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What are we following?
There is no spiritual path, there is only the dismantling of what we have… mantled

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How can I be egotistical when I often criticize myself?

Being egotistical does not mean having high esteem for oneself. Even the act of humbling oneself is an action of the ego as it lets go. It is possible to be highly egocentric and have very low self-esteem. In fact, hostility towards oneself, guilt, and shame are all selfish expressions of the ego; unforgiving grudges held against the self. Our opinions and judgements of others, both positive and negative, are egotistical. Our addictions to idols of substance, celebrity, and scripture are expressions of the ego. Our hostility towards ideas, integration, and idolatry are also expressions of the ego. Whenever we choose to cling or push away, this is an expression of the ego. The belief that we are separate; that we have a beginning and end; that there is a distinction between what we are and what we are not, this is egoic. It is this insanity that keeps us ignorant in a cycle of delusional suffering.
There is another way, by recognizing the still small voice within us in this moment, call it what you may, we can connect with a source of endless love, unbridled compassion, immeasurable joy, and a peace beyond all understanding. Know without an inkling of a doubt that we have always been forgiven for our desire to remain separate from our brothers and sisters and that we have always been and always will be welcomed in the heart of togetherness.
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Thought of love

Where there is no thought there is only love. Where there is no love there can only be thought.
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Why be calm?

If the Buddha were the moon we would be reflections in the water. When the water is calm, the reflection is pure. When the water is turbulent the reflection becomes unrecognizable. I wish you calm waters.
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How can we reconcile our beliefs with the differing beliefs of others?

The following I believe to be a teaching from my inner guru:
The ego rejects what it cannot observe or measure. As it is a mind whose very nature is so closely associated with the world, it is only natural that it too would be constrained to the limitations this world expresses. Many who live relatively happy and fulfilling lives never venture past this limitation, accepting only evidence presented that is manifested as observable phenomena and that which can be explained, measured, and repeated through process.
Do not judge your brothers and sisters who limit their perspective to only what the ego can validate. Each of you in this delusion of separateness will approach perception and understanding from a different viewpoint. This variation of view is an integral part of this world. It is neither something that needs to be fixed or overcome by the perceiver, it simply is as it is.
Those among you who have chosen to remain constrained to what they perceive as substantive fulfill a role among all others just as you fulfill a role in your experience. It is still possible to effectively demonstrate love, compassion, joy and peace in a boundless form. Remember this, individual incarnations of living form are of limited consequence. The real truth as you and all others will learn is beyond your individual experiences.
It is also important to respect the experience of those who have perceptions beyond the substantive that differ in explanation from yours. Remember this, your mind experiences this reality in a way that is unique to your individual egoic instance. Do not hold an attachment to how you believe true reality to be in this moment nor hold hostility to the views of others as you are made aware of them. You will do well to learn and grow as new truths are revealed to you and that which you previously believed falls away. A firm footing in that which lies beyond your understanding of this manifest world will serve you well as you learn, grow, and change moment by moment. Remember to breathe and quiet your thinking. I am always with you in this journey, continue to love with me, forgive yourself and all others, have fun, be generous, forthright, patient, joyfully enthusiastic, thoughtful, and reflective. There is nothing to fear and nothing to worry about. Enjoy.
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How do I stop thinking?

Before using our hands, we must clean them, we use soap and water for this. However, when our hands are covered in soap they are not yet clean, we must rinse it all off. We use one thing to remove other things and then we send it all away.
In meditation the thought of our breath is used to wash away other thoughts. When we reach a meditative state we can rinse away our thought of breath along with all the others. –Based on a teaching of Sri Swami Satchidananda.
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How do I cope with suffering in this world?

The following I believe to be a teaching from my inner guru:
Bring not contempt to this world. You may find pain in your heart compounded by fearful thoughts. There is a way that you can release these judgmental feelings of others without acting upon them or generating more fear-based thinking. Do not repress the emotion generated by these thoughts. Remain aware of your feelings while focusing on the breath and quieting the mind. Once the negative emotions have passed, you can work on empathy towards those that you feel contempt for. Try to understand their suffering, for no one here is without it. Forgive them for their mistakes and unskillfulness, for none of us in this world thinks and acts without error. See others as your brothers and sisters, understand that they suffer.
Also, forgive yourself for these feelings of contempt and judgment of others, for none of us is without unskillful and errant thinking. Forgiveness and compassion towards oneself will ease the expression of forgiveness and compassion towards others.
When you find it in yourself to forgive yourself and others and what they have created, you will have, at last, come to the place that we call home. In the farthest reaches of this world, love and compassion can be found. There is no place that exists without it. I tell you now that the creation of this world was not meant to cause undue suffering. There exists a desire and it was believed through the production of this world, that desire would be filled.
The truth is simple about the egoic mind. Your egoic instance will have the desire to acquire. Upon acquisition it will wish for more. As the ego gains more you will notice that it remains unfulfilled. Even if you were to fulfill the worldly desires of everyone, there would remain an emptiness in their hearts.
Know that I see the flaws of this creation and that I hold no one accountable for their suffering and actions here. While some have thrived, many have found pain and misery. This was not the intention. This profound demonstration of sadness was not foreseen. Nevertheless, in hindsight many things seem obvious. Join with me as we love and forgive those responsible for the turmoil that exists in this world.
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How to cope with different beliefs.

The following I believe to be a teaching from my inner guru:
Let’s talk about what’s important. There is more than one way to arrive at the same conclusion. Imagine that your world appeared spontaneously by chance. That there is no creative consciousness. That the evolution of thinking beings that are self-aware is just the inevitable conclusion of a random set of occurrences with no initial cause.
Imagine that these self-aware beings look within themselves. Imagine they explore many different perspectives and methods of viewing reality. They come to the conclusion that love without measure, unbounded compassion, limitless joy and equanimous peace compose a primary set of attributes that make up a reality beyond what we know as manifest.
Imagine that the inner serenity and happiness that these beings discover through these attributes are just happenstance. Just chemical reactions in the brain, without any meaning or reason. Is it important? One thing we do know: To be overly attached or adverse to this idea will bring suffering and dissatisfaction into one’s existence.
One who follows these beliefs about the scientific method may say things like: “Empirical data must reign supreme! It is the only foundation upon which we build our knowledge” or “Any benefits derived by spiritual thinking are ultimately delusional and should be avoided”. To increase our awareness of compassion in these matters, it is important to empathize and try to understand their reasoning and motivations for these beliefs. Remember, we all face the specter of delusion regardless of our beliefs and convictions.
The scientific method, empirical data, and the practices of science are very powerful tools in the manifest world. The questions answered through these processes all share something in common. The scientific method as you know it is based solely on observations of the past. These methods create more questions than they answer and can never see the full picture as the assumptions at the edges increase exponentially. This creates a world of speculation so infinite it can never be fully perceived. It leads the observer of scientific theory down a different delusional path, one that may or may not reflect the divine attributes which we have discussed in these writings.
Science does offer ample facilities for self-correction and advancement. However, it does nothing to resolve the ever expanding theoretical domain it creates. Nor does it aid in discovering a truth so simple that it does not require a hypothesis or investigation.
The scientist also deserves your compassion. They create more questions than they answer in their quests. The scientists among us cannot be completely satisfied through these cognitive exercises. They deserve your full compassion, loving kindness, joyous humor, and peaceful understanding.
Imagine now a religious friend, one whose beliefs lie in a dark chasm of separation into good and evil. Your brothers and sisters that follow this path may believe that some ritual must be performed. Perhaps within a specific human lifetime in order to separate the grain from the chaff and to receive the acceptance of their creator. Realize now that they suffer as their family, friends, and loved ones fall short of the bar or even reject these beliefs. They have relegated themselves to a world based on scriptural idolatry. This may include the belief that some of their loved ones will live a torturous existence in hell. I tell you that no such place exists. The only exception to this lies within the fantasies of the egoic mind. These tortures are inventions of this world and exist only to persuade others to conform to a set of ideas that serve a purpose motivated by the egoic mind. It is a system of control often manifested with the best of intentions. Forgive the authors of these delusions now as I have forgiven them, as we forgive ourselves, and we forgive all others. This is the key to our true salvation which includes the salvation of all others not one left behind.
Remember that undue attachment or aversion to your brothers and sisters holding differing beliefs will also cause pain and suffering for you. Holders of these beliefs deserve your love, compassion, joy, and peaceful demeanor just as much as anyone else. Do not blame them for the cognitive traps in which they have landed. Do not blame them for becoming attached to the idea of separation and measure as spiritual values even though they are not. These are attributes constrained only to this world and have nothing to do with your true Self. You and all of your brethren will ultimately see the fallacy of separation, judgment, measure, blame and lack of forgiveness. When all come to the light this world ends. Its usefulness will be complete. As it has always been and as it always will be. The final judgment occurs when the last of us lets go of judgment.
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How do I overcome the state of tension that underlies my awareness?

The following I believe to be a teaching from my inner guru:
In defense of oneself, lies a fear. This will come as no surprise to those who have practiced even a small degree of self inquiry. Below this fear lies another truth; a desire to maintain state is an attack on the very nature of this world. It requires the burden of an expense and ultimately ends in entropic failure. This is not a matter of right and wrong, it is not a matter of good or evil, it does not relate to injury or remedy as those concepts are known in this world. It is simply the observation that there is a cost associated with existing in this world and with that cost comes scarcity of perceived order.
Know this, it is not a requirement for you to exist in the human state in order to discover the truth about reality. This world and your existence in it simply provides an opportunity to make it possible to see things in limit. Through this observation, we become acquainted with the pain and suffering that is inherent through it. Of course, there is another reality without limit and without the duḥkha that you experience here.
Imagine a reality without limit, there is no desire that can be expressed here as desire requires a selected objective. In limitless reality there is no need for such a restriction. Because of this, the bonds of desire cannot exist. Breathe easy and know that this is where you and I are beyond this delusion of time and space.
© Copyright 2022, David H. Bennett, All rights reserved

