If there is only a unitary movement/The Universe, then what can be tried/attempted (effort, direction, knowledge, definition, purpose etc) and who makes the attempt?

If your answer is: "What is attempted is the unitary movement". Then my question would be: Then the unitary movement which is everything that IS has to TRY/ATTEMPT to be Itself? 

Doesn't it sound rather strange?

 Sermon 86

Beautiful Sermon. The extraordinary giant M.Eckhart makes up his story as usual :) using the Biblical story of Mary Magdalene at the tomb. He makes it a story of a psychological transformation (because maybe all what he was really writing was about THAT! - I don't know bc I've read rather little of his work). Notice the change of the capital letters, him (Jesus the man) and Him (God the Universe, one unitary movement, etc.

So what is the story that M.Eckhart conceived about? Mary Magdalene loved Jesus so much that when he died, she died psychologically with him too. That means she became totally empty. That was when the God/ Universe/ joyous extraordinary Energy or whatever you want to call It was revealed/restored in her. The Gardener was the Truth, the unitary movement of matter-energy transformation. Beautiful and true explanation of the psychological transformation using the old catholic imagery and terms (also worth noticing is a great translation).

The last part is immensely important to understand:
For the soul to find God she needs six things: First, what was sweet to her before must become bitter to her. Second, that the soul becomes too cramped for herself, so that she cannot remain within herself.8 Third, she must desire nothing but God. Fourth, that none can comfort her but God. Fifth, that she never returns to transient things. Sixth, that she has no inner peace till He is restored to her.


SERMON EIGHTY-SIX
(Q 56, Par. an. 26, Evans II, 32)1
"Mary stood at the sepulcher weeping" (John 20 : 1 1 ). It was a wonder that in such sore distress she could weep at all. 'Love was the reason of her standing, sorrow of her weeping.' She stepped forward and looked into the tomb. She sought a dead man, and found two living angels. Origen says, 'she stood.' Why did she stay when the apostles had fled? She had nothing to lose: all she had she had lost with him. When he died she died with him. When they buried him they buried her soul with him. Therefore she had nothing to lose.
She went on. Then he met her. "She thought he was the gardener,
and said, 'Where have you laid him?' " (John 20 :15). She was so
anxious about him that she only took in one word that he said.
"Where have you laid him? " that was what she said to him. Then he
revealed himself gradually to her. If he had revealed himself all at
once, while she was in the throes of longing, she would have died of joy. If the soul knew when God was coming into her, she would die of joy; and if she knew when He was leaving her, she would die of grief. She does not know when He comes or when He goes, though she can sense when He is with her. A master says His coming and His going are hidden. His presence is not concealed, for He is a light, and light is by nature revelation.
Mary sought God and God alone: that is why she found Him, and
she desired nothing but God. To the soul that seeks God, all creatures must be a pain. It was a pain for her to see the angels. Thus for the soul in quest of God, all things must be as nothing. For the soul to find God she needs six things: First, what was sweet to her before must become bitter to her. Second, that the soul becomes too cramped
for herself, so that she cannot remain within herself.8 Third, she must desire nothing but God. Fourth, that none can comfort her but God. Fifth, that she never returns to transient things. Sixth, that she has no inner peace till He is restored to her.
Let us pray, etc.

 Meister Eckhart - Unresigned People, Who are Full of Own-Will

Quitting Thyself 

‘Alas, Sir,’ people say, ‘I wish I stood as well with God, had as much devotion, were as much at peace with God as other people are. If only I could be like this, or as poor as that,’ or, ‘ It is not a bit of good unless I can be here or there or do so and so. I must live away from home, in a convent or a cell.’ - Believe me, the fault is in thyself and nowhere else. It is nothing but own will. Thou mayst not know it and it may not seem so to thee, but the only source of restlessness in thee is thy personal will, whether this is realized or not. We think we ought to flee this thing or follow that—places, people, methods, purposes, or acts—but ways and things are not to blame for hindering thee, it is thou thyself in things that is standing in thy way, cleaving to things as thou dost inordinately. Starting with thyself then, rise up and quit thyself. An thou flee not first thyself it is certain that wherever else thou mayest flee thou wilt find thou art disturbed and hindered, be it where it may. For people to seek peace in outward things—in places, persons, ways or works, in poverty or exile or despisery or anything else however important it may be - is all in vain, it will not bring peace. Those who seek in this way are looking in the wrong direction: the further out they go the less are they likely to find what they are seeking. They go like one who has missed his way: the further he walks the wider he strays. But what ought he to do? He must leave himself first; he will then have left all things. A man may give up a kingdom or the whole world but if he still clings to himself he has given up nothing.

 Ruben Feldman Gonzalez: "If you want to bring the Silence to the world , it's already gone" WHY? 

Purpose.. effort.. the illusion of the split of Reality (into subject-object) produced by thought, the horizontal conflict. It's a distortion of perception. But it's necessary to perform any action, to do something. That's why it (this mechanism of the horizontal split) evolved in the brain (by/with thought). 

So work/action has to be BALANCED with complete non-action in complete unobstructed Freedom/Peace, silence and stillness without any choice or effort. If not, the META Process with its horizontal split can drive one "crazy" bit by bit (e.g. fear, obsessions, stress, lack of sleep, desires, addictions, etc).

All of this, the very simple mechanism how the META process of thought produces this illusion of the horizontal conflict/split (so has to multiply division), is re-learned, re-discovered, has to be re-discovered in the brain, from the ground up. NOT in the books (only). Re-discovered over and over again, maybe from different points of view. But it happens all by itself for a monk (some one vitally interested in this) and this is correct, the best what can happen to any one.

WHO cares? The Universe in all those brains that have awakened is the same one intelligence, because there is no division.. And the intelligence wants intelligent solutions (not like wars and the rat race).

So that is also the "Will of God".. So the whole issue if the world will be destroyed by the fools is not yet completely determined. Yes there are wars, bc of thought and it's imaginary products. BUT thought has also created magnificent technology.. It is limited and it creates deadly problems but it wasn't ALL bad from the Universe to allow for the mechanism of the horizontal conflict to develop in the brain...

.. Not only intelligent solutions for "problems" but they already are living in the undivided way so they don't create the problems in the first place.

Stillness and Silence is the Ground of that living, it's being one with the Void, Nothingness, complete boundless Peace, complete Ecstasy that is the Universe, the kernel of the Universe.

UP/Yoga/Zazen/Dhjana, etc. = letting everything go as the Universe wants (so called "God's will" :). Let  everything go completely as It wants!

Complete denial/ negation of the Self (everything that it wants). The negation includes "UP" (the idea of it)!

That means it is best "done" by silence and stillness. 

In (functional or non-functional) work it may not be possible. It's because the horizontal conflict  (the illusory product of thought that is the split into the subject and object) may be necessary  to perform it (operate on the so called objects of the "environment"). That is why whatever "we" "do" is so often the cause of so much stress, fear, effort, conflict, anguish, etc. The horizontal conflict is the root of it, the root of stress.

Meister Eckhart was a great Giant! (you can substitute "The Universe", "Void" or "Sunya" for "God" and "the world of the human society - all products of thought" for "creatures" in the passage):

"If therefore you want to have and find full joy and consolation in God, see to it that you are stripped of all creatures, of all consolation from creatures. For certainly, as long as creatures comfort you, you will never find true comfort. But if nothing can comfort you save God, truly God will console you, and with him and in him all that is delight. If you are consoled by what is not God, you will have comfort neither here nor there. If however creatures do not console you and you don't enjoy them, you will find comfort both here and there"

Regarding the so called "Will of God" :), the so called "religious" people might have not understood that war is also "the will of God" (the will of the Universe). Very simply because war is obviously currently happening, that is all the "reason" behind it why it's the "Will of God" currently. The thought of the people has obviously always have thought that "God" is some "being" somewhere (in "Heavens" :) who can choose and control what's going on in the world (what a funtastic product of thought! :) because of their catholic upbringing and all the conditioning in the society. But "God" (The Universe, Sunyata, Void, etc.) is simply THAT what IS (all of It, the whole unitary movement) that is happening. It does not mean that we - the monks.. should participate in war, it's an activity of the fools.. The task of the monks is stillness and silence. 

Suffering is the expression of the imaginary product of thought called the Self. Stillness and silence is the expression of understanding.

 Let me ask you a question, OK?

If there is only one unitary undivided movement ("THAT"), what can be tried or attempted? Who attempts it? What can be achieved?

Attempt is a rather unfortunate word to use in this context, of B.

UP is not a positive thing! It's a negation (negative!) of all illusions, including the "UP" (the Idol).

An "attempt" can only be made in C, where there is an ILLUSION of a limited movement (the me/ the Self/ the horizontal conflict). So ALL attempts are things of C, can only "take place" in the illusion of C (sometimes functional, like work, etc.)

 UP/Yoga/Dhjana/Zazen/the Universe fills an empty brain immediately, without time. It's seamless, so to speak, it can be said that it's the same, one movement..

In fact the energy of the Universe IS already in the brain, in the Posterior brain. But thought in the Anterior brain blocks it when it invents the horizontal conflict, so the purpose, direction, and the self.

UP cannot be initiated, tried, attempted bc to initiate it, there would have to be knowledge and image (a definition) of what to pursue, so.. a purpose/ a goal, so we're in the same old circle of thought..

 

UP/The Universe CANNOT be SUSTAINED (by thought).

It comes all of itself when one is at COMPLETE leisure (empty brain), when there is void in the brain, no effort at all, no purpose, no knowledge of anything, no expectation. 

Complete void in the brain = complete UP/the Universe.

It's bc the void in the brain IS the same void that is the Universe..

Any PURPOSE/goal = the split into subject-object/ horizontal conflict. It's actually a lapse in observation, incorrect observation, so thought can than "insert" this illusion (sometimes functional). To operate on the "environment" thought invents the division into subject-object (something in the "environment", like a forest to cut). The subject (thinks that it) acts on the object/ environment. Without a purpose it's not possible.

That is the only "problem". The subject/the self is not there in trance/hypnosis. Therefore the perpetrator can say: "I didn't know what I was doing when I was killing my wife" in a crime of passion (I'm not saying it's OK to kill somebody or it should or shouldn't be punished). The illusion of the Self is not there in the pure observation of the UP either. But it's there in the horizontal conflict, when there is some purpose, so struggle to achieve, to get somewhere else than here (to get that "what should be"). It is "work" too (C). That's why work can be stressful.

UP/Yoga/Zen/Dhjana/the Universe comes to the emptiness in the brain, when the brain is completely unfocused, without a direction, without a purpose, expectation, knowledge, desire, etc. But it's not the other way round, that thought goes to UP. There must be the emptiness of the brain, not-knowing anything at all, so not trying anything, not attempting anything (because how can you attempt anything when you don't know anything, right?)

UP/Yoga/Zen/Dhjana is a negative thing, a complete psychological negation of everything, that means basically not to want anything, not to know anything and not to have anything at all (psychologically). Or in other words not to be attached to anything at all.

There IS such a state of the brain and it's the greatest thing in the world, the greatest Freedom, all burden is gone. And it is the absolute NECESSITY, i.e. it's the essence. Otherwise what you think is your "life" is a little phony tragedy only :) You think you know something but you don't know anything for real.. You only think so.

It's nothingness, void that is the same void that is the Universe.

What does it mean if we are holding something (psychologically), something so precious to us that we don't want to lose it (including "God" and all such funny ideas :)?

Find out! Do not believe me. Carry the burden, until it drops all of itself.

All that we're holding is suffering, fear, anguish and misfortune :) And it clogs the brain, the worry, the groping, the busy-ness. A yoke for a beast of burden.. :)

 Patandzali and maybe the Buddha(or some of his disciples who wrote about the "other shore"? But I'm not sure of this), thought there are two shores. This what IS and that what should be. But real life is not like that.. In real life there is only this one shore.. And we all have already reached it, but we think otherwise!

 Trance/hypnosis is OK, in terms of it being without conflict. "Concentration" is "NOT OK" because concentration is a FALSE concept, it does not really exist because there is effort in it, so the horizontal conflict (the concentrator trying to be concentrated). What goes by the name of "concentration" is a struggle, although the struggle of "concentration" can maybe change into hypnosis (but those two cannot exist at the same time).

So it can be said that UP/Yoga/Dhjana/Zen is the whole unobstructed movement in and out of hypnosis/trance and what is NOT It is the struggle to get "there" or "somewhere" called concentration, effort, horizontal conflict, goal, purpose, end in view, the idol, desire, fear, etc.

*********

EDIT: Oh, OK, hypnosis can be physically dangerous! Like in a car crash or a "crime of passion".. So yeah, I guess one better watch out! :)

.. When we DO something (in physical movement and action).

In stillness and silence it's not a problem.

In the case of a movie it's being "lost" in the META Process of the story of the movie and visual/auditory stimuli. Not a problem really..

In the case of a Crime of Passion the Meta Process, acute emotion, activates a highly injurious act.

And in the case of causing a car crash, it's just being "lost" in pure META Process (story/images told produced the brain).

The Universe does not have to strain Itself, It doesn't make any effort at all. It does not know any effort.

Formerly there was a thought that it's wrong that some sound escaped, like a sound of a "car", oh, it escaped me! (bloody hell! :). But it's ONE SOUND OF NOTHING. It's undivided. The sound of a car is only a concept for an object (subject-object). There is no "sound of "car" in Unitary Perception, except with the whole movement of Nothing, one unitary movement. There IS no "distraction" :) 

I don't know if there's really an object like a "car" or not, I don't know anything :) It DOES NOT MATTER, I don't have to USE the bloody car now ;) When we are USING things, the knowledge is USEFUL, otherwise, not!

The "shepherds" want to control it, but it cannot be controlled.

In fact it doesn't matter if it goes away or comes back, if there is a "trance"/hypnosis or not bc in trance there is no horizontal conflict (the split into subject-object) either, so It can go in and out. Nothingness - Universe. Nothingness - Universe.

The mind has to go where it wants, like the wind.

The key thing is that there is no attempt to control anything, no "controller", it flows unobstructed. The "trance"/hypnosis is not a problem! The problem is to fight it, to choose "this" (like "UP") over something "else" (like "trance"/"hypnosis")..

 UP, Zazen, Dhjana, Yoga, etc. is not really an "attempt" at anything. "Attempt" suggests a positive action. But there is no knowledge of attempting anything and no counting on anything.

 The best place for the monks without a monastery to be found by UP, Dhjana, Yoga, etc. is to let everything go and be completely silent and still without any effort at all, not being occupied by anything at all, not trying anything, without any expectation, not for a goal, not on any purpose.

If someone asked me today what is "UP", "Zen", "God", "Dhjana", "Yoga"etc. i could say "a yoke for an ass" :) And it might be the best answer, I don't know :)

But it's a good answer only for the "monks without a monastery"..

 UP cannot be SUSTAINED (on purpose).

It's bc any purpose is thought/ hypnosis/ trance.. Therefore UP can only happen by Itself, completely spontanously (and K said that ofc), when the purpose, all effort, knowledge, EVERYTHING drops (ALL BY ITSELF).

That is the Second Awakening that sometimes happens, like 20% of the time maybe, a few time on a walk, when one is busy, cause life is damn busy one has to functionally work for money.

Remember our last conversation in the forest about UP? We were wrong, no? You see there is no distraction. You said "it's hard to be in it, it gets lost very fast". It is so. But it's not because one is not TRYING UP hard enough!!! :) I would say it's because one is just busy with various thought stuff (which is hypnosis). This hypnosis can be working (purpose, focus, direction, effort), "trying UP" :), planning, worrying (hypnosis/trance), all of the BS that the brain is clogged with is just C.

B is the Second Awakening that sometimes happens all by itself. It CANNOT be sustained, as seemingly Ruben intended in the main definition, it might have been his slip up or he didn't intended it, only I and I guess many many folks understand it this way, cause thought means direction, effort (only positive). Thought cannot be negative.

But it can read read all the BS, study, study, "try UP" like a sheep :) UNTIL all the burden drops by itself because it's understood that it's all a yoke for an ass :) This is the revolution that K and M. Eckhart were teaching. First lose all the BS (happens all by itself, (thought dies by thought" as K and Stachura put it) and that at the same time = the Second Awakening, it happens ALL by itself. Thought has NOTHING to do with it :) Thought can only think think think (about anything). 

It's hard to explain only bc its very very simple, and thought is complication. That's why thought cannot get it, ever.

 "Thought ending thought". Thought dying by thought". I've never could understand that part. How can thought die by thought? :)

Now I do.

One has to read the books, all the books, until the goo is overflowing :) And it disappears in an instant, cause it's all just thought, not the essence.

Thought dies by thought! Phew! :)

If you don't know anything about anything, what are "you" actually "trying"?

If you don't know, then simply just be honest with yourself and see that you DON'T really KNOW anything about anything!

To know completely nothing, it's the greatest thing that can happen to you.

A camel cannot go through the eye of a needle.

The Universe is the Void itself, you see (there is nothing to grasp, nothing to want, whatever we hold, whatever we're attached to  = FEAR!). And in Unitary Perception the Void that is the Universe is the SAME Void that is in the brain.

 UP means being completely still and silent, without trying ANYTHING at all, not having any idea about anything or knowing anything about anything, or counting on anything at all.

That emptiness is filled by the Universe at the same time, because there is only the Universe. "The Universe works in Itself", using Meister Eckhart's funny language.

 1

a

: of or relating to a unit

b

: based on or characterized by unity or units

2

: having the character of a unit : UNDIVIDED, WHOLE

The attempt is the whole, at once, at the beginning. What does "whole" mean? It means it's ALREADY DONE. It's not in the future! You wake up in True Life (the realization that energy is already in unity).

There is nothing that is outside of it, out of it. UP = Sunya/ True Life. 

There is only this undivided, whole Attempt, one movement without a division into a doer and doing. "One hand clapping".

If there is only one whole movement, and nothing outside of it, any concentrated/ directed effort is a denial of it (hypnosis, imagination, illusion). That is the only problem, "hypnosis" and "concentration" is the same, it's the old paradigm.

The paradigms are NOT complementary, they do not overlap. Intelligence can indirectly make the old paradigm, memory, etc, work more optimally with what it is functionally useful for. But the new paradigm REPLACES the old one. And it must, because the old paradigm has a great momentum, so the new paradigm (the most important "thing" in life) requires all energy and complete priority (otherwise it's back in the black hole of hypnosis). 

It's that what is most simple. The attempt is True Life. True Life is making the attempt.

B: The way I see it, there is a change. I would say that thought is "crippled" in UP.  In UP there are no products of thought like the thinker, time, duality, effort, direction, choice, right? Thought in C is direction, choice, etc.

The little energy of thought/"meaning" dissolves in the Wholeness of UP.

The focused/ directional Known is BOUND to dissolve in the Unknown. Cannot survive!

IF that was so, these two (C - the focused perception and B - the unfocused perception) would not be really complementary, but rather exclusive.. How can UNFOCUSED hold the FOCUSED?

How can the Unknown hold the Known/ the "meaning"? If it held the known and understood it, would it be really the Unknown?

Thought (of the Anterior brain) can function either as a substitute or complement of the Energy (in the Posterior brain).

I'm not sure it's the complement..

They're of two different dimensions, characterized by different laws!

A:  They work together, complementing each other, it's a fact. But you won't arrive at the fact by rationalizing and comparing words with words

B: I am not doing just that. In UP thoughts come and go freely, "pizza", "bananas", "potatoes", images. If they are being processed, it's already hypnosis...

 Absolute time is one of the laws of C but is it possible NOT to THINK in terms of TIME at all?

OR.. all thought is (psychological) time and (psychologcal) time is thought?

.. In other words: is the thought enveloped in B the same 'full-fledged" thought as in C (i.e. involving time, duality, incoherence, hypnosis, concentration, egotism, etc.) or is it DIFFERENT?

If it's DIFFERENT, how does the "change" happen in B? But if it's the SAME, how could B hold C and not be itself of time?

"Enveloping C in B" would mean that the Unknown can understand the meaning of the Known and REMAIN the Unknown..

But can thought REALLY survive the Unknown, the Present, the Reality?