Some thoughts on spontaneity

Everything is mind (or consciousness, if you prefer) This is not to say that the world, or things, are not real. Just that they are aspects of consciousness. For example, you donʼt know me. You know your version of me which exists as an aspect of your mind. We can only know mind, our organ of perception. So I teach just remind yourself “I am here. This is now” this is all we ever really have as humans, regardless of what we remember (past) or project (future). In this conversation mind, consciousness, awareness all refer to the same thing. The one constant. This is a sloppy use of language but we donʼt have a good and accurate language to talk about such things. Words cannot capture it.

This means all of your regret, anger, guilt, envy and a host of other feelings are never present. They exist only in your mind. Just so, all of your desire for, fear of, etc are never present. They exist only in your mind. An example: once, driving on a curving mountain road, I came around a blind curve to see another vehicle moving toward me head-on at high speed. I reacted immediately to get out of the line of fire in the only way open to me. I noticed afterward that I wasnʼt afraid at the moment it occurred, but only a bit later when I was trembling, experiencing all the effects of a rush of adrenaline. I named it fear but really it was only a set of physical symptoms and my interpretation of what had just happened or my thoughts of what might have happened.

if you are looking for something--an answer, an experience, a certainty, etc.--you will find all kinds of somethings. We may have any number of apparently miraculous, mystical experiences. Donʼt hold on to them and donʼt go looking for them again. Looking only works on the assumption that what is looked for is not here/now. Since mind/awareness is always here now, you stop yourself from recognizing or noticing it by looking. Give up the search. We can simply appreciate world, life, experience without any particular type of responding, without even naming. Just I am here, this is now. The “not responding in particular ways” experience occurs naturally when we are detached, not invested in particular outcomes or happenings, not invested in particular ideas or beliefs about ourselves, others, the world. It is in this condition of detachment that spontaneity occurs.

Meditation, i.e., allowing the mind to still, reveals, ultimately, if we are patient, that thoughts are the mind, and the mind is the thoughts. Thoughts follow one another and provide the illusion of time passing, a past and future. It is very convincing when the thoughts are speeding by. But every thought is just ITSELF NOW. It will be further revealed that thoughts and things are interchangeable. They live in a constant dance all within the same environment or field of activity. And that field is mind. Edgar Cayce said “Thoughts are things”. And it is true. So is the obverse “things are thoughts”. They are simply different expressions of the same energy or activity. This is not to say that the “things”, that make up the apparently objective universe, are not real. It is simply to say that they are mind activity, or mind stuff if you prefer.

Imagine if you can your “self” with no history and no idea of a future. Who are you?

Perhaps more easily, imagine the present moment with no history and no future. Just this. Here now. The past and future exist only in your mind. Neither is ever here now. Just this present moment. Your personal past and future exist only in your mind. They are never here now. We act as if they are here/now by remembering and projecting and letting the memories and projections rule our experience and our ideas of who we are. The memories and projections are so habitual and familiar, and we have given them so much power, identified with them so intensely, that we take them for reality.

Take a couple of steps back from these exercises and sneak up on them this way:
We take our memories to be accurate representations of actual occurrences but there is a ample evidence that our memories are typically inaccurate or partial and frequently simply false. We choose what we remember; we create what we remember. It is perhaps easier to see that we do this with our projections into the future, our predictions about how we will be, how others will be, what will happen and what will not. But we hold on to many such expectations with great confidence believing we have powerful evidence that they are so. And thus, the fulfillment of those expectations is what we perceive and experience regardless of what my actually be occurring. In such a condition of expectation, we actually have no way of knowing what has actually occurred. Our tendency is to then take that experience as we perceive it and use it as further evidence that our ideas and beliefs are true. To emphasize, our expectations powerfully influence our perceptions. Our experience is based on our perceptions, made up of our perceptions. OUR EXPERIENCE IS MADE UP OF OUR PERCEPTIONS, and, of course, the meanings we assign to them. Our experience is NOT based on independently occurring, real happenings outside of ourselves. All of our experience is mind experience. For example, our interpretation of someone elseʼs behavior and intent is based on our expectations and beliefs, NOT on the other personʼs actual behavior and intent. The fact that our expectations and the other personʼs behavior and intent may sometimes coincide does not change what actually occurs.

In a very real sense, we think ourselves and our world of experience into being. We have much more influence over our experience than we typically acknowledge. Consider: If we habitually respond in a particular way to a person or situation, say we get irritated. But if we slow down our thinking process (that is, we still the mind) and pay attention, it becomes quite noticeable that our interpretation and response, our irritation, is of our own making. We project an idea/expectation/belief onto the person or situation and that is what we then perceive and respond to. We perceive our own idea/expectation/belief, not something independently real happening outside ourselves.

This realization is central to the process of awakening. Spontaneity is instantaneous. It is the instant, outside of time. There is no before and after, no past or future. This is the definition of complete detachment. No ideas, beliefs, expectations, projections. And clearly no wants or aversions. Just this. It is memories and projections and all of their attendants that create the sensation of continuous instants, the passage of time. Spontaneity is discontinuous, not connected to anything else. Just this. Always new. Genuine knowing only occurs spontaneously. It feels as if it is given or received or simply present. It is not thought up or remembered, not figured out or learned. Thus, frequently enough, it is attributed to spirit as divine inspiration, or God in me, or God or spirit acting through me. It simply is.

So realization occurs to the degree that attachments disappear. Genuine knowing and spontaneity occur only when attachments disappear.

It is also memories and projections and all their attendants that create the sensation of a relatively stable identity. It is valuable to try the exercises I have described, perhaps many times. It is a type of mind activity that may stun the mind into stillness. Without your attachments, who are you?

Discussion:

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