Introspective Awareness

To be introspectively aware means to examine carefully ones motivations without seeking a desired result. Result always presupposes purpose or goal. To understand fully the workings of your own mind you must observe as an entity that is removed from the one who is seeking a result.  It requires total attention to minds movement from the external to the internal.  This attention would be free of all attachment to the self that is motivated by any emotional disturbance.  A person must be completely in the moment just quietly observing ones consciousness as it creates emotions and opinions about the moment. One watches as the mind moves through the highs and lows of the challenges it faces.  All this is done without the least bit of judgement or concern.  We observe as the mind grabs hold of and lets go of all that complicates a given situation.

Removing the self from the activity of self,  a person finds clarity and a depth of understanding.  One may realize and understand the sickness of ones own duality and how that it controls the physical and mental health of all of us.  It may be possible to understand that there can be action without motivation. And that such action will always be to the benefit of the "other".  A persons selfish and acquisitive mind ceases to be the motivation for ones existence. Life is simply lived for the joy and peace that is the actual reality of the moment regardless of ones perceived circumstance.

Then when all around you seem to be lost in the confusion of emotional responsiveness one will be totally aware of a movement that is not seeking and therefore without the motivation of the duality of the one who seeks and what is sought.  To be introspectively aware brings to one a sense of psychological maturity that transcends the minds tendency to be reactionary and self serving. It is the flowering of an intelligence that is whole and complete within its self.

The Illusion of Free Will

It is important to first understand what we mean by the phrase "Free Will".  In the common textural meaning free will is a persons ability to act without constraint(s). A kind of self determinism. But this begs the question, is a person ever free of the influences of his or her inherent conditioned existence? We are all a product of our past experiences and those experiences both the physical and the psychological are the basis for our actions. So our actions are largely predictable within the framework of what we know, believe and understand. We cannot simply throw off what essentially encumbers our every action and reaction. Individual discretion to a large degree is determined by the past.

Is it possible to understand our own inability to act without reference to our conditioned mind set and to proceed in an entirely different direction free of an appetite or a repetitious indulgence?  Will is actually desire cloaked in the human minds inescapable confusion of having to choose.  And choice exist only when the mind is confused.  When the mind that desires is attentive then it may be possible to understand that choosing or choice derives its duality from motivation. One may then realize that there is actually no choice. There is only opinion which arises out of one's conditioning.

Is there action without choice or will without will? Action without motivation is a by product of a mind that is choicelessly aware.  Awareness without a movement, of just being in that moment absent an opinion or an emotion. It is the negation of the known for something new and without definition. An action born out of a void but wholly within the realm of logical inference. The factual becomes the anti-reactionary which is free of emotional conditioned motivation which is the basis for all opinion. So it is not possible to exercise "free will" because it exist only as a subset of minds clinging to choices that are merely the result of opinion.  To be choicelessly aware is to be factual. Which is absent the emotional immaturity of the trappings of the minds limited ability to understand. Not choosing allows one to enter a moment of non-movement that brings about something that may be outside one's conditioned response.

The Emancipatory Mind

Thought's tendency is to hang on to beliefs in order to give ones self a sense of knowing. I am not referring just to the obvious polity of religious or political beliefs, but to the acquisition of knowledge in general that gives rise to opinion and judgement. When the mind allows its self to be continually influenced by opinion and judgement then the result is a developed sense of fealty to the past. Because what you believed a year ago or even a moment ago may actually have no validity in the present moment. You become essentially emotionally and intellectually bound to an ideological precept that may be logically flawed.

One who constantly engages the higher intellect of a mind that questions and engages in a critical thought process of ones own authority, will inevitably find the truth. But the real benefit is that one ceases to be a slave to ones emotional immaturity. And that leads to a reduction in the desire to continually insite conflict and inflict wounds on the world at large.  Slavery to a persons own authoritarian partisan beliefs is why we have wars and commit all sorts of ubiquitous acts of immorality.

But the caveat is you will not be able to suppress the desire to be a slave to your base instincts without understanding the very nature of how they are born. One must be aware choicelessly of the minds connection to what gives gratification to the self. But this is not an easy task. To understand the self without reference to the past and its memories is beyond the grasp of most of humanity. But if one has the passion and a certain amount of innate intuitive ability then perhaps you may come upon the mystery of minds duality.  Then you may perhaps begin to understand the self that thinks it knows.

Emancipation

How can one think clearly with the prejudicial and grossly inadequate consciousness of a conflicted and sorely conditioned mind? The reality is you can't until you become emancipated. Until you realize that on the very deepest levels, you are a slave.  And you act and think accordingly. Its no use being smug about it or thinking that you are the exception.  Because the conscious mind is so adept at justification and rationalization, it is very difficult to go beyond your own mind set.  All your books, about god, enlightenment and ways to "achieve" are but a symptom of your bondage. Guru's, saviors, and mystic's are a product and result of your neurosis, your psychological need to be lead by a figure that persuades and entreats followers as a religious, political or cultural hegemony. Self proclaimed authorities are a result of your intransigence toward understanding the inner workings and motivations of your own mind. Humanity has evolved as a society of conventionalist. Breaking away from this servile mentality requires an enormous amount of clarity. But it is difficult. The polity of religious and political leaders make them masters of prevarication. One needs to start with a fresh mind. A mind that understands the the inner workings of a self-deprecating or judiciously motivated consciousness. You cannot "systemize" or "scheme" your way to some sort of new understanding.

Emancipation occurs not as a result of anything you do or believe, but as a consequence of what you don't do or believe. Because your doing and your beliefs are the problem. This does not mean that you become some "mindless" boob meditating your way to an incredulous vacuity of thought. What it does mean is that you are able to understand and overcome the reactionary tendencies of mimicking and regurgitating all the BS that you have been brainwashed with over the last one hundred thousand years. Yes it is to some degree genetic. So seeing and realizing this fact of who and what you are, in this very moment, is the change.  Its not a beginning or an end it is just this absolute moment and nothing more.

Otherness: The Disease of the Self

When we opine the word "Self" what do we mean? Are we really aware of who we are? We have opinions, but do they really get to the heart of the actual reality of self knowing? It is very difficult to truly "know" the self.  Because to "know" in the context of a conditioned mind is to live in illusion. The illusion of our incessant need to cling to the past.  The memory of a selective and highly modified reality.  Basically the self is a made up entity.  It does not exist in the absolute reality of the moment. Only as a psychological inference of memorialized and self serving delusion does it thrive. It is this delusion of the self that drives us to do all sorts of psychologically and physically inhumane things to the "Other".  The perception of the "Other" is the scapegoat of a mind that is tortured by its own inadequacy and self loathing. But isn't this the essence of a "religious mind"?  To find a way to excuse our "sins" by superficial forgiveness and the commutation of our failures as human beings. That it is acceptable to continue the mind that longs for self aggrandizement at what ever cost...even our own extinction.

As a human being we are trapped in a mind that is naturally dualistic.  Because we are consciously aware of our own existence and have the ability to react as the one who knows on what it knows we are a divided entity.  On the one hand we have what we know and on the other hand we have the person who knows. But is the person who knows psychologically separate from what he knows. Or are they one in the same entity.  If we "are" what we know then "we" as the self must be the essence of our bigotry and hatred. And we are all bigots that are endlessly suspicious of our fellow man. We cannot escape the reality of the moment when it comes to understanding that is without excuse or justification.  As long as you separate the thinker from the thought you cannot possibly understand the significance of your delusion and its accompanying fear and isolationism. It is the well spring of all that destroys.

So one must simply be aware of how the mind has been programmed to be what it is. A person is not born a bigot or a racist, a Christian, Muslim or Jew you are taught through fear and self aggrandizement.  But the realization is that you cannot change as long as that change is born of the self that knows.  DO YOU UNDERSTAND? DO YOU SEE THIS NOT AS A KNOWING BUT AS A REALITY OF THE MOMENT?

Living Deeply

Why do we live on the periphery?  The superficial seems to be what we crave. To be absorbed with the self and its desires.  But what if we could realize something not born of the mind that wants what it wants.  Not the suppression of desire but the understanding of it, on a level that has not yet been experienced.  We cannot find this depth in a "formula" or a "path".  No "teacher" can teach you, because it cannot be "taught". Yet if one has the passion to understand the self independently of a craving or an appetite for the known, then perhaps a person will discover an element of the unattached and unidentified.  As long as you are consumed by the superficiality of the illusion of a self centered existence then you will be blocked.

One must observe the observer.  Seeing into the mind that exist as a contradiction. There must be complete attention to the one who is living in self induced complications, which are the seed of all problems.  One must realize that this in fact is all we really know. When we refer to depth are we referring to some sort of esoteric image? A person must realize that all these so called secrete societal cults and methods by which we seek the "other" are nothing more that the continuation of the illusion of seeking a god like state.  Reality in depth is far more enlightening than some sort of religious doctrine or "woo woo" science. To understand deeply the actual reality of the moment is far more likely to bring about change in the psyche than all the teachings of sage, saviors and gods of all history combined. Because the moment is the only reality and it is where you find and understand deeply. If you are passionate enough, then you may begin to understand your relationship to existence.  But one must shed all the accumulated beliefs that have been harbored over a life time. And this is the difficulty because our minds have been so ingrained in historical illusion. It is a process of being mindful and of realizing that most of our responses to life are emotional. We must realize that they are grounded in fantasy and illusion.

When an organizational entity wants belief and undying allegiance it uses a volley of fear and misunderstanding to touch the "emotional disturbance" of each individual. The desired response is the mindless following of life on the periphery of an agency of hate, anger and despair. One who lives in the absolute moment with a depth of complete understanding avoids the pitfall of those who would control for power, money and celebrity. Living deeply means that you understand the self of motivation
and that you accept total responsibility for who you are in each and every moment.

Psychological Integration

What does it mean to be integrated? To be psychologically integrated means that you are whole not fragmented. To be complete and without limitation.  Your mind is fragmented because it is competing with opposing ideals. The mind is disturbed because it cannot deal with reality as it is.  Instead it creates the idealistic illusion of what it seeks. The mind creates its own prison of dogmatic and egocentric beliefs. Thus there is a lack of understanding. One cannot transcend the elements of a mind made up of fear and distrust. When fear and distrust are the basis for action then there can only be psychological and or physical violence to oneself or to others.

Integration is not something that we seek and acquire.  Rather it is the byproduct of a mind that understands the workings of a conditioned consciousness.  A consciousness that is reactionary. Reactions that are born out of our propensity to see reality through our prejudice, through our limited ability to observe without naming.  When one names a feeling or a response one creates the duality of contradiction. Because we believe that we are separate from our feelings or responses, naming removes us psychologically from the fact of a mind that is reactionary. One must realize that a person is in fact the feeling and the response.  There is in reality no separation between who you are and what you feel and respond to. And this is the essence of the activity of a fragmented mind. When one realizes in the moment that you are in fact the creator of what fragments then one may understand what it means to be integrated, whole and without the duality of observer and observed, thinker and thought, the one who causes censorship.  When one becomes integrated then there is the realization that there is no "you" who feels or reacts.