[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IHcOvPtYE08&feature=related]Beyond Thought (Awareness Itself) - YouTube[/ame] This is a VERY good film/documentary about awareness. Suffering. Truth. Peace. The Mind. Thoughts. Finding peace. Finding yourself. Self-awareness. It is excellent and very well done. I highly highly recommend checking it out.
that was beautiful, i can't believe how many people are awakening, its such a wonderful thing. i think there will come a point where awakening reaches critical mass as a psychological meme that it will spread throughout the world like a wildfire. in other words, enough people will have awakened on the globe (something which was never possible before the communications technology that we have today, case in point; this video!) that being awakened becomes the norm, and being stuck in ego-identification is pathologised (for lack of a better word) thanks for sharing bro
Don't have time to watch this right now, but i definately will after work. I know I will enjoy it. Thanks buddy!
I agree. It is such a beautiful thing seeing the people of our planet waking up, seeing ourselves waking up and people around us waking up. Starting to get out of our own self-created mental suffering and realizing our true natures. When we are awake to that, our true nature as awareness itself, little things just don't bother us as much, and we find space, and peace, and feelings of unity. And once that spreads to all, or at least most of the people on the planet, the world will start to change for the better automatically. No problem man, my pleasure So glad I came across this today. Right on brother! You'll enjoy it for sure
I agree with this to an extent, but, awareness is not aware of itself, for it was, it would be a contradiction, because it has thought of its own awareness; awareness just IS, and that's all there ever was! Subjective consciousness is a compilation of personal experiences, experienced, in a physical entity - ie. memory. If we had no memory, we would truly be aware, for we would be, just what we are, and that is - the will!
I feel as if marijuana gave me my first glimpse of this awareness of awareness itself. It really kinda turned off the filters in my mind that were always going.. for example filtering out the fact that the sun is just this big ball of gas floating in space or the fact that were just living on the surface of this gigantic earth that is also floating in space, and then again what is space? But it goes deeper than that, you can become aware of the weather, the oxygen that is encompassing us and keeping us alive, the people around you and how they may be feeling or what their perspective might be like. There is a lot to wonder and examine in everyday life, and marijuana definately helps you kind of step back and examine all of this, take it all in, experience it.. instead of being caught up in your own mind and own thoughts, worrying about financial issues or anything else. Yeah it's hard, and most of the time I honestly can't shut off my mind. That's why i want to get into yoga and meditation eventually because I hear it's a wonderful experience.
Starting to understand vibrations. Karma is inescapable. Your vibrations cannot lie, meaning you can lie to yourself, but not 'it'.
Well I think awareness is aware of itself because "we" are aware of awareness. And "we" are nothing but awareness itself. I understand what you are saying... as that one songwriter lady said.. it's a real trippy question. The awareness that is beyond thoughts and all forms and concepts... it would just be AWARE. There is no other to be aware... no awareness and itself to be aware of. So my first instinct is to say no. But then again.. what is it in us that is aware that it is aware? We are aware of being aware... aware that there is an awareness behind our thoughts and everything we see. It's a real tricky one but just because of that I'll have to say yes, awareness is aware of itself. Meditation really can be a great experience. It's really cool watching your thoughts just go by... and after a while, you really start to create some space from them. Because there are just like clouds... they just arise out of nothing and return to nothing. But this space of nothingness where the thoughts arise from and fall back into is really pure awareness. After a while of watching the clouds pass... coming, and going... coming and going... we start to get glimpses of the clear sky underneath. The clarity that was there underneath/around the clouds the whole time. In meditation after watching thoughts for so long eventually we get points between thoughts where what is the left is that ground of emptiness, pure awareness. Then we notice a thought emerges forth FROM that awareness, then subsides, and all that is left is that awareness again, just like the a cloud appears in a clear sky and then wisps away and all that is left in the sky again. It's pretty simple really. You have definitely had experiences of no-thought before.. maybe when you are in the middle of a martial arts fight for example, doing something really fun, beholding a beautiful scene, or just totally . We all get moments like that throughout our lives, we just might not notice them or pay attention to them and their significance. It's pretty profound when you start to become aware of awareness - and meditation is a great way to get familiar with that. Normally our awareness is on the objects of perceptions - thoughts, sensations, sights, sounds, etc. When we meditate, we limit these objects of perceptions. We close our eyes... and all we notice are thoughts. Eventually we notice that there are gaps between thoughts. And we notice that there is something that is SEEING the thoughts come and go, rather then becoming identified with those thoughts. And then you kind of learn to "identify" with this unbounded awareness rather than anything that appears within awareness. If we are aware of our body, how can we be our body? If we are aware of our mind, and our thoughts, how can we be our thoughts? What we are must have been with us for our entire life. Our current bodies have not been with us for our whole life. Our thoughts and sense of identity and life story and feelings have not been with us our entire life. But our pure awareness always HAS been with us, even since we were a baby, before we ever learned a single concept or had any single concept of a separate self. I kind of just went off on a tangent there lol. But yea man, meditation is great. Yoga too. They really help to quiet the mind and concentrate enough where you really get to notice the gaps in thoughts more and more. And the ever-present awareness is just obvious. It is right here. It is what is reading this. It is what is aware of whatever thoughts your thinking, whatever sensations you feel... it is ALWAYS with you. It IS you.
So to me, on a practical day to day level, where this leaves me is just with a generally greatened heightened sense of peace. My anxiety and depression has faded away quite drastically the more I dove into meditation, learning about awareness, yoga, pilates etc etc. On a day to day level, I'll just remember to be as present and immersed into the moment as possible. I look out and I don't think of that as "outside", because it is within my awareness. It is not separate from my awareness. I just try to be as mindful of the moment as possible. And when I notice that there are some thoughts, I just don't pay attention to them and feed them energy, unless I am consciously thinking. But if I am just driving, I'll just put my attention back on what I am experiencing in that present moment... the surroundings around me. So thoughts and light clouds still come, but they remain in the background. And then I get many times where there are just no thoughts, or I just don't notice them, because my immersion and absorbtion into the present moment becomes so complete. So I think it's pretty easy really. I just make sure to pay attention to what is literally going on in my awareness as much as possible (rather than dwelling on what's in my mind), I cultivate an inner smile... a sense/feeling of niceness/kindness... so that when I see people I just give a little smile or say what's up, how are you etc... and I just stay relaxed. These 3 things lead to me staying present in the moment and giving off good vibes so that I generally don't experience any bullshit in the day to day... or very little at least. Nonconceptual pure mind... is a very peaceful place. Our true nature.
This is a result of memory and consciousness, not "awareness". Why do you think people who suffer from alzheimer's - forget who they "are"? They're unconscious of their awareness...
But if you were to tell an Alzheimer person.. right now... are you aware of the present? They would say yes... even if they can't remember their self-created identity, at any given moment if you asked them if they were aware right there, surely they'd have to answer yes right? Awareness is always present... and it can always be noticed. by what? itself. What is that "thing" that is aware that it is aware? Perhaps that is what you mean by consciousness? I call that awareness being aware of itself. Maybe I still misunderstand what you're saying though.
Hold on, before we go any further... can u please elucidate what "awareness" is? I didnt really get a precise definition from the movie.
I'm halfway through the documentary and so far its awesome !! Whether its 100% accurate or not, its a great teaching tool regardless. I also think that the book On The Road discusses self awareness and living your life without being someone your not in more indirect terms, I think I'll make a thread about it sometime soon, after I'm done rereading the book I think the book could also be a great tool in becoming more self aware. I'm still far from self aware, but I work on it everyday.
haha 41:13 the asian guy thats like, our mind...is like crazy monkah what hes saying is true but how he said it was hilarious imo
hell yeah man. My dog died because of my mom's asshole ex husband... I still have to beat him silly one day for that
Thanks man! I know. That hit the spot I love how honest and real this documentary is. And how very clear it is. So well done. Awareness to me is the fundamental "awakeness", awareness that underlies everything. For instance... there are thoughts, and then there is something that SEES thoughts. There are perceptions, and sights, and sounds and sensations, and then there is something that SEES these things. But that which SEES these objects, sensations, perceptions etc - is not actually a THING at all, is it? You can't POINT at it. Because it is that which is doing the looking. Awareness itself has no form, no color, no attributes - nothing. It is essentially like space in this regard - except... it is CLEAR. It reflects, it is the space in which everything occurs. The universe is not just blackness, nothingness - the empty space of awareness underlies and contains EVERYTHING within it. You see? Awareness is the most obvious thing there is. You can't possible look for it - it is what you are "looking out of" right now. Awareness is what does the looking, does the thinking, does the feeling. Awareness experiences it all. Think about it - EVERY experience in your life, ever, has been transitory. Every scene, every thought, every feeling, every thing you've ever see. EVERY SINGLE thing you've experiences has come and past away. None of them last. Therefore they are all empty of real existence. But the one thing that HAS been present through ALL of that is the no-thing, awareness, that has seen and viewed it all. THAT is awareness. The most essential ingredient in who we are and how the universe experiences itself.
ALL of our experiences we've ever had have come and have gone. All things we have ever seen or experienced have all passed away. All "forms" are all impermanent and all pass away instantly, like a dream. But what has ALWAYS persisted has been the silent camera, so to speak. The awareness watching it all, which is not a thing in itself. And since awareness is not a thing - no-thing - then it cannot pass away. And it was never born. It is the birthless and the deathless - infinite - sounds a lot like heaven eh lol. And the present moment. When we stop becoming so attached the various scenes, the various impermanent things that flash by through our own awareness throughout our entire life, and instead rest as the awareness, not objecting or grasping to any of the temporary experiences/images... when we don't label or judge any of the transient impermanent appearances/images/experiences appearing in awareness... when we just relax in our true nature as pure formless awareness... then we find ultimate and total peace, and we can enjoy it all. We realize that our true nature is not any "separate" thing that occurs within awareness, such as a "me", an "identity" <-- really just a mental concept, a collection of thoughts and ideas, which are SEEN by our true selves, awareness. We realize that we are no thing and thus we don't need to run after or reject ANYthing that occurs within ourSELF - within awareness - and thus we simply enjoy it all with peace and equanimity.
