Don't look at what's created. Look at what's creating.

You will never find you in what's created because it's just not there.

You can find yourself only as the one that is creating, the one before creation.

Darko

It always looks impossible until it's done.

Nelson Mandela

Love the moment.

D.

God likes to play hide-and-seek, but because there is nothing outside of God, he has no one but himself to play with! But he gets over this difficulty by pretending that he is not himself. This is his way of hiding from himself. He pretends that he is you and I and all the people in the world, all the animals, plants, all the rocks, and all the stars. In this way he has strange and wonderful adventures, some of which are terrible and frightening. But these are just like bad dreams, for when he wakes up they will disappear. Now when God plays "hide" and pretends that he is you and I, he does it so well that it takes him a long time to remember where and how he hid himself! But that's the whole fun of it-just what he wanted to do. He doesn't want to find himself too quickly, for that would spoil the game. That is why it is so difficult for you and me to find out that we are God in disguise, pretending not to be himself. But- when the game has gone on long enough, all of us will WAKE UP, stop pretending, and REMEMBER that we are all one single Self- the God who is all that there is and who lives forever and ever. You may ask why God sometimes hides in the form of horrible people, or pretends to be people who suffer great disease and pain. Remember, first, that he isn't really doing this to anyone but himself. Remember too, that in almost all the stories you enjoy there have to be bad people as well as good people, for the thrill of the tale is to find out how the good people will get the better of the bad. It's the same as when we play cards. At the beginning of the game we shuffle them all into a mess, which is like the bad things in the world, but the point of the game put the mess into good order, and the one who does it best is the winner. Then we shuffle the cards and play again, and so it goes with the world.

Alan Watts

Do We Know What It Means to Feel OURSELVES?

All day, our whole lives, we are chasing SOMETHING... because it seems that what we want is SOMETHING, that we miss SOMETHING. And this something is - US. We miss US, we miss recognizing ourselves, feeling ourselves. OURSELVES. The moment we feel ourselves, we don’t need anything any more. We see that everything was always HERE. That it was always US. US that experience all that SOMETHING.

Mechanism of a Panic Attack and How to Break Free from Them

The mechanism of a panic attack in its basics is always the same and its mere understanding, that is, understanding of what is actually going on behind the scenes has a key role in breaking free from panic attacks.

During a panic attack, you have a feeling that you don’t know what’s going on, that things are getting out of control, that is why the panic emerges. And probably nobody ever told you in the right way, how to deal with this moment, when you notice the whole thing is starting.

Because of a deep subconscious cultural belief, a distorted perspective on the world and on life, what we believed is that at this moment, in some way, we need to (confront) the panic attack. We learned to see everything we see as “negative” and what we feel as unpleasant as an enemy we need to fight, this way or the other. From this point of view, the only thing that makes sense is to take a fighting attitude and try to defeat the enemy. However, you will never defeat a panic attack, not just a panic attack, but any unpleasant “psychological” condition. And the moment you start fighting, you lost the battle.

The only thing you can do is let it through. In the same way in which, in some martial arts you use the energy of your opponent with which he attacked you to let him through. Out of his own impulse, in a moment, he will find himself on the floor. You can also remember a toreador that waves a red flag and the bull that runs into the wall of the arena with full speed. That bull can be your panic attack.

Everybody always taught you to do something in such a moment. And while you keep trying to solve the thing in this way, there will be a thousand and one theory in your mind about what you should do. Should I take this or that attitude, use this technique or that one, to think or not to think… and in such a moment you find yourself with this kind of noise in your head, a big part of which is an attempt of the mind to find a solution and to resist the panic attack it feels coming, that is, a strong feeling of inner resistance to what you feel and experience. Exactly this trying and resistance are the factors that pour oil onto the fire and take you to the peak of the panic attack.

And it is this point – point A on the graph – where you recognize that a panic attack is coming, but the climax has not yet come, that is what we will focus our attention on in this article. At that point, your thoughts begin to accelerate and multiply, and it is a turning point from which you can move to one side or the other – the red or the green line. The area below the graphs – dashed – can be understood as the amount of thought you have in mind in a particular case, red – the first case, green – the second case. We will now explain what is the first and what is the second case.

In the first case – the red line, there is a classic panic attack. In the second case – the green line – you have the understanding and you position yourself completely differently – there is no panic attack.

How? A panic attack usually makes you feel it coming before it reaches a climax, i.e. there is a curve of your feeling of discomfort that rises slowly at first and then steeper. At point A, when you notice that a panic attack is coming, you usually “panic” further and enter a state of mind of intense resistance to the upcoming panic attack. In doing so, new and new thoughts swarm out from the existing ones and in a second you are completely torn apart with panic, fear, discomfort, and an attempt to escape the whole thing.

Before point A, what you experience is a certain usual amount of thoughts in your mind, a “habitual” amount of discomfort… Increasing the level of discomfort is usually caused by one or a few unpleasant thoughts which by themselves, until we add additional thoughts, are not scary at all, and which can but don’t have to come along with some external situation in connection with which these unpleasant thoughts usually occur. Either way, up to point A, the condition is at least “bearable”. Thoughts, however uncomfortable they may be, are something you can deal with. The problem is the thoughts that “stick” to these thoughts, thoughts about thoughts, thoughts about the current experience, the current state. If we let the current state be as it is, there is no problem.

In the first case – the red line you start to struggle with the oncoming feeling and the struggle buries you deeper and deeper, more and more thoughts are generated. You don’t allow yourself to feel uncomfortable but frantically try to escape, the harder you try to escape, the stronger the discomfort. And along the red curve, the discomfort intensifies until you reach the peak of the panic attack, the attack itself lasts as long as it lasts, and finally, the downward curve continues – you slowly return to your normal state.

The second case is the attitude to the panic attack, i.e. to one’s own inner discomfort, which comes from understanding the Inside-Out nature of human experience. Simply put, when you really know that discomfort, panic attack, or any kind of uncomfortable feeling is nothing but your own thoughts and that what you really are can never be compromised by them, your attitude towards your own experience inevitably changes and so does your experience of panic attacks.

The deeper voice in you suddenly knows and sees that there is no point in fighting and running away from your own discomfort because that only makes things worse, but that the only thing that makes sense and that naturally begins to come to you as an intuitive impulse is to let it through. And also, you suddenly get the opportunity to allow your discomfort to be, to allow yourself to feel it, to allow it to pass through you, whatever the mind is saying at that moment. As we allow the emotion, so we allow the thoughts that come at the same time, we simply allow them to overwhelm us, without judgment and without trying to control them.

And contrary to what you would expect and what the mind says will happen, that we will sink even deeper, if in point A instead of resistance and an attempt to escape there is acceptance, allowing discomfort to completely overwhelm you, your discomfort that survives solely on your resistance, suddenly has nothing to survive on. This means that your internal state continues to change according to the green curve, i.e. from point A, discomfort stays at that level for some time and then begins to dissolve or immediately begins to dissolve and you return to your basic state very quickly.

Point A is not a point after which there is no going back, if it passes, at any stage of a panic attack, if you let yourself go to the inner state and allow yourself to feel what you are feeling, no matter how uncomfortable, very soon, the state moves on its own and dissolves. The mechanism through which the return to balance generally occurs by itself and which works as soon as the personal mind gives up trying to control is also called a self-correcting mechanism.

Start exploring your own self-correcting mechanism and things might change very quickly.

Wanting positive experience is a negative experience; accepting negative experience is a positive experience. It’s what the philosopher Alan Watts used to refer to as “the backwards law”—the idea that the more you pursue feeling better all the time, the less satisfied you become, as pursuing something only reinforces the fact that you lack it in the first place. The more you desperately want to be rich, the more poor and unworthy you feel, regardless of how much money you actually make. The more you desperately want to be sexy and desired, the uglier you come to see yourself, regardless of your actual physical appearance. The more you desperately want to be happy and loved, the lonelier and more afraid you become, regardless of those who surround you. The more you want to be spiritually enlightened, the more self-centered and shallow you become in trying to get there.

Mark Manson

Floating Over Your Troubles

In our society, the main response to an unpleasant feeling or state is a need and an attempt to stop the unpleasant state and get to a pleasant state.

Most people facing their gloomy thoughts that create unpleasant feelings don't even consider any other attitude. Because of the civilization's deep-rooted ideas of duality, the subconscious of most people puts them in the position of the need to solve or get rid of the thing when their moods drop.

Reflect and notice if you can recognize yourself in this kind of response and if it works out for you.

There is another radically different approach, but in order to really understand it and therefore spontaneously make it a part of your everyday life, you need to get a certain level of understanding of what human experience really is and recognize the part of you that is pure presence unaffected by anything that happens. This recognition might be much closer than it seems.

So, what is the other approach to our unpleasant states? A good term that points to this "mode" is floating over. Floating over the whole experience in the moment, no matter how hard the experience might be. In practice, this approach is much more natural, makes more sense from a wider understanding of how things work, the more we are connected to our inner guidance, the more is this approach a part of our everyday life. And, it is much more effective than the conventional attitude in the sense that unpleasant states have a strong tendency to be much less intense and last much less.

Imagine a wild river, whitewater and stones under the surface. If you struggle and try to "fight" the river, submit it to your will and make it take you back to the shore, it will toss and turn you, hit you to the rocks on the bottom and you will get seriously hurt. On the other hand, if you accept the situation, realize that you are in the river already and you will have to go through a part of it, if you relax and let yourself float, the river will take you through the hardest parts as gently as possible. You will still have to cross the same unpleasant part of the river, but it's not gonna be nearly as painful as in the first case.

This is just a metaphor that might help you to picture this state of floating over I'm pointing to, don't take it too litteraly.

So. You might have noticed, there is a part of you that stays still and peaceful in the face of even the greatest danger. This part of you already knows what floating over is, it doesn't have to be explained, it's not an intellectual thing. The point is to get more familiar with this part of yourself, to make it an "everyday companion", to uncover it more and more and therefore change your attitude towards everything.

Unpleasant states are a natural part of life, life flows in waves with it's crests and valleys. To try to avoid valleys is not natural and it is not wise. It is a shallow reaction of the personal mind. It's this reaction and not the valley itself that creates real suffering.

Let these words sink into you and notice if there is a voice in you that knows this is true. Start listening to this voice and your unpleasant states, your valleys might get much easier.

Coronavirus Crisis as an Opportunity for Spiritual Awakening

Sometimes, this whole global situation can look like a bad dream. You know that feeling in a dream when something gets really really wrong and the dream is one step away from becoming a nightmare. And then you wake up, cozy and warm in your bed. At that moment you are so happy to be back in this reality and to realize that all of that chaos was just a dream. What a relief! Can you recall the feeling? 

Similar feeling happens with a real spiritual insight. The difference is that in that case, this life is a dream and reality we wake up to is something beyond comprehension of our everyday personal mind, beyond understanding of our dreamer selves. 

So, what does this have to do with Corona crisis and how could it help us deal with the situation easier?

As we live in intense times, the chaos doesn’t have a tendency to decrease. Quite the contrary, with all the challenges we see coming in the near future, it’s likely that it will keep growing rapidly. 

It will be harder and harder to find security and something we can lean on or rely on in the outside world. Illusion that circumstances give us security will crumble like a house of cards. For most people, the mind will become louder and create more suffering, more resistance to their experience as it is, which is no wonder. 

As there is less and less to cling on to, something entirely different has to be discovered. When the dream is too overwhelming and painful, the only way out is to wake up. So, there is something different, something our personal mind would never think of. There is more to life than this experience that we call everyday “reality”. Existence is bigger than this life, this dimension, this planet, civilization or human species. And don’t take these words as a platitude. What I’m doing here is turning attention of your consciousness in the opposite direction of the one you are looking in all the time. I’m pointing you to directly “see”, rediscover the basic and infinite part of your Being, of All That Is. You have the capacity to uncover this part of you at any moment. Right now, don’t give your mind any space to start a story, to start objecting. Just stop for a moment, notice how you feel and be still, just as you are. 

So, there is something else except this thing we call a person – “me”, my life and the familiar experience of life. There is more. Discovering this “more” is what spirituality really is. Remembering what we really are. Now, this remembering and discovering go infinitely deep. I don’t want to present some concepts that will stay just concepts. I want you to touch it yourself, to get a taste for it. The moment you just touch this vastness, a huge step within you is made. So you don’t need to go infinitely deep and discover all the dimensions out there and the whole intensity of Being. Instead, just be. Now. And just keep reading. 

On the other side of experience, there is stillness, unity, oneness. And we can reach this stillness while having the experience of the outer world at the same time. Stillness, the empty space of being before experience is where real peace and security lie. These peace and security are unconditional meaning that they uncover our spiritual nature that is as it is, no matter what, it’s not dependent on the circumstances in any way. It doesn’t care about our life situation, future or a global crisis. It doesn’t care about death or suffering. It is our only ever-present safe harbor. 

At challenging times as is a personal or a global crisis, there is an increased need to rediscover this place inside of us. Because if we don’t, life becomes unbearable. And if we do, life becomes more beautiful in ways we didn’t even think possible before, even in the middle of what we would call external, collective crisis. 

So, waking up in a spiritual sense is realizing that first, our whole experience is not reality, but a story our mind is generating at the moment and secondly, that we are ultimately not this person we think we are, but that we are something we can’t really define or describe, much bigger and much less personal, which sees and feels everything much less personally. From this perspective, whatever may happen to this person and its life is not that much of a big deal.

Don’t try to understand any of this logically, intellectually because you will get nowhere. Don’t try to understand it. Period. Feel it. 

When it touches you, the truth is so liberating, so amazing. Just imagine all this as a dream from which you can wake up in your cozy spiritual “bed” where everything is perfect and perfectly in its place. Doesn’t just a notion of this idea soothe your whole being? Well, that’s because it is true. And we are starting to realize it. 

I have lots of things to teach you now, in case we ever meet, concerning the message that was transmitted to me under a pine tree in North Carolina on a cold winter moonlit night. It said that Nothing Ever Happened, so don’t worry. It’s all like a dream. Everything is ecstasy, inside. We just don’t know it because of our thinking-minds. But in our true blissful essence of mind is known that everything is alright forever and forever and forever. Close your eyes, let your hands and nerve-ends drop, stop breathing for 3 seconds, listen to the silence inside the illusion of the world, and you will remember the lesson you forgot, which was taught in immense milky way soft cloud innumerable worlds long ago and not even at all. It is all one vast awakened thing. I call it the golden eternity. It is perfect. We were never really born, we will never really die. It has nothing to do with the imaginary idea of a personal self, other selves, many selves everywhere: Self is only an idea, a mortal idea. That which passes into everything is one thing. It’s a dream already ended. There’s nothing to be afraid of and nothing to be glad about. I know this from staring at mountains months on end. They never show any expression, they are like empty space. Do you think the emptiness of space will ever crumble away? Mountains will crumble, but the emptiness of space, which is the one universal essence of mind, the vast awakenerhood, empty and awake, will never crumble away because it was never born. The world you see is just a movie in your mind. Rocks dont see it. Bless and sit down. Forgive and forget. Practice kindness all day to everybody and you will realize you’re already in heaven now. That’s the story. That’s the message. Nobody understands it, nobody listens, they’re all running around like chickens with heads cut off. I will try to teach it but it will be in vain, s’why I’ll end up in a shack praying and being cool and singing by my woodstove making pancakes.

Jack Kerouac

There is such immense power in truth, it is truth that sets us free.   

Sun is always behind the clouds.

d.

Expect miracles.

They are taking over.

Darko

Precise, short and sweet.

Recommendation for a movie is always welcome, right?

As I write this I am on a 12 hour non stop flight. Everybody has a screen if front of them, on the back of the next seat. And there is a set of movies to choose from. So if you stand up you can see what everybody is watching.

And it came to me clearly, how pathetic our standard everyday mainstream habitual choice of movies is. Just like in most aspects of human life, the most stupid and useless stuff sells the best.

So the pattern of these, most popular movies which the system feeds us with and pushes in front of our eyes is next: a lot of violence, fast changing scenes, stupidity and emptiness - no spirit or originality whatsoever. This as it seems makes a magical formula for a commercial movie for the masses. Which is not a surprise actually if you think of it, concerning the collective state of mind.

These movies reflect and further consolidate the standard distorted worldview, they implant the brainwashing and the programming a bit deeper.

Did you ever ask yourself why is there so much violence in movies. One reason is because, just like other characteristics that i mentioned, it resonates with the state of mind of most people, its the same frequency, same story. Another more dangerous and distorting thing is that it confirms and deepens the ideas of duality in the human mind. There is always us versus them, good guys and bad guys, always a battle. By taking in these information we unconsciously add them to our already present ideas of separation. And this creates more of a feeling that life is a battle, that there are enemies on every step and that we need to defeat them. 

Which is not how existence actually works. That is how brainwashed human mind works and these ideas take us further away from the truth and harmony. The only truth is unity and the only way to uncover harmony is to discover this unity of all there is.

At the same time, there are so many beautiful works of art, beautiful movies made out of true inspiration and talent. Original creations of spirit. The thing is these ones are a bit more rare and harder to find, we need to invest a bit more energy to find them.. or just stay open for them. Anyway, it's worth it. They enrich our lives instead of waste our time.

One of them is this beautiful fairy tale I'm sharing with you today. Its the opposite of everything about these garbage mainstream generic movies. It is full, original, visually beautiful, simple, slow and shows life as it really is - a temporary phenomena free from additions of the human mind, ideas of right and wrong, of false ideals. It just flows, it just is and it is beautiful, it is a miracle whichever way it turns.

Darko

Tuning out of habitual reality

Remember stereogram images? The point of such an image is that when you see it in the right way, you see a three dimensional image for most people not visible in ordinary sight. What you need to do is to make your vision blurry, give up on the standard habitual way of seeing, give up on your brain trying to make sense of what it sees, give up on the sharp, defined lines. In the moment that happens, a “bigger picture” hidden in the image starts to emerge. For some people it is easier, for others harder. It depends on how much your brain is stuck and holding the known way of defining and perceiving visual image. If you are flexible in that way, if your brain doesn’t cling to the known, it will be easy. If you are not, it will be hard. 

In the same way, we are stuck with the habitual way to see the world. We see shapes, colors and sounds in the way we are used to see them. It is actually just one specific way of seeing the world. As a civilization, our collective mind is used to see in this way and we believe it is reality. In the same way in which we believe shapes in the stereographic image we see before the bigger picture is all there is and it seems there is no other way. From that, habitual perspective all we see and all we think there is are random shapes with no real meaning. 

When we soften the focus and “blur our vision”, this time with our mind, suddenly a bigger picture opens itself in front of our eyes. Nothing is as defined any more, the sharp borders of our ideas, views, beliefs and even physical reality starts to melt and everything starts dancing. The real reality gets revealed and instead of just one version of any given thing, suddenly there are many. 

Explore this space, it is like you enter the backstage, you can see more clearly how things work in the front end. And who knows, maybe you return as a different upgraded person ;)

Money doesn't have a meaning and importance in itself, it's here only to provide you with the experience you need to have. Don't give it meaning and it won't trouble you.

Darko