Situations

There are many ways to look at our relationship to situations...

Dualistic

When we are caught up in, and identified with, the processes of the inner world, we tend to perceive a strong separation between the outer and the inner world. We see the personality as one object in an enormous world of other and unpredicatble objects. There is a sense of struggle, fear, precariousness and of being a victim of circumstances.

Awakening

When we bring more awareness in, we gradually gain more of an overview of the situation. There is a disidentification with the processes of the personality, and a realization that all phenomena are conditioned, in mutual dependence, and part of one seamless and fluid whole. There is awareness, and there are the fluid phenomena. This allows us to gain more of a perspective, and more of a choice in how we relate and respond to inner/outer situations.

We gradually see that we do not need to get blindly caught up in the processes of the personality, and that we can allow ourselves to let go of the sense of struggle in relationship to the outer world.

This comes in glimpses at first and in situation conducive to this sense of overview. Then, it flows into more situations and gradually becomes more ordinary, along with a deepening of how we experience this new way of relating to existence.

There is a sense of liberation. Of freedom from blindly being caught up in conditioned patterns and patterns.

Transdual

From a more fully transdual view, there is a sense of existence manifesting. All the fluid phenomena of the inner/outer world arise, unfold and fade in luminous awareness.

Notes

There are many paths into an awakening of awareness: meditation, yoga, tai chi, chi gong, Breema, mind training (lo jong), and Raphael Cushnir's "living the questions" approach.

When applied well, these tools allows us to...

• Unfold awareness
• Be with whatever we are experiencing at the moment (let go of resistance)
  
• Allow for a more transdual overview of the inner/outer world
• Allow for liberation from being blindly caught up in the processes of the personality
  
• Allow for deepened awareness and real choice in how we relate to the inner/outer world
• Experience the phenomena of the inner/outer world as a fluid and seamless whole
• Experience awareness and fluid phenomena as a fluid and seamless whole
  

All of these tools work to their optimum only when applied with support from an experienced guide who knows the terrain well. This is a terrain that goes far beyond what our small mind is familiar with, and we need help to navigate it.

If we rely on the preferences of the personality, we are likely to reinforce just what is keeping us in small mind. We tend to stay stuck in blind identification with parts of the personality (usually where there is some trauma/wound), and engage in patterns that strengthen this blind identification. We tend to resist being with certain parts of ourselves.