As Don Juan said many times to Carlos Castenada "
stopping the world is the first step to
seeing".
I always took this to mean one uses meditative tools and methods to get still internally, to stop the endless self chatter and noise that fills the mind. This is the same internal chatter that tells us endlessly about this and that in our life, a description of 'us' and 'our' world, if you will. Everyone has likely experienced those nights where you can't sleep because there is this 'other' person in your head that just won't shut up. He prattles on and on endlessly about this and that in your life and if you turn to him at 3am and yell 'shut the fuck up I've gotta get me some sleep' he turns around and says, 'OK but what about this and that....blah blah blah". Stopping this talk and being truely still plugs you into the silent knowledge of intuition. Knowing without knowing how you know but still, somehow...you know. Sometimes you do without even knowing that you do but still you end up where you had to be....intuitive wisdow....intuitive knowledge. It's as real as you let it be and as real as you make the effort to plug yourself into it. As Doc and others have stated before in this thread, it's the stopping of the internal noise, the stilling of endless self talk, that can be both negative and/or positive, which opens the gate. This can be done through so many methods...staring at a candle flame, watching the breath, mantra, dancing, self-hypnosis, music, day dreaming, taiji slow form, standing like a tree, etc etc etc....there are as many methods as there are countries, cultures and people and yet it is overlooked by most simply because it is subtle and they cannot perceive the reality of it with gross externally orientated consciousness/awareness/attention. I believe that is why most meditation/religious methods have purification practices in the beginning, as these in part, prepare an individual for taking the awareness into the subtle realms of inner experiences. If the mind is wholey consumed with girls, cars, money, etc...or the external world, then there is no attention left to percieve the internal world. In vipassana retreats for example, they take everything away from you; no TV or radio, no talking, no books, no eye contact, no exciting foods, etc...and what is left is just YOU and your internal world. This is where the 'other' parts of the human being become very very obvious. There is no escaping the self in this environment, just a person made naked in front of your own sight...it can be a very confronting and uncomfortable experience for many but so very rewarding, in that it puts a person into an intimate relationship with themselves. The methods can reveal our total being as we stand with our soul bared and see us as we truly are...warts and all.
Good topic Doc
ps must be approaching the longest thread in the history of the internet
I only teach what I was taught. All I have added are the tiger claws....AW
