A Tim

HEY! I wake in the morning. I step outside. I take a deep breath. I get real high. I scream at the top of my lungs, "WHAT'S GOING ON??"

Yes. Indeed. Being is inherently relaxed.

I watched a guy take some shrooms once. Then we went skiing. He described the experience as the trees bubbling out from the world toward him. Same with signs - the words would bubble out and come at him. It seemed he was used to going at trees and signs. 🤷‍♂️

Can you feel your face? What you would think of as the sensations of your face. Be those as often as possible for as long as you can. Just be face. Tingly. Warm. Cool. Movement. When mind world comes up again (it'll be quick) be bum. Warm. Pressure. Tingly. When mind world comes up again (it'll be quick) be breath. Cool. Warm. Expanding. Contracting. When mind world comes up again (it'll be quick) be foot. Itchy. Hot. Dense. Tingly. When mind world comes up again (it'll be quick) be whole body. Cool. Dense. Light. Tingly. Itchy. Expanding. Contracting. Pressure. Warm. When mind world comes up again (it'll be quick) be sound. Loud. Quiet. Here. There. Everywhere. Whooshing. Ticking. Popping. Dinging. Chirping. When mind world comes up again (it'll be quick) be love. Warmth. Movement. Pressure. Excitement. Happiness. Pressure. When mind world comes up again (it'll be slightly less quick) be sad... When mind world comes up again (it'll be slightly less quick) be... When mind world comes up again (it'll be less quick) be... When mind world comes up again (it'll be less quick) be... If mind world comes up (at some point) be... If mind world comes up (it could happen) be... If mind world comes up...be... Be. Less mind world; less me. No realization to be had.

Bear with me because this reads in a somewhat confusing way, here. I'm gonna try a synopsis and hope it flows properly. Do call it out, if not. Apparent problem: There is a sense of discord. Thoughts arise that there must be something wrong. Longing and angst, and possibly suffering, arise. Further discord arises. The view appears to be, "there is something wrong here. It is felt here." However, this is somewhat backward and overlooks the very first assumption out of the gate. (Primary and 'overlooked') Being. (Secondary and habitual) Thoughts arise... There is a sense of discord... Thoughts arise that there must be something wrong...Longing...Further discord (longing/angst...): A Poop Loop. Resolution: Stop buying into thought. "Return to"/continue being. What is being? Sensation. Let thoughts alone. No more discord. Rest. Test: Be. Thought arises. Relax and be. How? Feel sensations only. Hear. Bum on chair. Movement in chest. Air on face. Tongue in mouth. Thought arises. Relax and be. How? Fingers on keyboard. Colors and movement. Itch on ear...... ad infinitum. New habit formed.

I doubt it. You have some really excellent journal posts that are pretty deep, and also cutting and witty. Don't play a truculent ignoramus; you're obviously not. I don't disagree with some pieces of your assessment of homelessness. I was only pushing back on the sweeping generalizations based on some experience I have had. Then, I was just poking you for fun. Sorry about that, it really wasn't productive for anyone. I'm trying to follow your perspective on the thread, but it seems like you shift your point for each time someone says something. It just keeps sort of pivoting around and not getting into the thick of it - which is beyond a point of view about homelessness, I think.

I'm definitely not right

You're really hung up on this imaginary van. I drive a moped and carry a spare helmet. Maybe that's the actual problem. hmmmm Weren't you just blazing on, implying people don't question their assumptions? Are there any assumptions here you're overlooking as it relates to any of this? Aside from assuming I'm smug and drive a van. I've dispelled one rumor; the other may be true, for all I know.

Mandy! I asked that you keep my portrait private.

"There's always an excuse when you need one. There's always an excuse when you need oooone... ooooooone. Alwaaaaaaays." Regardless, I'm offering them some kind of income for some kind of effort. A hand extended... and they appear to prefer to return to/continue "barely eating, sleeping outside, living with whatever conditions they've been living with."

Honest, unskilled work doing similar work to landscaping.

If you want to make a homeless person unhappy, try giving them a job. We're having a hard time hiring, so whenever I see someone panhandling while driving in my company truck - I give them water and offer for them to come earn some money. I've never had one person accept it. They usually laugh at the prospect. They aren't interested in earning it. They want it given.

Well done, sir.... well done. You've said nothing so far, and you can keep it up for as long as it takes.

I think that used to be more true than it is, at present, in many places. I've been watching a lot of "investigative" freelance journalists go into some of these areas very heavily populated by homeless folks; LA, Las Vegas, Portland. Many, many of the people say they have had opportunities to get a leg up and do something different, but they no longer buy into society and what it's selling. It's wild, but on some level I definitely get it. That said - there are also a huge number who befell some unfortunate circumstance and just gave up. That's also very true. They appear in the mini-docs, too.

It occurred to me after the fact, sorry for spamming you up. We often overlook that Jesus is Jewish. He wouldn't have had to advise new things if, more or less, what was practiced may have been practical to the people practicing it. Jews pray and worship God and so forth. There was a practice at the time, I read about, where it was common to pray by observing spinning chariot wheels. I forget the details of it, but it was a concentration contemplation, as I recall. Prayer and meditation aren't really different, there's just common understanding versus practice. St. John of the Cross and St. Theresa of Avila were big time pray-ers who had some big time meditation experiences... I mean... prayer experiences. Jesus also taught that fasting was a fact of life and a means by which one could become closer to God. It was already a custom, so his delivery isn't as obvious in that he says, "When you fast do not be like the hypocrites, but..." There's a built-in assumption. Anyway, my only point is that understanding what Jewish people of the day were doing lends a lot to why some things weren't explicitly documented about Jesus.

I do believe Jesus actually instructed his followers to pray in a fashion along those lines, yea. His reasons? No idea. I've been listening to a series podcast where they really dig into the NT and discuss how much differently we understand what's documented vs. what contemporary people to Jesus would have understood; both word meaning by also cultural context. I think it's called The Bible Project. It's incredible how much it changes the meaning of what Jesus was teaching, and how much of a foundational shift it brings to the entire premise. If you're interested in books, NT Wright is a good place to poke around also. I came up Catholic; I'm guessing you did also, based on your version of the Lord's Prayer? It'll shake things up for you in a good way, if you're interested. Buddha answered questions about God that people posed. From what I recall, he would answer both in the affirmative and negative dependent upon the questioner. I think it's even mentioned that he does it because whichever answer he gave that person - wouldn't help them uproot their "actual issue" and instead reinforce a belief without examination. It's definitely in the Suttas, but I can't remember which. Digha Nikaya? To be fair - I don't believe Buddha gives a personal opinion on God's existence. However, prior to awakening he was all-in on Brahmanism, I think, so he at least started out seeking an assumed God. It was the cause for his initial quest of awakening and why he ran out on his wife and children to eat rice and meditate all day.

No, I would say the two places it is documented are the authors' best efforts at recalling what was said. It's only in there twice, and it's a little different in each. If memory serves, there is a version in Matthew and the other in maybe Luke...? Anyway, I render it a bit differently after reading a couple of books that dissect it in detail. Our father in heaven, be thy name hallowed, be done thy will as in heaven, so on earth. Give us today our daily bread. Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us. Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.

That's just an idea. Does it really feel that way?

If I look out the window, I see so many things. An eclipsing sun, for example. Some birds. Cars driving by. I see a squirrel hopping along the ground. What have they to do with me? Nada. They are just out there life-ing. The sun isn't eclipsing for me.... for anyone at all; it's just a happening. The birds flitting about aren't mine; I see them flapping their wings and hear their squawks. That's it. I watch them because they're beautiful, they fly away, and I let them go. Cars driving by have no awareness of me and have nothing to do with me at all. Thoughts... now they appear to have something to do with me. Why? Habit? Thoughts appear and are observed. They then fly away if I let them go, they are as ephemeral as watching birds. Is it just habit that makes them seem so much more important than the passing birds and cars? Upon inspection, everything is actually quite intimate, isn't it? I just believe that thoughts are the most intimate and most important, and the basis for...knowing? What's knowing? Knowing is comfortable. There's a belief that not knowing is uncomfortable and potentially unsafe. So the apparent knower is concrete and safe haven. To let go of the thoughts to the same degree the birds are released.... would that be supreme freedom? Thoughts try to say no.... but I'm not sure if they are trustworthy. What are they, anyway? Do they even happen to anyone? Or do they just happen? Like a bird or an eclipse.

Nevermind. The links brought me to this one, which answers the question I was looking at. Stop feeding the stray seems to be the answer. I'll stop feeding the stray and it'll wander off.

@Phil So when you say it can be stopped - did you not continue the sentence with "when there's no consciousness" as the caveat?

Ok. Thank you. I'll try it.

yet the hand can come to rest. Through.... what means? How to relax the hand from writing? I don't at all disagree this is just thinking - but without that thinking there would be totally nada. I'm down with that. Why not? Give it a rip.

Because he claimed it. Why not?

well sure, because the Bible also states clearly that God created them, man and woman.