Advaita Vision

www.advaita.org.uk

Advaita for the 21st Century

Waking Up
Scott Kiloby

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Scott Kiloby

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The following is an extract from the above book, Love's Quiet Revolution: the End of the Spiritual Search. Purchase from US or UK.

Visit Scott's website - Reflections of the One Life, where other essays may be read and videos watched on-line.

See Scott's entry on the Western Writers page.

Notice that life is a symphony of sights, sounds, smells, sensations, thoughts, feelings, states, and experiences. Notice that the beautiful music of this symphony can only be fully realized when there is no self pretending to be the conductor.

 Notice how beautiful and big, and yet how empty, the space around you is when you go outside. It never ends. It embraces you.

Notice that there are no problems until a thought reaches up to label something within your field of awareness as a “problem.” “Problems” are perfectly designed to keep self-centeredness in place because you get to think about them, analyze them, and complain to yourself and others about them, including about how you are or are not overcoming them. This keeps the focus on you. Life is simply happening. It is not happening to you. It is happening whether you resist it or welcome it. You only think it is happening to you. This mode of thinking helps you keep the dream of a separate self alive.

Notice the self-centered nature of a thought, and notice the next thought that tells you that you should not be self-centered. It is all a dream of self-centeredness.

Notice that, when conflict arises in an interaction with someone or in a given situation, you entered the interaction or situation with a preconceived thought that it would turn out a certain way. Conflict arises when your dreams about reality do not match reality. Thus, you brought conflict into the situation when you brought your dream into it. No one is the cause of your pain. You are simply dreaming that you have control. Rather than blaming people, situations, or even yourself, simply notice the content of your dream.
  
Notice that resentments towards others have nothing to do with them. You are simply believing a presently arising dream. In this dream, a person or situation was supposed to do what you wanted them to do. That is not reality. The source of your pain is never outside you. It results from your attachment to thought and emotion arising within you. Do not try to fix or overcome resentments. Just notice them. Feel them fully.

Notice the feeling of lack within when someone does not give you the praise, acknowledgement, or approval you are seeking. Realize that the problem has nothing to do with what they did or did not give you. The problem arose when you failed to feel directly this sense of lack in the moment it first appeared in your body. It then fueled painful and untrue thoughts about how others are responsible for your happiness and contentment. You are noticing that lack is an illusion.

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Page last updated: 10-Jul-2012