Awake: Chapter 12 Notes
The first is: “I am separate from everything and everyone else.
But this is our experience.
Even if it's a false experience brought on by our stories it's still a real experience.
The second view is: “There is a big problem to solve
Sort of, more accurate would be: There is something that has to happen for me to be happy.
It is our relationship with thoughts that is the core issue.
TRUTH
were there a lot of thoughts or few thoughts?
Objection, leading question.
We know what the answer is supposed to be, but you just said the problem isn't the thoughts, it's our relationship with the thoughts. (I know you said it because I highlighted it as TRUTH.)
For comparison, you can listen to the sounds in your environment and look at the colors and forms in your surroundings. In this way, you can compare the “flavor” of actual sensory experience with that of reflected (thought-based) sensory experience.
Highlighted without note.
“Morality is not properly the doctrine of how we may make ourselves happy, but how we may make ourselves worthy of happiness.”
I don't think morality has anything to do with happiness. Morality is about how we interact with the world.
Also, I'm not very impressed with Kant.
made up of auditory and visual thought-stuff
…It's made up of symbols.
The A/V stuff is all symbols.
Whoever built this prison
Anthro again, no one built the prison. There is no intent behind it.
the more identified we get with the thought stream
Highlighted without note.
Can you write it down in words? If you can, then it’s a thought.
Useful.
Universe simply wants to be seen as what it is
Anthro. It just is. It doesn't want anything.
When a thought is recognized as what it is, we are honoring its nature, and thus its presence becomes a gateway to our immediate and direct experience.
Puke now or later? Why not both?
We are powerfully imprisoned in these Dark Ages simply by the terms in which we have been conditioned to think.
— Buckminster Fuller
Good quote, I didn't highlight while reading though.
Everything just wants to be experienced as what it is.
No, and all this anthro is wrong and a very bad habit. It's just another story that traps us. The universe doesn't want anything. It just IS. It doesn't do anything, and yet “nothing is left undone”. There's no intent behind it.
“Nothing is left undone” is the Tao Te Ching.
It’s more like a relaxed but alert interest
Highlighted without note.
Curiousity? Ooh, what's this? How interesting…
Sure, it was a silly thing to do, and I might not have done it sober, nor will I likely repeat it, but it gave people a laugh (including me) so what’s the big deal?
This is just countering a story with another story. Drop all the stories.
Seriously, when you see the story that makes you uncomfortable see that it's a story and, exactly like the thoughts that pop up during meditation, let it go. “Hi story, welcome to the party, there's some chips and drinks in the kitchen, you have a good time.” Don't go with it though, just say “hi” and then let it be.
“Welcome to the party” is Jeff something, he's a friend of Dan Harris.
begin by asking
“Don't ask anything, just relax and let it be. This undermines both stories by not engaging them.
“Both” is the original story and the counter story that Angelo's recommending. No stories.
that it is perfectly welcome
Welcome to the party!
This is a term Jeff Warren uses and that I learned from Dan Harris.