Showing posts with label friends. Show all posts
Showing posts with label friends. Show all posts

Tuesday, January 5, 2010

Emotion Is the Mind Seeking Time and Separation ~ Katie Davis, Author, "Awake Joy"



The human being is in constant search for stable happiness, whether one is conscious of the fact or not.

This search is often objective in that most still believe that their happiness depends on other people, life circumstances, professions, possessions or some other.

When the ego gets what it wants, it is relatively happier. For just one moment, it senses the illusion of completion and it finally rests free of desire. Yet, true fulfillment is not a possibility for a fraction. For the ego, completion is a delusion, since partiality can never be whole.

For the mind-made self, happiness soon wanes. Sooner or later, discontentment in the form of desire once again arises, since it still senses lack and the life situation within time is in constant change.

Further, the ego senses that it is separate from "those" people and its life circumstances. It is therefore under constant threat of loss or hoping for future gain. Most every moment is used as a means to some ego end.

When the ego does not get what it wants, it judges the situation and then blames someone else. The result is usually disappointment from false expectations or personal intention. My will vs. your will consistently ends in pain and suffering for all involved. Once again, we have the delusion of separation and its inherent opposition.

Of course, stable unhappiness is just as impossible as enduring relative happiness, since within time the life situation changes. When our happiness depends on other situations, our emotions fluctuate and follow our judgment.

Virtually everything within the world of form comes and goes. Everything is impermanent. When we seek permanence within impermanence, we suffer; whether we are seeking pleasure or trying to avoid pain.

Again, the life situation is in constant flux. Happiness will surely cycle to unhappiness and after certain duration, we will cycle to happiness. Furthermore, both polarities are dependent upon something or someone externally. In this manner, we are subject to the unending push and pull of ever changing emotions.

With certain maturity, we at last begin taking responsibility for our emotions. Our attention shifts to what is genuinely going on within us. When we watch carefully, we note that it is actually our judgment of people and situations that is causing our emotional changes.

That judgment is based on past experience and our conditioned likes and dislikes. In other words, the negativity is based on time and the suffering is actually self-inflicted. For the ego, everything would be alright, if only everyone else would just change.

This is an opportunity to be gentle and allow compassion, love and deeper understanding through watching our thoughts and how they are directly related to our emotions.

Unfortunately, the ego is more likely to cast its judgment and guilt upon itself. In resistance, it tries to change its thoughts into better ones in the hope that happiness will improve somewhat. For the ego "I," love and joy are always in the future, however never possible right now.

Even with positive thinking, within time everything changes. Nonetheless, this self-improvement project is actually quite important, since it is finally exhausted! Patience and tolerance emerge and we begin realizing that the emotional highs and lows are actually one continuum and only time separates them. In this, we begin waking up out of time.

Resistance transforms into surrender and acceptance as we begin allowing what is. The joy of being consciously emerges and spiritual awakening may be drawing near.

Every positive and negative emotion is based on the mind's idea of time and separation. By merely noticing, you will realize that all emotion is the result of memory, imagination and anticipation. All are factors of the time-based mind, that still believes that its identity is separate and exists within the mind's time.

It is not that we are attempting to avoid emotion or escape. That would be the mind's resistance and fear. In fact, by welcoming them, feeling them fully, observing how they operate in relationship to the mind that we are able to transcend psychological pain. You might in fact perceive that most of the suffering is within the resistance and in your imagination of how deep that emptiness might be. When we inquire into the depth of these emotions, it is the birthing of true compassion. It is also the realization of what lies beneath.

Of course, you are always welcome to continue surfing the waves of emotion, while the mind assists the spin or ... rest as the abode of wise love. 

The resolution is to realize the perfection that you are genuinely right now. You are completely beyond the mind and its emotional aspect; human emotion.

Unconditional love and pure joy are here right now and they are absolutely indestructible. They are dependent on nothing and caused by nothing. It is essentially who you timelessly are. The extraordinary opportunity is to realize what is already deep within, without trying to change a single thing.

You are the silence of the Heart that makes all things possible. This realization is complete fulfillment and effortlessly transforms the life situation. Rather, we are able to directly realize what truly is right now. You are inseparable from the Heart this very moment.

There is nothing wrong with you.

~ The question is who are who really right now? ~


Free Advaita and awakening videos, free downloads of chapters, e-books and articles, free Friends of the Heart Newsletters and Katie Davis Satsang Schedule 





Tuesday, November 25, 2008

Resistance and Time ~ Katie Davis, Author, Awake Joy

Whenever we resist something, we suffer. Resistance is the ego judging the present moment. It always has its idea of what it would like life to be. When it is otherwise, it resists the form that the present moment is presently taking. Some may not realize that it is actually our own thinking that causes resistance and therefore causes our negative emotions. The ego believes that it is other people and circumstances that cause its emotions to change and it is not so. But don't take my word for it. Observe directly to see how the ego operates and generates or perpetuates negative emotion. When thinking is unobserved and we misidentify with its judgments, it is self-inflicted suffering.

When you are feeling unhappy, turn your attention to your thoughts and notice how they are using you. The intensity of your unhappiness will always depend upon the degree of resistance that you are having against what is. This just is not that wise. The present moment is already as it is. Can you accept it just as it is? Is it possible to actually love the mystery of the appearance and truly be free to welcome all that is appearing, free of judgment?

Since the ego needs time in order to function, it will always resist the now. The now is the space within which the present moment is appearing. The more you are able to be the Now rather than the personal reference point of the ego, the less you will suffer. You will suffer less since you have not misidentified the dreaming "I" and its wants and needs. Free of the misidentification, you are also free of all the ego's thinking that causes you to suffer.

Since the ego is always under some sense of threat, it will attempt to control and manipulate whatever is. Of course, that is impossible since it is. That control and manipulation only causes you and others to suffer. We create more pain which will soon become more pain of the past that will be stored in the body for release.

If you observe the ego, you will notice how it is constantly fixated on the past or future, which obscures the Now that is the source of all true happiness and peace. Whatever past pain that you perceive that you have, it will appear as present conditioning, which is why we do not need to heal the past. It will appear in the present moment as your reaction to the present moment. Likewise, the ego is always attempting to use the present moment to get something in the future. This creates anxiety, worry and other negative emotions. Those desires are also based on past conditioning.

If you are interested in creating no more pain for yourself and others, stand free of time and you will see that you do not accumulate more time and therefore more suffering. The present moment is virtually all that you have. Are you missing it? It is the only true representation of Life as it truly is and the only doorway to presence.

To ask questions or share, please click the Comment button below and Katie will reply. If you are reading this from another website, you will need to go to the original post at:

http://www.AwakebyKatie.blogspot.com

Katie's website with free awakening videos, free Friends of the Heart newsletters with articles on non-duality, Advaita, awakening and enlightenment, Katie's schedule and her book, Awake Joy: The Essence of Enlightenment, is at:

www.KatieDavis.org

Thursday, November 6, 2008

Friends of the Heart November Issue by Katie Davis, Author, Awake Joy



The new November issue of Friends of the Heart is now posted on the Katie Davis Website. To enjoy, please visit Friends of the Heart.




In This Issue:

"Holiday Presence" by Katie Davis, Author, Awake Joy

"Being Beyond Belief" by Sundance Burke, Author, Free Spirit

"Gratitude to Heart Friends" Sundance and Katie Travels

"Diamond of Joy" Free Video (5 min) by Katie Davis

Awake Joy and Free Spirit New Book Reviews

Heart of Life E-book by Katie Davis at Awake Books

Donations to the teachings at Friends of the Heart

Visit www.KatieDavis.org/FriendsoftheHeart.html

Friday, May 30, 2008

Friends of the Heart June Newsletter, Awakening, Enlightenment

The Friends of the Heart free monthly newsletter from Katie Davis, author of "Awake Joy: The Essence of Enlightenment" just posted.

This issue includes:

What is Advaita, Enlightenment and Non-duality? by Katie Davis, Author, "Awake Joy"

First Things First by Sundance Burke, Author, "Free Spirit"

The June Event Information: Maui, Hawaii

A Chicago Television Interview with Katie Davis on the "Never Not Here" Show

"Spot of Grace" Highlight, New Book by Dawna Markova

"Handbook for the Spirit" Summary, New Book by Marianne Williamson, Richard Carlson and Benjamin Shield

Seattle, Washington Satsang and Intensive, September 12-13 at East West Bookshop
Washington Satsang, Eastside Satsang, Northwest Satsang, Pacific Northwest Satsang

Portland, Oregon Satsang and Intensive, September 19-20 at New Renaissance Books
Portland Satsang

On the Katie Davis website, you may signup for the free monthly Friends of the Heart Newsletters and enjoy free videos on awakening, television and radio interviews.

Go to www.KatieDavis.org