tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8830933917349183001.post1230874646815551854..comments2023-09-15T05:24:29.125-07:00Comments on What lies within: The glimpse before Enlightenment....Margaret Dempseyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17385395565359693331noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8830933917349183001.post-33842526118285135782008-04-09T10:17:00.000-07:002008-04-09T10:17:00.000-07:00The moment that the mind makes a decision that som...The moment that the mind makes a decision that something is a certain way energy is frozen. The energy which is frozen is consciousness. In my experience the best way to ensure that energy is not frozen is to treat life and the things that happen as a game. I use this a lot and I find that it takes away a lot of the intensity around things. However I am also aware that many of the things that happen make it difficult to apply this reasoning, there is too much emotional involvement. <BR/><BR/>It was lovely to read your comment for a number of reasons. My latest reasoning (attributed to Manuel Schoch) that shifts of consciousness are nothing more than the freeing up of frozen energy is quite ironic, given all my years practicing what I thought was a 'spiritual path'! <BR/><BR/>But I think this willingness to consider this theory that shifts of consciousness are the result of freeing energy demonstrates how the spiritual path is not fixed but is constantly evolving. This is why I find it so utterly fascinating and compelling. I also feel I have a lot of freedom by my commitment to a spiritual path as opposed to a religious path. <BR/><BR/>I was also delighted to read your comment on the Landmark Forum. It is from using the technology which Landmark Education provides that I have experienced directly the shifts of consciousness which arise when frozen energy is released.<BR/><BR/>When suddenly I can see a different way to look at something energy is freed and the consciousness shifts. The most common example is when someone says 'Oh I never saw it (can refer to any situation) like that before'. But for the shift to be powerful and more importantly permanent it has to be really seen i.e. come up from where it was hiding in the sub-conscious to be realised. When you really see a different context to something it resonates so deeply. It is this kind of seeing that shifts consciousness. <BR/><BR/> I spent 9 years studying and practicing Mahayana Buddhism. This is all about becoming self-aware. What I found was that I learned more about myself in that weekend Forum than I had in all the years I studied Buddhism. <BR/><BR/>This is in no way to negate those years reading and practicing. But taking a weekend out to seriously examine life and my way of being within it and giving up ways that weren't working has accelerated my spiritual development like nothing else I have tried and believe me I have tried a lot. <BR/><BR/>I agree with what you say about knowledge freezing energy. Knowledge if not watched can breed an attitude of 'knowing it all'. In some ways beginner's mind is what I am referring to in that energy flows without restriction in the beginner's mind. It is only when the ego gets involved and then the evaluative mind says 'I agree with this, not that, that's not right, that is' and it is being rigid in this view that freezes energy.<BR/><BR/>I have spoken about the importance of being discerning and using reason to work things out for oneself when on this path. It is possible to do this without freezing energy. I will always recognise and acknowledge when something doesn't feel right but I won't form a rigid opinion around it. I will just sit quietly with it and allow the energy to flow around it.<BR/><BR/>It seems to be the human condition that in order to make sense and meaning of our world that we have to form opinions and judgements that we then take to be true and which form the context for our lives. The tragedy is that the context then becomes one of frozen and not free energy.<BR/><BR/>But Landmark does not see its training programmes as gateways into spiritual experiences and realizations. This is my hesitation in recommending Landmark through this blog as a way into experiencing the bliss and joy of spiritual awakening.<BR/><BR/>One thing I can say without doubt is that the freeing of a fixed way of thinking and being shifts consciousness. Where that consciousness shifts and the results of such a shift are solely dependent on where the persons interests and energies lie.<BR/><BR/>For me it was and is spiritual realizations and experiences that are my passion. For others doing the Forum weekend could shift the consciousness so that the ideal job, relationship, business now becomes available. So just because someone does this weekend it doesn't guarantee that he/she will have a spiritual experience.<BR/><BR/>So thank you for contributing details of your Landmark Forum experience to this blogMargaret Dempseyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17385395565359693331noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8830933917349183001.post-87491008607356015872008-04-08T14:17:00.000-07:002008-04-08T14:17:00.000-07:00Very interesting post. I think knowledge itself ca...Very interesting post. I think knowledge itself can cause a "freezing" of sorts, if it is taken to be the absolute truth rather than one possibility. I always kind of liked the Zen story about the man who visits a Zen master for enlightenment. The man is extremely smart, accomplishment, and arrogant in his own abilities. He asks the zen master what he can teach him and the master says nothing but pours him tea, and doesn't stop as the tea overflows the cup and spills all over the table. The message is clear: You can't teach something to someone who thinks he knows everything.<BR/><BR/>I know "Beginner's Mind" wasn't what you were talking about in terms of energy flow, but I think it applies--The more we use knowledge to "nail something down" so we don't have to examine it any more instead of using it to be open to something, the more we freeze energy.<BR/><BR/>I took the Landmark Forum a long time ago myself, and I still remember something the Forum leader said clear as if it was today: "I realized I'd been paying my wife the profound insult of thinking I knew who she was."Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com