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spirituality and development
Hey friends, I was reading this book by Jan Kersschot, he is a very serious non-duality writer and doctor with some interesting ideas. There was particularly two sentences that got my attention: 'the teachers you meet are a reflection of what you are searching for'. The other one was 'as long as you are looking for something, you will meet teachers that will promise to bring you there'. He is talking about looking for 'special' special teachers and experiences vs. just being in ordinary life.
I figured that there may be several aspects in my experience that are looking for different things. There may be a more childlike aspect that would actually really like a special experience, meeting special people etc. Then there's also a more adult aspect that just content with ordinary life.
The beauty of what Jan Kersschot is writing, is that he tells you that every spiritual game is allright, not to be repressed. He says just live it until you have had enough.
Not sure what point I really want to make with this, or maybe I already made it.
Exactly! It's all part of this magnificent game. We have created the veil ourselves.
You ask an excellent question. And I can only answer from personal experience.
My trying efforts seem to be rooted in be-coming. Be-coming something or someone other than what or who is here now.
Being here now, on the other hand, requires no effort. No trying.
Which is why I intentionally said CEASING the trying/effort to become something/someone else.
Cessation doesn't require trying/effort. If it did, it wouldn't be cessation. It'd be another form of effort.
It's an easy trap to view cessation as an effort (i.e. cease smoking, eating too much, etc.). Which means that you are simply replacing one effort with another one.
But being is what simply remains when you cease be-coming. It requires no effort to be. Be-coming, on the other hand, is effort-full.
All games are arenas of effort to me. Cease to effort, and the games dis-appear.
Hi Peter,
You have expressed the dilema of viewing "cessation as effort" beautifully.
You said: "But being is what simply remains when you cease be-coming. It requires no effort to be. Be-coming, on the other hand, is effort-full."
Here is what I have learned: There are two aspects to "us". There is the Stillness or rest point (cessation) and the dynamic aspect of this Stillness (efforting). There is no point in trying to "cease" the dynamic part of ourselves because it is Cessation or Stllness in motion.
"Here is what I have learned: There are two aspects to "us". There is the Stillness or rest point (cessation) and the dynamic aspect of this Stillness (efforting). There is no point in trying to "cease" the dynamic part of ourselves because it is Cessation or Stllness in motion."
Wonder-full. Really, truly wonder-full. I LOVE the way that you described it. Truly.
All that's left to be done is simply be in awe, then. In awe with being (the ocean) expressing itself as be-coming (its waves), and be-coming expressing itself as being.
What an awe-full thing to be in awe with. :)
I like Jan's perspective, from the little that you cite from him.
All of my life's experiences have, thus far, shown me one over-riding "truth":
when I pursued the extra-ordinary (or something other than what is ordinarily before me), it was the pursuit of the extra-ordinary that became the veil which hid the ordinarily obvious.
And every time that I ceased the pursuit, I was able to see the extra-ordinary in the ordinary.
Fortunately, and if I get the itch to pursue something extra-ordinary now, a big red caution sign greets me at the foot of that path:
"CAUTION: You are about to hide the extra-ordinary in the ordinary from your view, by engaging on a path for something other than what is here now"
Basho said:
in my new robe
this morning,
someone else
;-)
ed
:-)
So true ... what we seek determines what we miss.
The relatively ordinary is absolutely extra-ordinary, and vica versa ... for those who have 'eyes' with which to 'see', and 'ears' with which to 'hear', etc ...
Trying not to let the pursuit of the extra-ordinary viel theordinary is also a game is it not?