October 8th

The dream self is a virtual reality       

The dream self is like a conceptual overlay placed on reality.  Thought interprets reality through concepts, most of which act to confirm the central me concept.  "I" exist only in relation to the "other" thing, person, event, etc.

The dream self is a conditioned existence.  In some computer games, participants wear stereoscopic goggles that produce images of a virtual reality.  Similarly, in the dream of self, conditioning creates a virtual reality that says:  "This is a chair" or "My husband should listen more."  These are thought-based interpretations of reality based on memory.  The dream self is essentially the past coming to meet the reality of now.

When the past (memory) meets the present, life feels dead.  Thought gives the false impression that you can know life by labeling and judging it.  But life is not conceptual.  It is an actuality.  The depth and miracle of life is veiled when life is lived only through the goggles of the dream self, the playing of one mental image after another.

Liberation is like taking the goggles off.  It is seeing reality the way it is, including the thoughts that are arising.  Life is not conceptual.  When this is seen, what is left is a love of reality.  This love is not dependent on thought.  For example, your love for your husband has nothing to do with whether he does what you "think" he should do.  This is unconditional love.

Michael Brown

From PART V: 2. 

(Continuation...)

Being able to learn the art of facilitating ourselves is one of the opportunities offered by our experiential journey through The Presence Process. Then, when we are brave enough, we can ask our Inner Presence to manifest an outer facilitator to reflect what we cannot yet bear to perceive about ourselves. When we are blessed with the company of a being like this, and when we overcome the ordeal of them showing us our fear, only then may we consider taking on the task of being an authentic facilitator for another.     

Chapter 86

The Unknown is the Home of the Real

Q: How does one attend to the unconscious?

M: Keep the 'I am' in the focus of awareness, remember that you are, watch yourself ceaselessly and the unconscious will flow into the conscious without any special effort on your part.  

Wrong desires and fears, false ideas, social inhibitions are blocking and preventing its free interplay with the conscious.  

Once free to mingle, the two become one and the one becomes all.  

The person merges into the witness, the witness into awareness, awareness into pure being, yet identity is not lost, only its limitations are lost.  

It is transfigured, and becomes the real Self, the sadguru, the eternal friend and guide. You cannot approach it in worship.  

No external activity can reach the inner self; worship and prayers remain on the surface only; to go deeper meditation is essential, the striving to go beyond the states of sleep, dream and waking.  

In the beginning the attempts are irregular, then they recur more often, become regular, then continuous and intense, until all obstacles are conquered.

Michael Brown:  "Being able to learn the art of facilitating ourselves is one of the opportunities offered by our experiential journey through The Presence Process."

Jordan:  This is true.    

+++++

Nisargadatta:  Keep the 'I am' in the focus of awareness, remember that you are, watch yourself ceaselessly and the unconscious will flow into the conscious without any special effort on your part.

Jordan:  Gotta be mindful of this one...for the rest of your/my apparent life.   I've been doing this, as best I can, for a few years now and I would say I am much less reactive.  Of course, I'm getting older which probably also helps.