all 31 comments

[–]jty87isness is my business 98 points99 points  (12 children)

Yeah I think our thoughts grow quieter and quieter, and everything else in experience grows more and more vivid because thoughts are like ripples on the surface of a pond. They obscure experience without us realizing it, but when they become still the water becomes crystal clear.

Then one day we're meditating, just being aware of experience with a quiet mind, going about our daily business, and suddenly there doesn't seem to be anyone there anymore. What we took to be ourselves was actually just this rippling effect going on behind the eyes. There's just everything happening in experience, inside and outside of the body equally, flowing along completely harmoniously without resistance or fear.

[–]Choralone 29 points30 points  (11 children)

I yearn for this, because all I know is the storm.

[–]menopoint 24 points25 points  (0 children)

Anthony DeMello once said "Only when you are sick of your sickness will you choose to get rid of it"

Remember, the storm is part of the process. Just knowing that should quench your yearning at least to an extent. To lift your spirits up and keep moving.

[–]JasonRevere 0 points1 point  (2 children)

All there is is the storm. And once you remove the idea of 'self' from within it you simply sit back and enjoy the ride.

[–]Choralone 0 points1 point  (1 child)

Working on it.

[–]JasonRevere 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Good luck out there. Try to surrender to it a bit, observe it, see where it’s taking you. Learn to listen to your intuition, get out of your head, your thoughts, your emotions. Learn to breath and focus. When you can quiet the shit in your mind you can hear your intuition better. That’s your own, and only, guide and can never steer you wrong. Everything else is ego.

[–]Painismyfriend -3 points-2 points  (6 children)

One must go through the storm before reaching the clam. The ultimate calm only comes after the ultimate chaos.

[–]ickN 9 points10 points  (2 children)

Why do people think this? It’s absolutely not true in terms of the mind and happiness.

[–]troublie 1 point2 points  (0 children)

From my experience, this is true too.

Like, very true. As the op quote.

And the more you understand it, the more the "storm" will be less "storm".

[–]Painismyfriend 0 points1 point  (0 children)

This is true if you were to spend time at meditation retreats where you meditate for hours all day long. May be 20-30 mins or an hour of meditation at home doesn't have to be that dramatic.

[–]raincatchfire 2 points3 points  (2 children)

At least for me it's normal to have several storms, but with an underlying general trend. I go storm, peace, storm, hopefully greater peace. It's hard though when each storm is worse than the last

[–]dustyconscious 0 points1 point  (1 child)

Yes, but do you see this awareness of going in and out of the storm/peace phases? Sit in that awareness :)

[–]dustyconscious 0 points1 point  (0 children)

And also, the storms are supposed to get "worse". It will lead to more suffering and eventually you'll just choose to surrender and accept.

[–]BruceJi 27 points28 points  (1 child)

I think that identifying with the mind also encompasses the habit of people to place their own thoughts and reactions on this as more important by default than what their senses are telling them.

I think it's important to bear in mind because even when you know as a fact that thoughts aren't you, if you treat your thoughts as having some priority, they have a bewitching nature that leads you into successive thoughts. If you can work to remove that priority, this lessens the effect of thoughts dragging you down a rabbit hole.

I think that it's also important to bear in mind that the normal process of a human mind generates thoughts, so the goal isn't to eradicate thoughts, but to reset the balance away from favouring your own thoughts, and more towards your senses.

[–]dustyconscious 0 points1 point  (0 children)

this is awesome thank you

[–]ThelastShuttle 7 points8 points  (5 children)

Can someone tell me the difference between that and dissociation ? I'm concerned with that it may be the same

[–]kf34 31 points32 points  (4 children)

Disassociation isn’t dis-identifying with the mind. It is basically the mind being so terrified by itself or its situation that it just jumps ship to a place of non-feeling & non-thinking.

Whereas dis-identifying is about not identifying with the mind. So you stay in the ship of the body but you don’t believe everything your mind tells you. You don’t jump ship at the fear or the panic or the shame. You just accept the feelings without attaching a narrative to them.

I think the biggest difference is acceptance. In my experience, disassociation is all about rejection: feelings, thoughts, the body even. And meditation and present moment awareness is all about accepting. All of it.

This acceptance is with our being, our true selves. And it comes with the understanding that we are not our minds. Not because our minds are scary or bad and we are escaping them. But simply because we are more than the neural pathways we have formed. We are spiritual beings having a human experience.

So basically both disassociation and dis-identifying can be said to see the brain as the cause of some problems. But disassociation completely rejects all feelings and input and experiences as a way of dealing with this problem. Whereas present moment awareness (where you dis-identify with the mind) accepts all the feeling and thoughts and input but doesn’t identify with them.

One is a complete rejection. The other is complete acceptance. One comes from fear. The other comes from faith.

Basically so long as you believe you are your brain you are going to try to solve the problem of fear by either conquering your brain with your brain, turning off your brain and body all together.

OR you can know that you are not your brain and thus you dis-identify with it. You now live from your being.

[–]tasslehof 4 points5 points  (0 children)

I needed this, thank you

[–]Lady_Lavelle 2 points3 points  (0 children)

This is a wonderful explanation. Thank you.

[–]ThelastShuttle 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Oh well, thanks !

[–]Insertcurehere 6 points7 points  (0 children)

So important, Eckhart Tolle is my hero.

[–]Cognidor 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I love this. Thank you

[–]menopoint 1 point2 points  (0 children)

You know, I've realized that on my spiritual journey of many years, I took for granted that I have the ability to identify a thought in the mind from something that isn't; that I knew the difference. And for a long time, I believed a quieter thought (for example: My mind telling me "focus on your breath, in, out, in, out" ) but a thought nonetheless was an object less awareness or at least a form of it. It is not. After a long long time, I can see that the nature and quality of the awareness is vastly different than that of a thought. It is important to have clarity over this.

Every experience is unique. And so, the experience of thought and no thought are unique ones too. It is vital to use self inquiry and become familiar with these "sensations" (I use that word with reservation)

The more your clarity over this increases, you will notice the beginning of a co-operation towards a more enlightened state.

[–]nxpnsv 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I feel stupid. What does it mean?

[–]sori97 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Wow... thats actually an amazing quote. Thanks for sharing

[–]kaosridder 0 points1 point  (0 children)

So another hunt, eh?

[–][deleted]  (1 child)


    [–]themadcharly 1 point2 points  (0 children)

    Yes, highly recommend his books, they made a lot of sense to me

    [–]Flecker_ 0 points1 point  (0 children)

    and how do I dis-indentify from the mind?

    [–]chakralignment 0 points1 point  (0 children)

    For myself the simple action of identifying and observing thoughts and feelings takes me out of the maelstrom and immediately allows me to just be in the moment.

    [–]JasonRevere 0 points1 point  (0 children)

    Your mind is the only thing you have from which to associate and exist. That's where the ego lies. What he should be doing is telling you how to create that gap in the mind. How to find the crack in the vase that you can't look away from and how nothing will stop you from tearing your world apart until you've figured out what's behind the crack. So first you must learn how to use the mind to your advantage because it's the only tool you have. You must learn how to focus it directly on one thing, the crack, until it starts to crumble away and with it goes a small piece of your 'self' or ego..... one thread at a time.