Heloisa to Piet and Rod
Piet and Rod
Piet, you
described the third
shift as a switch from appearance to timeless presence. A presence devoid of any veils that
obstruct our awareness that this presence
had been there all along, presenting the magic appearance of everything
else. Can
one also say that this timeless presence includes all other states,
even our
illusions associated to our linear sense of time? Can one say that it
includes
all states of consciousness, even the most common one? I guess even our
illusions are present when we are totally aware of timeless presence,
but we no
longer identify with it. Actually, there is no longer a self that
identifies
with something outside itself, for we have the direct knowledge of
being one
with everything there is.
How can we
remove the blocks and
constraints that keep us from making that third shift in an effortless
way??
How can we let ourselves know something we knew all along but did not
know we
knew?? Of course, trying to make it happen will remove us further from
it,
such, as you said, trying to fall in love with someone. You mentioned
in the
working hypothesis, that we can tell ourselves that we already made
that shift.
During that “make believe”, we can be in silence pretending we are
listening to
a timeless presence.
In this
attempt, however, we are
frequently faced with thoughts and feelings that we identify with and
that
remove us from our pursuit. Rod, you used the Vipassana framework to
describe
how we can initially step back from ourselves and observe all passing
thoughts,
images and feelings to later realize that past memories and
anticipations of
the future are nothing but passing phenomena. I personally find this is
extremely helpful, when we attempt to stop ourselves from identifying
with our
illusions of a limited self. One can use that approach as a way to go
beyond
the games we play in our linear and limited sense of time. Piet, how do
you see
this?
Heloisa