Let’s go all the way

You know how when things get started and it’s amazing and it carries on and it is even more amazing and you’re thinking ‘keep going’ and then suddenly it stops and you’re a bit, ‘…???’

You know that?

That’s what we’re talking about today.

And we’re talking about it in relation to thought, free will and reality.

Ah. Sorry. 

If you’re still with me … here’s the thing:  once we get started looking into the nature of thought and what it means about who we are, we can’t stop until we go right on through the whole lot.

Right through to the cuddle and the tv back on so to speak.

(OK enough with this analogy. I only used it, like any tabloid, to get your attention and I’ve lost most of you anyway by now…)

Let’s see what’s going on.

One of the central tenants of the inside-out understanding is that we live in a reality created out of thought. That any time we feel angry or sad or happy it is because of thought. Not to do with anything or anyone else. 100% thought in the moment.

Seeing this for the first time is transformational. We have an insight along the lines of ‘so it is not my neighbour making me angry it is my thinking’.

And this is a break-through because up until then there was no middle man. It was simply the neighbour being a pain and me being annoyed. Now there is a space. There is realisation.

It is not my neighbour. It is my thoughts about my neighbour.

Thoughts about.

And some people stop there in a world in which it looks like there is a me and a neighbour and I have thinking about this neighbour and as a result of my thinking I feel good or bad.

And here it looks like we can cultivate a clearer state of mind to have better, more useful, more intelligent thinking that will allow us to have better rapport with or say the right thing to this neighbour of ours (or client, child, partner, parent, boss, colleague whatever).

But the thing is it makes no sense to stop there with this ‘about’ word.

Because if reality is created out of thought then my entire experience of the neighbour must be created out of thought.

So it is not possible that there is an objectively real neighbour that I have thinking about. It is that my thoughts in the moment create the neighbour. He or she does not exist for me other than through thought experienced. There is no neighbour to have thinking about. The neighbour does not exist in the way they appear to outside of the thinking.

This is perhaps a bit harder to see because it seems so out of line with the reality it seems we encounter with our eyes, ears, touch, smell, taste (speaking in general here. But if that is how you encounter the neighbour you will encounter no judgement here…)

But when we do see it, it is another breakthrough. ‘Wow. The whole experience of this neighbour is created out of thought. The whole existence of neighbour is created by me, the perceiver. I am bringing him or her into this particular existence in this moment out of the thoughts I am believing.’

From this it becomes clear that there is no neighbour in the way they appear, there are no clients, there are no children, there is no partner in this specific apparition outside of thought.

This is enormous. It means that we see more clearly that reality is a projection. What is noticed, what is considered significant or irrelevant, the implications, even the meaning of the word ‘neighbour’ changes. All of that depends on the perceiver’s beliefs and thoughts from moment to moment.

And we might stop there. There is a me creating a neighbour. And here it looks like somehow I am responsible for this neighbour I experience. It is an uncomfortable reality. There is a great deal of suffering in it. (And we could replace neighbour with debt, rejection, divorce, ill health… same thing.)

So I desperately try to change the projection, see through it or see it differently. It all looks like it is on my shoulders. It looks like it is my fault that reality is appearing this way. That I have to change my thoughts and beliefs and then I will be OK.

But the thing is it makes no sense to stop with the ‘me creating’ phrase. There is no creation happening by 'me'. There are thoughts which appear out of the blue, from who knows where. These thoughts are believed or not believed - again, who knows why and how? And out of these who-knows-why-they-are-believed thoughts appearing out of who-knows-where, an apparent neighbour appears.

There is no intention in any of this. I am not using free will. If I were able to control the reality that my thoughts created around me, believe me there would be some changes made. I cannot control my thoughts, therefore I cannot control these decisions which seem to be based on thoughts. Impossible that any of this is anything to do with me.

So this leaves us with the impersonal nature of thought and the absence of control or ability to cause or effect. Thought appearing and disappearing and as a result of that I have an experience. There is a me experiencing a randomly appearing reality.

And this is a breakthrough. It takes away all that self blame that started to seep in the moment it was clear that thinking was involved. I am not controlling the thinking in any way.

I am having an experience of a neighbour. No one is creating that experience. 

But the thing is… it makes no sense to stop with the ‘I’ word.

Because once it is seen that the entire experience of everything is a creation, we see that the same must be true of the entire experience of who we are. Just as the neighbour is a projection of thought and belief and conditioning, so is the ‘I’ that appears to be projecting and then perceiving the neighbour.

Both the me and the neighbour are creations.

And the big question then is: if ‘I’ am only ever a creation then who or what is perceiving this ‘I’ and this neighbour?

Indeed.

What is this space in which an ‘I’ arises and a ‘neighbour’ arises? 

Who are we really behind this thought-created idea of a personal ‘I’ and this thought-created idea of a separate entity called ‘neighbour’.

It makes no sense to stop until this question is the only question. 

Once the mind start to explore the nature of thought, experience and reality this is the only place it can arrive.

Who or what are we really?

Looking into the ultimate mystery with the only guide being what is known to be true in the depths of our existence and from the bottom of our heart.

What is known in this space in which all idea of individual controlling selves has disappeared, in which there is no longer any possibility of a me and a neighbour?

What is known? What is now experienced? 

Mind-blown love, unrelated to the vagaries of thought, not tied to any objects of love or desire.

Breath-taking intelligence, miraculous and way beyond.

Unbounded joy, unprompted and uncaused.

Entirety, we know ourselves to be everything, all of it.

Freedom, there is nowhere where we end and something else begins. Limits cannot exist.

Let's go all the way with this, my friends.