and creativity. Let the ego-clouds pass from our minds and these all effortlessly manifest.<\/p>\n
But <\/span>boy<\/span> how we cling to our clouds! <\/span>In the great blue sky of awareness, they are what distinguish us from others, they are what make us unique, they give definition, relationship for other clouds\u2026 Without them \u2014- who are we?<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s the most liberating, wonderful thing in the world, when you openly admit you are an ass. It\u2019s wonderful. When people tell me, \u201cYou\u2019re wrong.\u201d I say, \u201cWhat can you expect from an ass?\u201d How true. Pristine, perfect unblemished awareness aside, we\u2019re all conditioned <\/span>beings, conditioned by our childhood, our wild \u2013 or not so wild \u2013 teen years, our wild, or not, college days and\/or entry into the real world. We\u2019re conditioned by every ass we meet along the way.<\/span> If we\u2019re lucky, we manage to get un<\/span>conditioned a bit here and there, whatever that means. So \u2013<\/p>\n Choose Happiness <\/span><\/p>\n That\u2019s a lot harder than it sounds \u2013 after all, we\u2019re asses and so is everyone else. So try my old professor Albert Borgmann\u2019s \u201chappiness finder\u201d \u2013 a simple (and very Buddhist<\/a> in my opinion) tool for recognizing and being mindful<\/span> of those happy moments in our life:<\/p>\n Charts and Graphs<\/span> may be help too\u2026 This first one is borrowed from the Integral-Options Cafe<\/a> blog and, I believe, reflects the philosophy of Ken Wilber<\/a>. Where are you now? (I\u2019m totally <\/span>holistic, ha!)<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n And, as mentioned, it\u2019s not a one-way process. <\/span> I am reminded of a Buddhist creation myth (borrowed from Brahmanism) about the Great Being that once inhabited space and time, a Being of pure lightness and energy, living effortlessly on the mana<\/span> of creation. At some point the Being became a bit greedy, taking too much mana<\/span>, and growing heavy<\/span>. Taking, taking, taking, the Great Being <\/span>fell <\/span>from His (\/Her \u2013 genderless) flow of creation; the <\/span>mana<\/span> had begun to stick and create a physical body and he came crashing down to earth; his body breaking into pieces creating \u2013 <\/span>us<\/span>.<\/p>\n The Buddha does promise that once awakened, you are free from the cycle of flow and crash, but until then, enjoy the ride. (Wait, no! Don\u2019t <\/span>enjoy<\/span> it, get off it, wake up!<\/span>)<\/p>\n \u201cThe sun will have to struggle mighty hard to cut through these clouds this morning,\u201d I think, sitting at my east window waiting expectantly for that great ball of light and life. But then I think, \u201cthe sun doesn\u2019t struggle. It just does its thing, day after day. We say it\u2019s \u2018not sunny\u2019 today, but […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":118,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-534","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n
Disarmed, everybody has to be disarmed.\u201d (Awareness <\/span>p.40)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n
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<\/a>And this old junker that I created last winter as I watched a friend and then myself disintegrate from lovely 6\/7s (on the left-hand scale) to 3\/5s<\/span>. It was inspired by my understanding of Wilber\u2019s work, along with my own studies in Buddhism<\/a> and other philosophies. The basic idea is that, developmentally, we start out as a bit of a mess \u2013 literally all over the place. That\u2019s not necessarily a bad thing. It is a place of great opportunity. We could go left or right or forward or backward in a hundred different ways. Yet, as we develop, we take on identities (here represented by the gender symbols); these identities bring focus and direction to our lives.![\"\"](\"https:\/\/4.bp.blogspot.com\/_fyeYpxfdjuI\/SEWo1MlcEyI\/AAAAAAAAAHc\/Ko4bCnEhycw\/s320\/hierarchy.jpg\")
<\/a>The shift from 4 to 5 is probably bigger than how it is represented below \u2013 it is a move from identities as \u2018who we are\u2019 to an understanding of them as mere useful constructs. We live in the harmony of encompassing dualities. <\/span> The next step is also big, from 5 to 6. There, we transcend even the harmony of the previous stage; we realize that we are<\/span> the bare awareness or observer behind<\/span> (above, below, use whatever imagery you\u2019d like) the dualities. Holding to this truth, the <\/span>us<\/span> shrinks, or becomes all (it doesn\u2019t really matter), it just goes away<\/span>. The ego dies.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/blogger.googleusercontent.com\/tracker\/7907151-5586338428432088561?l=americanbuddhist.blogspot.com\")