Almost all of us live with a sense of separation from other people and the world around us. This “bad dream” of a life is nothing more than the artificially conditioned and continually reinforced sleight-of-hand of our own consciousness.
Our. Own. Consciousness.
“See Above.”
You may have heard it said: “Know the truth, and the truth will make you free.”
The truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth is shown in the graphic above. How do you know the truth of your own fulfilled consciousness, Living Unbound? You must experience it. This is exactly what Living Unbound is here to do: to provide you with the tools which empower you to experience fulfilled consciousness; to experience the literal freedom beyond imagination which is the experiencing of Living Unbound. Living Unbound from what, exactly? Living Unbound from the artificial conceptual divisions within which almost all of us dream our lives away, believing that we’re a fragment, rather than unbound awareness.
Original awareness is a single field; every division in it is artificial, conceptual and/or perceptual. These conceptual distinctions can be useful as a conscious, creative tools for communication. However, while these distinctions can make great servants, they make truly terrible masters.
Limited, thinking-mind cannot understand the reality of our true nature as unbound awareness; it isn’t equipped or qualified to do so. Thinking mind is a cutting instrument; it discriminates, it distinguishes; it divides. There is only experiencing of wholeness of awareness; concepts have no place in the actuality of our true nature.
It’s not that sense of self, and thoughts, and physical experience disappear in Living Unbound. In Living Unbound the concepts are simply no longer artificially and disproportionately focused upon any longer; they become a window, and no longer a wall. Natural harmony is restored, and Living Unbound is enjoyed in reality.
Our mind, through years of conditioning, has defined what it thinks is needed for us to be happy. We then define who we think we are with these thoughts. The mind works hard at keeping up its images, based on who it has been conditioned to think it is, and it becomes very unhappy when these images are threatened.
We’re not talking about the basic, linear type of thinking that adds and subtracts and remembers grocery lists and birthdays. We’re talking about the mind that piles labels and stories on top of simple actuality: “If I don’t solve this algebra problem, I will fail my math test, and then I won’t get into any college; I’ll never get a job, and I’ll be a failure!”
Conditioning has us believe we cannot function without the mind. Guess who came up with that story? However, many of us have experienced driving to work, getting into our car and reaching the office, suddenly realizing we drove all the way without once thinking about the drive. We took left and right turns, stopped at stop signs and traffic lights, changed lanes, slowed down, sped up; yet we don’t consciously remember doing any of this.
The mind would like to think it runs our lives and has us convinced we cannot do anything beyond the boundaries of what its conditioning has defined for us. However, somehow we managed to get where we were going without the mind’s running commentary on our driving; though chances are good that our driving was on automatic because we were listening to mind’s commentary on other matters.
Similarly, we do manage to eat and breath and walk and sleep without the mind saying: “Okay, now take a bite, now chew, now breath in, now breath out now move the muscles to move your right leg, make sure the left arm moves with that”, and so on. Yet, thinking mind has us convinced that a thinking-based world is reality.
Separating emotions from mental labels:
The first thing we’ll begin to do, is to separate an emotion from the label that conditioned mind attaches to a situation. This is literally the key to discerning the real from the unreal, as you will soon experience for yourself.
We associate many thoughts and words with emotions arising. In fact, most emotions wouldn’t arise, and couldn’t persist for more than a moment or two, without conditioned thinking artificially preserving them. We generally don’t separate the emotional from thinking-mind’s evaluation about the situation, and so, we confuse the conditioned label with reality. For instance, we might say “I feel like a failure”.
Failure is not a feeling, failure is a concept. Conditioned mind has defined what it thinks success is, and when actual circumstances don’t fit into that definition, it applies a label: “failure”.
The first thing to do in order to become more conscious of all this, is to separate the emotion from the mind’s evaluation, and the evaluation from what is actually happening. This is very simple, and can actually become automatic before very long.
First, identify the emotion you’re feeling.
So, we can rephrase that statement to “I feel angry /sad/afraid/ashamed/disheartened because I am not making as much money as I think I should be making.“
I feel angry/sad/ashamed = Emotion
Amount of money = Reality
Not enough = Label(Someone working in Wall Street may feel like a failure because she earns only $1 million per year, but feels she should make $10 million, like the truly successful people do. Many of the rest of us feel we should make a few thousand more than we do, and hence like a failure, and so, the label “not enough” is relative.)
Similarly, “I feel misunderstood“.
Misunderstood is an evaluation; a label. This is an example of the mind deciding what level of understanding another person has of us, based on what we think constitutes “being understood”, and how this concept matches up with what conditioned thinking thinks should be taking place.
So a better way to say this would be, “I feel sad/annoyed/anxious because I feel people don’t understand what I am trying to say”.
I feel sad/annoyed = Emotion
What I say= Reality
People don’t understand= Label(What people understand and don’t is relative. The ways in which we are expecting them to understand us is relative. Both are based on conditioned thinking; our conceptual thinking, based on our lifetime of conditioning, and their conceptual thinking, based on their lifetime of conditioning.)
And so, as we go about our day, we will consciously try to separate and identify the emotion from the label the mind attaches to the situation. Doing this, we’ll soon notice our emotional reaction is virtually never, ever about what is actually taking place; our emotional reaction is always a reaction to the label that conditioned thinking has used to filter the actual circumstance.
Right from the moment we wake up our emotions are determined by the thinking-mind labeling how it thinks the day is going to be, based on its conditioned memories and imagination. Thinking mind identifies the emotion that we have associated with what we think the day is going to be like: sad/happy/eager/excited/bored, and continues identifying the various emotions and labels experienced during the day, without ever being conscious of the fact that it is not reacting to actual circumstances but to its own labels.
I feel sad/angry/bored, etc.= Emotion
The events of the day= Reality
How I think the day is going to go= Label
If possible write them down; every time you feel an emotional reaction, note the emotion, the actuality and the label that caused the emotion. The mind has a way of distorting things when it thinks we understand its tricks, and so, writing down the reaction, the actual circumstance and the label that caused the emotional reaction is a very powerful technique for liberating ourself from the tyranny of conditioned thinking.
So this is our first step. Separate the emotion from the label, and the label from the actual circumstance.
How important is this?
It’s fundamental. The distance between where you think you are now, and Living Unbound, is measured almost entirely by emotional reactions to conditioned labels. Thinking is a useful tool, but it makes a truly terrible master. This simple technique will help restore the natural order of reality; the simple harmony of living in actuality.
As part of the overall process of Living Unbound, we will be discussing ways to help create the flow of natural harmony in our lives. One of the cornerstones of this process is to bring some stillness into our lives by bringing our attention inward.
Natural balance; Living Unbound, involves a balance, and an even flow of awareness between our inner world, consciousness, and awareness of all the external aspects and activities of life. This may be a foreign concept for many of us, when we’re first exposed to it.
We’ve spent, and spend, nearly every waking moment of our lives focused on various aspects of the world outside of us, or on the many thoughts and feelings happening in us. Even our own thoughts and feelings are almost always externally focused on various aspects of the world outside of us, including our own place and involvement in it (“Should I have said that?”; “Maybe it’s time to look for another job.”, “I need to remember to …”, and so on).
Now, it’s time to bring some awareness back into our self. One way to do this is meditation, or, if you prefer “sitting in silence”.
In our experience, the cultivation of a bit of stillness in our lives has been the best way to go. Even a few minutes of sitting in silence each day, every day, has a very positive effect on our lives. Much like physical exercise, even short session of exercise done every day, can positively impact almost everything else in our life. When you are more balanced and centered, and feeling better, on the inside … you’ll find that life and the world seem more balanced and centered; and it all feels better.
A little stillness goes a long way, and is much more powerful than it may seem, initially. In fact, consciously experiencing stillness is one of the foundational keys to Living Unbound; it is also easier, and much more natural, than it might seem when staring out.
There are many different ways to cultivate stillness. We are not here to teach any new techniques in this area, per se. Good, highly-effective ways to cultivate stillness have been around for thousands of years, and have always been part of every culture, in one way or another. We’re not here to re-invent the wheel, but rather, we’re here to help you find and use the “wheels” that best fit you, and to help you take it from there.
One technique that has consistently and repeatedly proven itself, has been “deep meditation”, as described in the lessons of Advanced Yoga Practices .
It is a process in which we sit comfortably, close our eyes, and silently (mentally) intone the mantra “i am” in our mind for 20 minutes, twice a day. If for any reason “i am” doesn’t feel right to you, you can intone “ayam”; it is actually about the sound, or vibration of those syllables together, not about the meaning of the words.
Please read the lesson posted by Yogani (the founder of Advanced Yoga Practices, or AYP, as it is more commonly known), on the AYP Site: Lesson 13 – Meditation — Awakening the Silent Seed (The technique below is quoted from that lesson, but please do read the entire lesson here):
Find a quiet, comfortable place where you can sit, preferably with back support. We want to remove unnecessary distractions. Just sit and relax somewhere where you can close your eyes for twenty minutes without interruptions.
Once you have gotten comfortable, slowly close your eyes. You will notice thoughts, streams of thoughts. That is fine. Just observe them without minding them. After about a minute, gently introduce the thought …I AM… and begin to repeat it easily and effortlessly in your mind. If your mind wanders off into other thoughts, you will eventually realize this has happened. Don’t be concerned about it. It is natural. When you realize you are not repeating the mantra, gently go back to it. This is all you have to do. Easily repeat the mantra silently inside. When you realize you are not thinking it, then easily come back to it. The goal is not to stay on it. The goal is to follow the simple procedure of thinking the mantra, losing it, and coming back to it when you find you have lost it. Do not resist if the mantra tends to become less distinct. Thinking the mantra does not have to be with clear pronunciation. I AM can be experienced at many levels in your mind and nervous system. When you come back to it, come back to a level that is comfortable, not straining for either a clear or fuzzy pronunciation.
Do this procedure for twenty minutes, and, then, with your eyes closed, take a few minutes to rest before you get up.
We just simply repeat the mantra, not focusing on the meaning, the speed, or the clarity of the words. When we realize we are off the mantra we slowly bring our awareness back to the mantra.
This is a very simple technique and an extremely effective way to use 40 minutes of our day (2 sessions of 20 minutes, each) to get in touch with our inner world; our true self. The remaining 1400 minutes of the day we can focus our attention to the world outside of us. This is in fact recommended.
“Do what you want, and meditate”, as respected spiritual teacher Swami Lakshmanjoo has said.
Other than the 20 minutes, twice each day, spent in meditation, spend the rest of your time living your life.
The most common problem most of us have is to find time to do this. Well, first thing in the morning, even before you get out of bed, just prop yourself up against some pillows and spend 10 to 20 minutes sitting silently, repeating the words “i am”.
If 20 minutes sounds like a lot, start off with 10 minutes, twice a day, but please: make sure you do it every day. Just as with physical exercise: to experience the benefits of this practice, we need to make it a part our daily life … like brushing our teeth. We don’t put too much thought into brushing our teeth, we just do it, and most of us wouldn’t let ourselves miss it, for even a full day. Similarly, we can develop the habit of sitting in silence for 10-20 minutes, twice a day; cultivating silence by using the above procedure, as part of our daily routine, every single day.
Don’t expect to experience silence during the 20 minutes that you’re doing the practice (although, that will happen, in increasing amounts, as you continue with this practice). The 20 minutes is really the process for “cooking” silence: you get to enjoy the food (silence) after the cooking.
There’s a reason to sit in silence every day, twice being ideal; there’s a cumulative effect, just as with exercise. When you get into a regular exercise routine … you don’t experience the benefits of exercising while you’re exercising, but during the rest of your day. Similarly, you’ll experience the benefits of silence in your daily life during the remainder of your day, rather than during the short time you’re sitting in silence.
Living Unbound is the natural state of all life. And all life, all dynamics of life, are cyclic.
As long as cycles are allowed to move naturally, there is living in harmony; there is Living Unbound. However, when cycles are interrupted, there is disharmony, and this disharmony leads to all kinds of afflictions and diseases. Personally and individually, non-natural cycles are reflected in depression, addiction, physical diseases of various types, and so on. Socially, whether in families, friendships, love relationships, or even nations, non-natural cycles can produce everything from unhealthy relationships, to broken families, to social unrest, to war, to economic collapse, along with a vast variety of other situations, which cause unspeakable levels and amounts of pain.
When Living is Unbound, when the natural cycles of the dynamics of living are allowed to flow naturally, there is harmony in our lives; the experience of Living Unbound. Restoring this harmony is what Living Unbound is here to do. We’re sharing teachings, techniques and resources that will help bring harmony back into our lives, so that living is unbound; so that the experience of living is restored to its natural, harmonious flow.
And so, as mentioned above: all dynamics of life are cyclic.
A simple example we’re all familiar with is sleep. Specifically the cycle: sleep, waking, sleep. When there is the right amount of sleep and waking in our lives, there is harmony. But if we sleep too much or too little, there is disharmony, which will result in depression, fatigue, lack of focus, anxiety, mood swings, and so on. If someone experiences extreme disruption in their sleep cycles, after a few days, hallucinations and other disorientation begins, followed by insanity, and eventually, death.
Then there is the cycle of food intake (ingestion), processing the ingested food (digestion) and elimination of the waste; the cycles of physical activity and inactivity (exercise and rest); the cycles of giving and receiving, and so on.
Similarly there is a cycle of living and activity in the external world, and of bringing ourselves, our awareness, back inward, into our internal world. Especially in so-called modern society, many of us run around frenetically in the world outside, and put almost all our focus on the world outside; on all that activity. For those of us who’ve lived even a few decades, we’ve seen a noticeable increase in activity, in the pace of our lives and the world around us, even in our own lifetimes. We focus all our attention outward, and look for all our happiness outward, but can never seem to be satisfied. Even our own thoughts and feelings tend to be oriented outward: errands, work, relationships, family, the economy, specific conversations, strategies for getting what we want, strategies for avoiding what we fear. And not surprisingly, for so many of us, even with all that strategizing, there is still so much disharmony in our lives.
As we put attention outward, we also need to put attention inward. In order to experience harmony in our lives, we need to allow for the natural flowing of attention to both our world outside, and our world inside. When we breathe out, before too long at all, we tend to breathe in. When our heart beats, it contracts, and before too long at all, it expands.
Yet, we don’t tend to recognize the importance of an essentially identical cycle, an identical flow, with respect to activity and rest; the natural flow of our attention, our perception, our awareness, inward and outward.
All of us sleep regularly, even if not well, yet most of us don’t experience the natural benefits of being well-rested; the peace of mind which is part of the natural condition of living unbound. And so, how can we create this balance, between the outside world and the activities of life, and our internal world?
That’s what certain Living Techniques are for; they’ve been utilized and proven effective, for thousands of years, all over the world. They’re simple, they’re easy, and not only can they change our quality of life; they will. Just as a balanced cycle of diet, exercise and sleep can make the difference between life and death, learning to allow the natural cycle of the inward and outward flow of our awareness can make the difference between a stress-filled life, and living our lives in harmony; Living Unbound.
