Having interacted with the adherents of eastern philosophy for over a decade I can really see how blessed I was in not having my beliefs defined for me prior to having the experiences of my ontological system. My ontological, or belief system is loaded in the moment as I experience. I have never met someone with eastern philosophy beliefs that did not have their understanding front loaded. This means that someone else’s perceptions influenced every label, definition, expression and even experience itself. These seekers were told what to believe before they ever had any experiences to base their beliefs upon. This is a great approach for the passively aware, which let’s face i is the basis of eastern discipline.
The belief that beliefs are somehow the antithesis of awareness is just another example of the attachment to words that most vicarious eastern thinkers are plagued with since the east meets west lovefest began decades ago. There is not a human alive, nor has there ever been one that did not have a belief system. Most are not complete or fully realized, but there is no error in saying that you have beliefs. Beliefs may or may not be based upon experience, and that is where the rub comes in. If you have experienced something then the fashion today is to state ‘I know’ rather than ‘I believe’. Any advanced person will tell you, however, that your perceptions will never stop evolving, so using terms such as ‘I know’ only points to the fact that you do not. Opposition to the word ‘believe’ or ‘belief’ is just another example of the unaware distracting other people from the poverty within themselves.
There is an emergent awareness on this planet presently that begs those who adhere to thousands-of-years-old dusty disciplines to re-examine their present awareness. I can see this so clearly in forums and chats where a group of people are having a conceptual debate, each saying the same thing in essence, but defending their definitions and labels to the point of outright anger. They know their beliefs of oneness or unity are not reflected in this world. Most never have the discipline to ever experience the transpersonal awareness that their beliefs were supposedly born out of, so what they are left with are words, and a brain that loves to hear itself think.
One of the nice things about being an original thinker and undefined experiencer is that I can back up my Self awareness with a language that has presence. The parroted beliefs that many debate endlessly in the spiritual community have no energy driving them. This is because the original experiencer is so far removed from the conversation that all one is left with are empty words not supported by the experience that spawned the words. You can tell the difference immediately between a conceptualist and an experiential person. The conceptualist only has the words and the defense of those words…the experiential person has presence, which can ignite the usage of words, turning language into something much different.
Eastern philosophy for several thousand years has held its own as the pinnacle of human Self awareness. Unfortunately it saw itself as the end all of seeking, exploring and understanding of truth. Earth based external beliefs reliant upon phenomena led to religion’s mystical sects which eventually led to an internal awareness of the Self. The Self has many labels across many factions of Eastern and Western thought. At its primary essence, Self is what you are if you stripped away the body and the world the body creates and lives in. It is the thing, or being that looks out of those eyes. It is not the eyes themselves, and it is for rare people not the thing that discerns what the eyes are seeing. It is just the thing looking. It is for most people not aware of itself. While it sleeps in this passive state the brain does the thinking and decides what reality is.
Asleep, the brain’s interpretation of reality becomes the Self’s reality. The dream self is who you are, or in the least who you believe you are. Truth is your beliefs are really not your own. They are other people’s perceptions of you that you either embrace or struggle with on the stage of life. Most will live and die, live and die, live and die, live and die – on and on and on and on again and again and again – having never known what they were. My ontological system at its core has the separation of the Self – what you are – from the persona – who you are – as the absolute minimum for becoming Self aware. You simply cannot experience Self being the persona. The persona is the body’s script. If you have not in the very least come to an understanding of this duality, then you are not awake – you may be enlightened, but you are not awake. Adherents of Eastern disciplines have not made this crucial separation experientially.
The Self’s awareness is not going to even remotely resemble the Earth, which is just a big stage full of various animated forms. The only way you are going to make the Earth a perfect place to exist upon is if every living thing were to be created inanimate. That is the only true way to end pain and suffering. Humans make up a very small part of the population here. We are the only species capable of an awareness of detachment from the illusion. That means the vast majority of living beings here will continue to eat and rape and use each other. In Eastern thought that is fine as long as you are above the fray. It is the height of arrogance and a natural extension of the caste system that many of these philosophies were born out of.
When asked about the pain and suffering of this world an Eastern disciple is incapable of feeling anything for the less aware. They will return again and again to this idea that suffering is an illusion. For them it is an illusion. For the vast majority it is a reality. That means that this body’s reality is always going to produce pain and suffering for those that are in the body’s awareness. That is always going to be 99.9999999999999999999% of the earth’s population. The only answer to this truth is the Eastern disciple returning to the mantra ‘suffering is an illusion’. In other words, to hell with the suffering majority as long as I can escape it. A true Bodhisattva would want to end the dream for all, not just themselves. The only way to end the dream for everyone is to create a path where the body’s dream is evolved into the Self’s creation…something that will never take place on this Earth, which everyone can see is the realm of animated form and will always be of the body.
Until the Self awakens it is the body that does the perceiving, and that thought leads to creation. The Self has very little input into creation until the prefrontal lobe emerged. Even with the new and improved brain the Self still enters into this world squarely between the ears, because in its deep sleep that is where the body’s primary senses of sight and hearing are located. As long as the Self is seated passively in the brain it will experience itself as the brain and body. It simply does not matter what a persona thinks it is – as long as it is seated in the brain, that is what it is going to subjectively experience. This is where virtually all Selves spend their incarnation. Enlightenment is not going to change the persona’s unconsciousness…it will just be unconscious or asleep in the present moment. Only by awakening can the Self stop being the persona, because the brain and creations of the brain become objects separated from the experiencing Self.
Without that separation awakening is not possible. When the Eastern disciple and Western counterpart enter into a transpersonal meditative state they enter into it as a persona. I do not care how impressive their philosophies sound, or how deep their pockets are that they can pull their experiential findings out of, if they enter into expanded states of awareness as a persona asleep in their brain, then all you are going to hear are the experiences that the brain had, and its interpretation of those experiences. This is the very spot where my ontological system diverges from the Eastern thought…I experienced transpersonal states as the Self, where they experienced them as the brain, or persona. To experience anything you have to be separate from it – this separation is not acknowledged by Eastern thinkers.
Eastern thought believes everything, including Self arises from the one source. This is because they subjectively identify with the brain. When they get to their oneness and non-duality states they still witness thought arising from the void. This is where the subtleties of awareness are most often not seen or contemplated upon because they have been told what to think, how to label it, and how to define it. The irony is is at that moment that they perceive thought arising from the void, they are experiencing this phenomena as the Self. Thought is not arising from the void – it is arising from the brain. As Self for these brief encounters, they are experiencing the brain as a separate thing. Thought is not coming from the void – it is the brain doing what the brain does – having a monologue of free association.
The void cannot think. It is not a conscious thing. It is not pure consciousness that is experienced when transpersonal states of non-duality are attained – it is no consciousness. No consciousness is apparent because no thing has been created out of the void at that level of withdrawal from manifested reality. It is pre-form that is being experienced, where Self is experiencing no thing. However, because the Self is still contained within a body back on the meditation mat, it still experiences the brain’s river of flowing thoughts. Those thoughts if they were truly coming out of the void would most likely not be personally associative. The fact that they do originate in your body’s brain is the reason the thoughts can be recognized as belonging to your personal storyline.
The difference between being awake and being a persona is awake you no longer are subjectively your brain’s internal monologue. Eastern disciples have to sit and do mind numbing repetitive mantras and have their bodies in exactly defined postures in order to maintain a state of no mind. I have this state naturally as an awake Self. Unless I actively think my mind is silent. What this means is I do not hear the monologue taking place because I am no longer seated in the brain. The separation took place for me years ago where the Self is clearly delineated from the body. That monologue in my body’s brain does not end – it is a natural process for the brain – I just do not have to be its audience, or worse yet believe it is me doing the thinking.
You should begin to get a clearer picture of why Eastern thought is so limited. The unity they experienced was because the body is made up of the same subatomic particles as all other bodies. This does not mean that all bodies are one – all bodies, including identical twins are separate unique stand alone things. All Selves are not one either – billions of years diverging and ever pressing into expanded progressive individuality are more than evident. This is what the obsession for the Eastern philosophies boils down to…they identify with the sources, and not what is evolving from them. They face backwards along consciousness’s evolution, not looking forward to where it is headed. They desire escapism from the suffering, not awareness of how to truly end it. You do not end suffering by passively sitting in a lotus position…you just pause your identification to it for the duration of your vacation. Even the most advanced Eastern disciple once they come down off their pile of pillows is going to continue to see their body’s death process.
In the beginning there was only the active principle and the passive principle. Neither by themselves were any thing. But once they came into contact something amazing happened…animated forms arose. The form itself from the passive principle. The animating force from the active principle. You can experience this initial state of being in meditation disciplines where over time you will enter into a state of non-duality…or pre form. Think about that…non-duality not as reality, but as the state prior to any thing being created…no duality because no thing has come out of the void yet. You are not from that void, so you can witness this state of awareness – and if awake, correctly witness it. It is a fool that stands in the body’s dream and believes everything is one. If the fool swung a hammer to his face he will end up in the hospital. The hammer and his face are not one. It is a fool that stands in the body’s dream and believes suffering is an illusion. If the fool steps in front of a speeding truck he will end up in the hospital in a lot of pain.
Your beliefs of unity and the illusion of suffering are absolutely meaningless as long as you are in the body’s dream. These words and your addiction to repeating them are worthless so long as you live the body’s dream. These words might win you debates, but they will also win you another lifetime in another dreaming body. I find Eastern dogma worse than any other ontological system primarily because of its lack of critical thinking at a level of awareness where critical thinking should be a prerequisite. For all its lofty qualities in the end Eastern thought is no better than the lobby level awareness – if it continues to talk the talk but not know how to walk the walk. Once you awaken there is no more necessity for meditation – you become the state you are trying to attain…but it is not a passive state, and never will be.
The Self does not desire to create no thing…it desires to create it’s thing. Some are very close to this becoming their ability. But it will never happen here. This is the body’s thing. Once you get free of that bondage, then the possibilities become infinite. Who besides a passive victim would ever desire to exist within a vacuum? Who aside from the suicidal seek an eternity of nothingness? The Self did not claw its way out of the muck (once it acquired claws) over billions of years just to return to the latent state of the mud at the bottom of the pond. Awaken to what you are…feel the natural inherent drive to explore and experience and create. You will never make this world a paradise. But you can and will envision new realities where you the Self are creator, not ignorance and fear – and certainly not as a passive passenger when you have earned the right over billions of years to take your place in the driver’s seat. Awaken not for the limitations of this world in these bodies…awaken for what is possible next.
That is why the Eastern thought is so limited and why it should be cast aside for the larger view. Like all other belief systems on this planet, there is an ending to their philosophy. There is only a beginning to mine. You can spend an eternity being here now, but until you are capable of doing here now you will never truly know what you are, and what this process was ever about. There is a reason why my ontological system is resonating so strongly with those that find it here online – it is Self evident, and reflects the nature of the Self. It is not rewording and re-envisioning dusty disciplines…it is what is happening right now as we evolve into a new emergent Self awareness.
~ DC Vision
I understand your above comments regarding Eastern ‘religion’ – however, I have the impression that your critical comments are rather too general and sweeping. For example, upon reading some of the works by Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj such as ‘I AM THAT’ I realised that he had a much deeper appreciation of the Self (unseparated Life) that was non-local and certainly nothing to do with the separated egoic ‘persona’. Not only that, but, contrary to most in the east he saw straight through the absurd notion of ‘reincarnation’. Although he had a profound understanding of earliest Hindu texts he stated that he did not belong to any religion – not even Hindu. So, I am wondering whether your comments need to be refined a little more. There is an unbridgeable gulf between fundamentalism (religious beliefs) and Gnosis, and the ‘perennial philosophy’ can be found beneath the fundamentalist literalism of virtually all the main religions – including the Sufi of Islam.
Thanks for this. DC can’t reply any longer, alas, but, like SNM (“I am That” is freely available to download on the internet, btw)spoke from experience, to his audience, and not from any religion. Further, DCs experience of religion was limited to what travesties and distortions that he heard online rather than through any high level engagement!
Don’t be fooled though, DC had the experience and the awareness. His writings here are full of it, and he had some students he would speak to privately as well. He used to say that his writings on here were designed for those on the nursery slopes, to wake people up, rather than to be a summary of a view from the top, or as some advanced teaching for those who have gained a high level of genuine awareness already. He was speaking to those he met on Paltalk and other online chatrooms, not those who had sought out darshan from a Teacher in an ashram in India (although DCs presence was equally powerful online as, say, Eckhardt Tolle, in my experience). Those who frequented his room on Paltalk would have gained little by reading “I am That” and that is why he wrote what he did.