Sunday, March 17, 2024

Establishing a 5 minute "emotional releasing" session - Sedona Method additions.

 

So I've been revisting The Sedona Method (and related teachings of Lester Levenson) over the last month or so. I've done it many times in the past, probably starting around the year 1998, 2000 or thereabouts. I had various levels of "success", but this time around has been excellent in terms of actually understanding where it is coming from, and what "releasing" (a subtle and often confusing topic) really is.


One way to use the method or approach is to establish a 5 minute (or more) quiet sitting meditation session, in which you just sit and do nothing for 5 minutes, apart from allowing issues, bodily sensations or other objects to arise and take hold of the attention (if it happens).

Then these objects and arisings can be tracked back to the feeling category (AGFLAP-CAP) or the 2 Basic Wants (Approval, Control) and released from there. If done correctly or to completion, this returns one's state back to just sitting (beingness, I-am-ness etc.)

One can notice the "I-thought" also attached to these basic wants and how they arise.

This is also a great little exercise that can be done to notice craving (tanha in Buddhism) and how craving arises and causes pressure (to escape it in either pleasure or aversion).

Getting success with the method really entails a LOT of repitition until releasing becomes automatic or second nature, as per how breathing happens (or burping etc.) and any other automatic bodily response.

Every arising, even unrelated, such as a thought, desire, bodily sensation etc. can be tracked back to the two basic wants (or prior to that the 6-9 basic feelings in the AGFLAP chart) and released from there.


Friday, March 15, 2024

Why must we pay for things on the spiritual path?

 

Why must we 'pay' for things on the spiritual path?


I will tell you an almost immutable law of human behaviour that is relatively simple to understand and that has far reaching consequences.

That law is:

People only value what they must pay for..

This can look like a number of different things, practically speaking..

- Having to pay money or financial consideration for a course or seminar or teaching

- Having to expend effort in receiving information, teachings, assistance, support etc.

- Having to use time and spend large amounts of time working with a teaching before any sort of understanding takes place.


A number of teachers used this law. It was fundamental in all of the Gurdjieff and Fourth Way teachings and groups last century. Freud makes mention of this during his writings, as a strongly conditioned response in people that is largely inherited. Lester Levenson mentions it in his talks and his experiences in teaching Sedona Method and Release work. 
Even the Bible seems to condition people (or make use of this law), in places like The Golden Rule of behaviour (New Testament), or in the ways of justice throughout may places in the Old Testament. 

How can we make use of this conditioned behavioural response that goes fairly deep in the human psyche?

Some ways:

- Consider the effort required and what you're prepared to give in receiving and working with a teaching. How much earnestness and devotion can you commit?

- Money considerations, donations, supporting the teaching that you're receiving and working with.. or other ways to 'give back'

- How much time are you willing to spend sticking to a teaching or approach? Could you commit even a few months of honestly using and trying out the teaching and being faithful to it before moving on?

"But teachings and spirituality should be free!!!"

The teachings ARE already free.. there's nothing out there that is new, or hasn't been said already. Every method, approach, way, insight etc. is already out there, free and available in books, videos, on the Internet, in person with people who 'get it' etc. But again, we don't value those avenues, and we quickly consume them and move on, discarding it later like used packaging.

So be aware of this behavioural law in the coming days, and note how much effort you actually put into the path, which will determine how much you get out of the path that you've chosen or that resonates with you at this moment in time.


Thursday, March 7, 2024

Progressive paths, preparations and nonduality meetings - nonduality speak.

 

Progressive paths, preparations and meetings - nonduality speak



I sometimes get asked-- 'why do you focus on preparatory actions, or topics and practices that aren't directly related to nonduality, awareness approaches, or nondual enquiry etc.?'

The reason that I bang on so much about preparations, inner work, emotional mastery, embodiment, and progressive pathways.. nowawadays, as opposed to in previous years where I seemed to aim only at approaches directly related to Nonduality, is because all these preps and progressive steps are necessary for 99% of spiritual seekers!

It's all well and good to pick up any number of common nondual teaching approaches or talks or pointers or enquiries etc. .. of which there's so many around these days, Youtube, Zoom sessions, one-to-one, meetings, teachers, etc., and then run with these in the hope of getting a glimpse. The issue is that these small glimpses are experiences only. Temporary changes in perception, or belief, or the unlocking of some new understanding. These experiences come and go, and aren't permanent or abiding. The temptation then is to latch on to some belief system that maintains that underlying our current experience (of suffering) there's some absolute, eternal, peaceful state etc.. after all, 'didn't we just experience that?' This then leads to the common flip-flop syndrome where seekers are in and out of 'the experience'.. or even worse, some pick up the teacher role (along with their ego) and then start proclaiming they're done and jump into the 'blind-leading-the-blind' game of nonduality teaching.

 ALL traditional approaches, from traditional Dzogchen, to traditional Advaita Vedanta, or traditional Buddhist schools, or traditional Kashmir Shaivism, or devotional yoga, or contemporary or pragmatic dharma teachers, etc. aways advise of a rather length preparatory or gradual approach that combines a number of different 'modules', usually including some development in ethics, bodywork, philosophical framework (even minimally), ritual, emotional maturity, and other practices or work areas that are normally under the 'progressive paths' framework. These gradual steps ensure that there's no rock left unturned when the penny finally drops, and things are seen just as they are.

So in summary, these prep practices are really important in the long for success in this 'nondual understanding' endeavour. Without them, the road is dangerous, and it becomes just too easy to veer off into distractions, false awakenings, calling off the search too early, burn out, or allowing the ego to take control of the journey.

This needs to be said sometimes, as a reminder (antidote to all the contemporary misinformation out there) that the path is a gradual one, although the paradox is that recognition is instantaneous and only happens now, with things being always as they have been, including the story.

Thanks for reading this and your patience. My blessings to you on the path that is no path, and which is well worth the effort (or non-effort) so to speak.

Dean.









Wednesday, March 6, 2024

Balancing the teachings and activity with periods of silence.

 

Balancing the teachings and activity with periods of silence


I was recently listening to an old audio tape of Lester Levenson giving a talk to one of his small groups of students around the 1960s in Sedona.

One of the themes that he identified was the idea of the power of silent teachings, or constantly transmitted teachings or 'the teaching' that is given and received in silence or stillness.

This idea was also promoted by a few schools, and Ramana Maharshi was particularly famous for his comments on the highest form of teaching being that given in silence, rather than any verbal pointers. He mentioned some cultural examples, or rather Tamil type myths, involving the legendary Dakshinamurti who gave his teachings under a tree to his 8 or so disciples entirely in silence.

Lester also made a point of the fact that any outer teaching or outer teacher is in fact a projection of the inner teacher and inner teaching, of which, the outer teacher should be aiming to direct and guide the disciple into. This idea is also present in the teachings of A Course in Miracles, where the student is meant to be left in the hands of his "Inner Teacher" by the end of the course, rather than continuing to mill around other "course" teachers and take on some new role or egoic identity.

A final point in the talk was that any teaching that we take on, or intellectually contemplate, as well as action related to that teaching- whether it be ethics, right view, mindfulness, awareness or whatever, should be balanced by periods of silent contemplation. Further, most people have a fair amount of 'ego deconstruction' work to engage in, and this breaking down of egoic identities, roles, norms, beliefs and constructs should be balanced by periods of silence and stillness, listening out Inner Guidance. Issues arise when this isn't done, such as taking the ego itself to be some sort of permanent and immovable structure, or engaging in massive circular efforts by the ego in trying to remove itself.. a cycle many enter into and never actually free themselves from. The other extreme where too much effort is given to silence and stillness without the necessary ego deconstruction can also happen. The issues on that side is that egoic beliefs, and hidden constructs remain in place, and remain operating on a hidden level in the form of spiritual bypassing, shady ethics, and egoic needs playing out in the form of people becoming fully fledged 'teachers' and enjoying that ego role for all its worth. People are shocked when some teachers suddenly and unexpectedly fall from grace or are involved in some scandal.. but this is simply the shadow that was never dealt with or deconstructed making an appearance and coming out from the dark where it always did remain intact.

It's my own personal observation that the 'teachings', or rather the constant silent teachings that are immanent at all times, tend to work in spite of any of our efforts, rather than due to the apparent efforts we seem to be making. Sometimes just sitting and letting go can be one of the best ways to actually receive 'The Teaching'. 

Balancing both ego-deconstruction and silent listening/contemplation can be helpful, if not essential, in making progress on both these fronts. 





Monday, February 12, 2024

Craving, desire, bodily impulses and management approach of various awakened "Nonduality" teachers.

 

12 February 2024.

I’ve been pondering a lot about craving, and dealing with craving. I noted that there’s a divide between mental type methods, and body methods or “embodied awakening” as SK calls it. I am moving towards the embodied practices at the moment such as Morrnah Simeona's Ho’oponopono 12 Step process and framework. This is much more on that embodied side than HL’s modernised form (which is a mix of both body and intellectual "tools", but for me in 2022 remained almost totally intellectual and mentally tiring vs now where it’s a breeze and effortless to work the practice and involves a strong connection with the Inner Child / Subconsious where arisings are mostly coming from).

Compared some advice today from NIS as well, which didn’t sit well about exteriorizing the craving or desire and watching it or observing it. Seems like the usual dislocated approach that I used to take, and most people take on encountering awareness teachings, and which works for a while, but not in the long-run. But on reading it later, it seems he was pointing to being aware of it first, and then somehow using it with the I AM.

This seems similar to the misunderstanding with Ramana, where people keep just ignoring arisings and emotions and going back to just awareness, when instead he MAY have been actually pointing to BEING the ego-I self and fully being present as the self, and then that gets subsumed into the I AM ness.. We don’t approach pure consciousness directly, since it’s not accessible for the intellectually identified mind, and will likely end up in spiritual bypassing and suppression of emotions, craving, etc.

A lot of teachers or teachings I've come across over the years, such as Shinzen Young, Scott Kiloby, Linda Clair, Eckhart Tolle, Barry Long, and many others, especially those of a more contemporary nature, are firmly in the embodied camp. Not to be confused with contemporary Nonduality teachers, such as Tony Parsons, Jim Newman, Ramesh Balsekar, Sailor Bob,  and all Neo-Advaitins who are firmly in the intellectual understanding only camp and don’t deal with the body at all except as some sort of aspect of consciousness.. And coincidentally are the most likely to be misunderstood and used for spiritual bypassing by the ego.




Sunday, December 17, 2023

Review for 'Know Where You're Going: A Complete Buddhist Guide to Meditation, Faith, and Everyday Transcendence' by Ayya Khema

Know Where You're Going: A Complete Buddhist Guide to Meditation, Faith, and Everyday TranscendenceKnow Where You're Going: A Complete Buddhist Guide to Meditation, Faith, and Everyday Transcendence by Ayya Khema
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is a good recording of talks and Q&A given over a week long (or multiple day) retreat in the 90s. Some of the topics included are an overall view of the Theravada / classical Buddhism framework, the Fourth Noble Truths and Dependent Origination. Each day contained some practical meditation exercises and some questions and answers from the audience. Some things I liked were giving a high level overview of how the mediations related to the Buddha's teachings, and being specific in the meditation instructions and Q&A. Some things to note however- the approaches taken tend to be more commentarial (ie Visudhimagga, Burmese approach), than suttas based. As such, some emphasis is given to concentration and absorption throughout the exercises, and there seems to be more of an emphasis on sitting, rather than carrying around contemplations or integration throughout the day. I was also not so clear on the difference that AK explained between worldly dependent origination and how that differs from transcendental dependent origination. Another difference is AK's use of the term 'corelessness' and using terms like emptiness, which aren't very standard when looking at the early Buddhist vocab or the suttas. I found it interested that it was advised during meditation to take one's attention away from painful sensations or arisings and substitute metta or pleasant feeling instead. This may be helpful with beginners, but could become an issue later on if one is attempting to go beyond pleasant feelings as well. AK does seem to indicate this in some sort of progression, but that's not covered in this book. There is also a fair amount covered in this book about absorption states of mind, and what may be termed by some as 'heavenly jhanas'. There is some debate about whether the Buddha actually taught absorption states, and jhanas which appear to be pleasant abidings and 'heavenly' type jhanas, similar to the Brahmaviharas. I won't go into detail about this debate, however, AK's view is largely on the side of aiming to develop these absoption states and types of jhana, and which require long periods of intense sitting and concentration.
Overall, a helpful book, but keep in mind some context when considering the approach here.

View all my reviews

Monday, November 20, 2023

A return (and abandoning) of the Gurdjieff Work and the Fourth Way - after a few years.

 A return (and abandoning) of the Gurdjieff Work and the Fourth Way - after a few years


Warning- My writing below contains my own set of assumptions, biases, and info that may not be correct. I am hoping it is not harsh in content or criticism, however, I am hoping that with some things that need to be said here may assist others who happen to be searching, or are 'lost' within the confines of systems that are unlikely to succeed in the long run.

--


Recently (over the course of a month or two), I was led to rediscover, so to speak, the Gurdjieff material, "the work", and Ouspensky's Fourth Way. I recall this was prompted by some remarks on one spiritual forum in regards to Gurdjieff "knowing what he was doing", and the Fourth Way being a valid introduction to the "I am" state.

I  had a soft spot for Gurdjieff and his work (and Ouspensky's take), since I did spend several years testing out this road fully, joining a Foundation group for a bit, and really digging in and road testing all of the material. I went through Beelzebub's Tales in print and audio fully, and must have had a stack of about 10+ Fourth Way related books. 

One of the areas that interested me especially was the idea of Self-Remembering, and Self-Observation, and these eventually led me to equate much of what was being explained (or attempted to be explained in complex Gurdjieff/Ouspensky speak) with some of the practices both in Advaita Vedanta (self-inquiry, awareness contemplation), and classical Buddhism (with mindfulness, attention, and concentration). There was some cross over as well with the practices of virtue in traditional systems and the G. equivalent of "conscious labour and intentional suffering".

So recently, I dug into the material again, with In Search of the Miraculous, and related Gurdjieff writings, hoping to perhaps find something I had not seen before, or ponder the question- does this stuff really work? Does it lead to liberation, and can it? Is it based on a solid, honest, trustworthy foundation?

To cut a long story short, I personally can't buy into the whole Gurdjieff Work and Fourth Way system any longer. A number of issues did present themselves, and it looks like I will be tucking away the material yet again, or perhaps renouncing it for good.

The good (first up, I will acknowledge some good in this system):

+ Great presentation and re-iteration of the idea that man has no solid internal psychological foundation, but consists of a number of temporary "I"s, and operates as a machine on pretty much all occasions. Likewise, he/she is 'asleep' in terms of having any solid awareness of what is happening in terms of cause/effect, and how we all create our own suffering and delusion.

+ Self-observation and self-remember, by and large, are great practices to look into, and incorporate into one's spiritual approach (but these don't constitute a teaching or way in and of themselves).

+ The idea of developing one's conscience and struggling with ingrained habits, negative reactivitity and unethical conduct, is a step in the right direction and well worth the effort in doing so.

+ Observing our current sorry state of affairs in terms of our own self created suffering, mechanicalness, sensory addiction, and self-dishonesty is well worth taking the time to do. Self-observation is a good step after some virtue and restraint has been laid down and taken up.

Now some of the big issues:

- Going through the material in print, audio, etc. generally lead to my mind being cluttered, info-overloaded and not in the best space. The material is voluminous, complex, packed with non-essentials in regards to anything leading remotely to liberation for the individual, and is generally badly organised. There's no logical layout or approach, and ideas are presented in cycles, later in more depth, and almost at random according to whoever was presenting (G, or O), or who attended in person meetings. Attempting to form any logical approach based on all of this material is extremely difficult. A further issue is that a lot of the information in Work/Fourth Way sources was actually experimental at the time, and likely not even meant for long-term foundations or principles of the system. Gurdjieff was still running experiments as to how best develop people or approach the path (e.g. the Dances, extreme physical labour etc.), which were all abandoned later at some point. Trying to work out which principles and practices were temporary or experimental, and which ended up in the final version, is almost impossible.
A valid path should be logical, have a clearly laid out approach with easy to understand foundational principles, and be open in it's teaching.

- A lot of information is misleading, incorrect, and either intentionally layed out to baffle and confuse readers/followers, or unintentionally just plain BS. Stories such as how Buddhist relics in Sri Lanka were really magical objects for communicating with dead people's astral body is just plain garbage. Likewise, the idea that Buddhism failed because monks ended up in caves relying on a piece of bread per day, and never fully embraced conscious labour and intentional suffering, but misunderstood the Buddha's teachings, are again incorrect and probably the result of Gurdjieff coming into contact in the early 20th century with some particular Buddhism for a very short time. Some stories such as secret monasteries in Central Asia that are imparting wisdom to select beings, have been debunked as fantasy over the years, due to lack of any evidence. A valid path should have truthful, honest information available, to the best of its ability (or individuals' abilities), and remove any dubious, irrelevant, misleading information from its teaching as much as possible.

- A lot of information is just not relevant at all to liberation and again serves to fill people's heads with unhelpful speculation, such as the laws of the 7 cosmoses and the laws of cosmic functioning, wacky chemistry that has not been proved by science, the law of octaves which goes on for pages and has the sole intent of showing the necessity to practice virtu and self-remembering (which could have been explained in 1 paragraph instead of half a book), etc. etc. There's just too much irrelevance, science fiction, and unrelated information in general within Guedjieff's work. Others later, such as Nicoll tried to narrow it down to a more psychological approach which is good, however, this still suffers from the fate of talking forever about the problems such as negative emotions, and never offering much in the way of solutions, apart from high level practices in not identifying etc.
One could get lost in the non-essentials for decades, and indeed some people do, if you visit some online Gurdjieff groups where everything on any random topic is posted from planetary influences, to lineage debates, and who's history was more valid. Again, the removal of anything unrelated to liberation proper needs to be removed or condensed.

- Some of the chief aims seem to go against other valid traditional systems, even ones that G / O supposedly drew their information from. There seems to be some belief (and people literally believe it), that it's necessary to form some sort of immortal body within, that will survive death, and keep one's individuality evolving forever or until Man Number 7 etc. This pretty much goes against the basics of both Buddhism, and Advaita Vedanta which are positing that there can be no immortal individual self, or an inner self that needs to be created and developed, since that view is actually the result of ignorance, and that an individual can't exist independently. Eastern traditions are looking at the idea that the issue is ignorance of the current situation and additions that we have ADDED are the problem.. we're not trying to add more things to the heap of rubbish that we think is our 'reality'. We're looking at an effort to REMOVE existing ignorance, passion for sense objects, craving, and the idea that there's someone here to gain something personally. In short, the whole duality of subject/object is an issue. How can building a new subject (individual) via practices and 'work' solve this issue? Further, why would some limitless, all powerful heavenly 'Father' need the assistance of the human race to complete this? That flies against the idea of a limitless, all powerful Creator (which was embraced as one of the ideas in the Work). I know this is talked about in Gnosticism, however, that's a slightly different kettle of fish, and murky in actual approach and practice. Anyhow, I digress.

- The founders have issues themselves.. lets face it, G. died of overuse of alcohol, in which his liver was shot to pieces, and leaving behind incomplete publications, a fractured legacy with groups debated who was the 'rightful heir', and O. died full of doubts, bouts of depression, and giving up towards the end after all the years of 'insights' that he supposedly had. Not terribly inspiring. There has to be some credibility present for any path's founders, even if it is just ethically, if followers are to have some faith and comfort in the teachings and the possibility that they will lead to liberation if undertaken.

- The lineage debates and whethere there's even a lineage needed can go on forever. I visited a couple of Gurdjieff Facebook groups recently. The same people are there dishing out the same debates and posts after 10 years since I was there last. Boomers that have vested interests such as 'well I met Nyland..' 'Well I studied with Lord Pentland..', are tired old vested interests, and show me that there doesn't seem to be much progress with these sorts of mainstream groups and lineages anyhow, after years of being in the work. Any teaching that isn't refreshing itself and finding new ways to express itself in a modern world (even if using old traditional foundations and principles) is pretty much on the death queue and another red flag.
Yes, lineage debates happen in every tradition, however, there should be some base foundation that people can go back to such as texts, sources, etc. that can provide some guidance on what the whole system is aiming to achieve, and 'lineages' can then be assessed as to how closely they are actually following the aims and approach of the system. Without a base, there's no way to assess how closely a lineage is following the original teachings.

-  One of the minor issues I had with the approach, is that O. system and presumably G.'s work, take virtue (conscious labour and intentional suffering) to be the 2nd conscious shock and to come after the 1st conscious shock of self-remembering. They seem to jump into meditative practices and reflection right off the bat, while reserving struggling with negative emotions, virtue, conduct, intention and psychological work for later. The reverse of most traditional systems. By contrast most traditional systems would place conduct and virtue FIRST, and thereby prepare the mind for some stability for meditative and reflective practices that come later. It's almost impossible to tackle all at once, and to jump into self-observation, for example, without a stable right view of things, or some power over reactivity, isn't going to be successful in the long run.

Anyhow, I've said enough, and likely have enough material to deter me from spending more time on Gurdjieff and Ouspensky for another long while :)

Cheers, D.