Another mind shattering article from Shiv. The rope metaphor is excellent. After reading this article, the knots in my mind loosened significantly and were seen as almost beautiful. Hitherto the knots were strangling my own mind, and the more I resented them, the tighter they became. Not so now. And you could go even deeper, the knots are imaginary, they don’t even exist, so actually, do problems even exist? 🤔
There are lot of angles to this, but intuitively my first thought was a touch humourous.
So if awareness doesn't care either way, then its the mind that is looking, but always awareness that sees. Lol
Beyond that though, please correct me if I am wrong, part of the reason it is so difficult to catch is because essentially most of us are trying to "see" it with our mind, which is impossible.
It would be more of a letting go of the identification with the tangles of the mind while still being aware, kind of giving the space for it to be.
Yet there is an odd consideration that came to mind.
You provided an excellent method of looking at mirror to get a taste of it all. As you stated, once you realize, or in other words identify with awareness then the mind's tangles are felt as less severe.
So there is an odd contradiction that seems to occur.
On one hand I am awareness, I "believe" I can grok awareness at any moment (MIrror, now etc) . Also awareness is always of the object per say that it is aware of, one in the same essentially.
Yet the difference seems to be that in your case there is a realization of that full "I am", while when I look at mirror, there is still a realization "I am", its very mute btw, there is nothing to it, yet there is that "I am Pano" with it. Even if I have the lack of identity show up though, I still don't identify ultimately "I am awareness"
I get the nuances of what I am describing. Yet there seems to be a difference between the "awakened mind" vs "my mind". Your mind knows its not it, or you know your mind is not it. orrr..
To simplify things,
What identifies that you are awareness and have that knowing vs not?
Because awareness obviously doesn't (I think). The mind cannot identify it, since its very existence is born out of awareness. As you can see this can lead into thought spirals, of no consequence of course.
It could also be a, it cannot be answered only realized type of thing.
Either way your rope example broke layers of delusion. Amazing
Wow, I really like the rope metaphor. I find in psychological and metaphysical discussions there is confusion about terms such as 'mind', 'awareness', 'attention'. Your parable of the knotted tent cables gives a good explanation of how each term is unique and yet still part of a continuous whole.
I understand part of the problem is our tendency to make dynamic experiences into static 'nouns'. A 'rope' is formed of strands of consciousness streams woven together to form our 'being'. An entanglement or 'knot' is either an intentional or reflexive reaction which can, as you describe, be useful or problematic depending on circumstances. As long as we are alive, our rope will not be an uneventful 'flatline'.
Your rope metaphor brought to mind Shakespeare's phrase: "shuffle off this mortal coil..." If we're no longer entangled, we're dead. "We may well pass the phrase over as we watch or read the soliloquy, receiving it simply as shedding one’s body, but we should remember that this is Shakespeare, and Shakespeare never set a word down without precision, always using it to express what he intended it to express, including doing some pretty deep probes. And there are usually several meanings.
‘Coil’ is an ancient word, commonly used centuries before Shakespeare, and spelt ‘coyle.’ It was a noun and referred, for want of a better way of expressing it, to a mess – a mixture of messy things such as noise, confusion, uncertainty, bustle and so on." https://nosweatshakespeare.com/quotes/famous/mortal-coil/
Great metaphor. I would argue awareness can get equally entangled in emotion as it does in mind. It’s a different flavour but leads to similar blockage of awareness or spirit
Mind as an entangled state of awareness; this diamond just blinded me.
Another mind shattering article from Shiv. The rope metaphor is excellent. After reading this article, the knots in my mind loosened significantly and were seen as almost beautiful. Hitherto the knots were strangling my own mind, and the more I resented them, the tighter they became. Not so now. And you could go even deeper, the knots are imaginary, they don’t even exist, so actually, do problems even exist? 🤔
There are lot of angles to this, but intuitively my first thought was a touch humourous.
So if awareness doesn't care either way, then its the mind that is looking, but always awareness that sees. Lol
Beyond that though, please correct me if I am wrong, part of the reason it is so difficult to catch is because essentially most of us are trying to "see" it with our mind, which is impossible.
It would be more of a letting go of the identification with the tangles of the mind while still being aware, kind of giving the space for it to be.
Yet there is an odd consideration that came to mind.
You provided an excellent method of looking at mirror to get a taste of it all. As you stated, once you realize, or in other words identify with awareness then the mind's tangles are felt as less severe.
So there is an odd contradiction that seems to occur.
On one hand I am awareness, I "believe" I can grok awareness at any moment (MIrror, now etc) . Also awareness is always of the object per say that it is aware of, one in the same essentially.
Yet the difference seems to be that in your case there is a realization of that full "I am", while when I look at mirror, there is still a realization "I am", its very mute btw, there is nothing to it, yet there is that "I am Pano" with it. Even if I have the lack of identity show up though, I still don't identify ultimately "I am awareness"
I get the nuances of what I am describing. Yet there seems to be a difference between the "awakened mind" vs "my mind". Your mind knows its not it, or you know your mind is not it. orrr..
To simplify things,
What identifies that you are awareness and have that knowing vs not?
Because awareness obviously doesn't (I think). The mind cannot identify it, since its very existence is born out of awareness. As you can see this can lead into thought spirals, of no consequence of course.
It could also be a, it cannot be answered only realized type of thing.
Either way your rope example broke layers of delusion. Amazing
Thank you
Wow, I really like the rope metaphor. I find in psychological and metaphysical discussions there is confusion about terms such as 'mind', 'awareness', 'attention'. Your parable of the knotted tent cables gives a good explanation of how each term is unique and yet still part of a continuous whole.
I understand part of the problem is our tendency to make dynamic experiences into static 'nouns'. A 'rope' is formed of strands of consciousness streams woven together to form our 'being'. An entanglement or 'knot' is either an intentional or reflexive reaction which can, as you describe, be useful or problematic depending on circumstances. As long as we are alive, our rope will not be an uneventful 'flatline'.
Your rope metaphor brought to mind Shakespeare's phrase: "shuffle off this mortal coil..." If we're no longer entangled, we're dead. "We may well pass the phrase over as we watch or read the soliloquy, receiving it simply as shedding one’s body, but we should remember that this is Shakespeare, and Shakespeare never set a word down without precision, always using it to express what he intended it to express, including doing some pretty deep probes. And there are usually several meanings.
‘Coil’ is an ancient word, commonly used centuries before Shakespeare, and spelt ‘coyle.’ It was a noun and referred, for want of a better way of expressing it, to a mess – a mixture of messy things such as noise, confusion, uncertainty, bustle and so on." https://nosweatshakespeare.com/quotes/famous/mortal-coil/
A knot is an awareness of life.
Thanks John and appreciate the Shakespeare quote
Gracias. Muy alentador
Loved the way you described awareness. .❤
Thanks for this. It is very apt for me at this moment.
Thank you Shiv. So clear and true. Because awareness is always with us we often take it for granted.
Picture's credits : Joachim Bergauer. Austrian photographer. https://www.instagram.com/joachim_bergauer/
And over time you realize there was no rope at all.
Untangling the gunas...
"Be okay with whatever is happening in the mind '' said many sages ...is it what you also meant here
Great metaphor. I would argue awareness can get equally entangled in emotion as it does in mind. It’s a different flavour but leads to similar blockage of awareness or spirit
https://open.substack.com/pub/sgprw/p/you-are-your-higher-self
What a great analogy for a rock climber!
dear shiv,
love this!
beautiful and simple: "The untangled state we call meditation. The tangled state we call mind. But awareness is all there actually is."
thank you for sharing as always!
love
myq