[JosephM]

If I said " It doesn't get any better than this. " What would it mean to you?

At its deepest level what could it mean?

Just noodling around .......

Joseph

[Alan]

Joseph:

Wow...that's a tough one...

To me, it means finding true peace. If I had that, I would be at a place where I would not want more or less. I would be able to laugh freely, love openly, and would find pleasure in all around me. I would have profound love with everyone around me and with God. All of my wants and needs would be fulfilled.

How do we get there again??

Alan

[JosephM]

Alan, on Sep 26 2008, 11:00 AM, said:

Joseph:

Wow...that's a tough one...

To me, it means finding true peace. If I had that, I would be at a place where I would not want more or less. I would be able to laugh freely, love openly, and would find pleasure in all around me. I would have profound love with everyone around me and with God. All of my wants and needs would be fulfilled.

How do we get there again??

Alan

Greeting Alan,

It seems to me you have answered honestly using your thinking mind. Would you believe me if I told you you already have true peace and are able to laugh freely, love openly and find pleasure all around you? And all your wants and needs are already fulfilled? Perhaps it is true but covered up my illusions created by the mind.

It seems to me we get there by realizing that outside circumstances, situations, and feelings do not have to mask our inner peace , love, and joy. (The kingdom of heaven is within you.) Perhaps it is just a matter of re-identification with our true nature which has no opposites. If one identifies with what Christianity calls the 'carnal nature' or 'old creature' one will find that the carnal mind will create labels such as good and evil, beautiful and ugly, desirable and undesirable, etc. The mind's nature is to create labels that will always have an opposite. If things go the way the mind deems as in line with its beliefs then we are happy and if not then we are unhappy. In the Spirit, there are no opposites because the Spirit never resists what is present now. Paul admonished us to walk ' in the Spirit' . This is done by identification with the emerging 'new creature' in Christ. It seems to me this is done by "watching always". Watching what? The mind of course. "Awake thou that sleepest and Christ shall give thee light" is our instructions. Yes just watching the mind without judgement or thought is enough to (put light on)expose the false so the truth may dawn on us and transform us. Yes, Alan "It doesn't get any better than this"

Joseph

[Alan]

Joseph:

Wonderful stuff! Thank you.

I sense a touch of Eckhart Tolle in your response (watching the mind without judgement or thought). I see you have even suggested his book in my recommended books post.

I enjoyed his "Power of Now". I agree with you and him that we need to look at our minds from a non-emotional, non-judgemental stance. The steps seem so easy, yet so hard to take. I spent 35 years letting my mind control my surroundings and have spent the last 6 trying to free myself.

I take baby steps daily...I rejoice in my little accomplishments.

Thank you again, Joseph, for reminding me how to reveal that which I already have. I consider your posts to be some of the best reading on this Board. Keep it up!

Alan

[JosephM]

Alan,

Thank you for your kind words. Yes, Tolle has a way of putting it in simple words and I suppose my mind has picked up some of the vocabulary he used to express my own ( of course I don't own them) personal experiences.

Perhaps it is only from mind's perspective that the steps seem so hard to us. Jesus is recorded saying "For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light."

His preaching was recorded as "Repent ye: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." The word for repent actually means 'to change ones thinking'. In my view, just the mere act of watching (awareness) of the thinking mind allows the light of consciousness to do all the work. With this watching a shift in identification takes place naturally and a new heaven and earth are exposed in the present if even for brief periods.

If it were a lot of hard work, we would have room to boast. Yet it is not, so we don't. It seems resistance to the moment is what makes it seem hard. And it seems to me that resistance is just a pattern of mind to watch.

Joseph

[rivanna]

Hi Joseph,

I remember you from when I was on this board a year and a half ago.
It is soothing to see one’s mind from a detached position-- the programmed “voice in the head”-- and to identify one’s real self with spirit or presence or the “timeless inner body” as Tolle puts it. If you are able to maintain this state more or less continually– my hat is off to you!

My only quibble is, that the phrase “It doesn’t get any better than this” is misleading – doesn’t represent Tolle accurately. When he says “Your ultimate purpose is awareness” I think he means it’s the necessary groundwork for attaining the goals or pursuing the ideals you have in life. If you have further thoughts on this I’d like to hear…

[JosephM]

rivanna, on Oct 29 2008, 07:14 AM, said:

Hi Joseph,

I remember you from when I was on this board a year and a half ago.
It is soothing to see one’s mind from a detached position-- the programmed “voice in the head”-- and to identify one’s real self with spirit or presence or the “timeless inner body” as Tolle puts it. If you are able to maintain this state more or less continually– my hat is off to you!

My only quibble is, that the phrase “It doesn’t get any better than this” is misleading – doesn’t represent Tolle accurately. When he says “Your ultimate purpose is awareness” I think he means it’s the necessary groundwork for attaining the goals or pursuing the ideals you have in life. If you have further thoughts on this I’d like to hear…

Hi Rivanna,

That phrase is not meant to represent a person such as Tolle nor is Tolle where I get my words. His book merely impressed me as being a simple approach in different words to that which was discovered in my own journey.

"It doesn't get any better than this" was a phrase a friend of mine used all the time as we rode our motorcycles. For the longest time it was mere foolishness to me because he used it whether we got rained on or not and no matter what the circumstances. As my journey progressed, I realized it was true. Each moment of time that appeared no matter what the content of the situation was indeed the best that the moment had to offer for that moment in time. And even when the conditions or situation changes when we are in the moment it doesn't get any better. It is all good. It makes no difference because the joy of 'being' is always present and available and not dependent on circumstances. When circumstances make it appear it is no longer present we have merely slipped back into identification with the thinking mind and its past images and judgments.

I will not presume to know what Tolle meant by "your ultimate purpose is awareness" but to me it speaks of transcending or rising above the highly conditioned thinking mind by an identification with that awareness which is your true nature and using the thinking mind as a tool in this world rather than allowing the conditioning of the mind to use you by a strong identification with it and its conditioned thoughts and feelings as if that is who you really are. From the vantage point of awareness, one sees more clearly this conditioning to allow choice in selecting the harmony which is in God to flow from us rather than act out a conditioned response from an egoic mind.

In my view one need not have any ideals or goals to pursue in life other than to find ones Self which is no different than awareness/consciousness itself. When one looks from the perspective of awareness, all is complete and action flows of itself so that one will do what needs to be done in the moment to the best of ones ability leaving the results of ones work to the One who is in and through all things. And the universe will take care of presenting you with that which it has for you to do in this concept we call time.

Just some thoughts to consider concerning your question.

Love Joseph

[rivanna]

Thanks, Joseph,

To me your view seems essentially the same as Tolle’s –if we were all aware of our thought processes & emotional patterns instead of being controlled by them, what a different world it would be.
I sense genuine optimism in your saying “the universe will take care of presenting you with what it has for you to do” etc. Maybe the difference between this and more biblical language for the same truth is that one is more abstract/philosophical, the other more personal, relational.

Paul Tillich says we can only experience “presence” within the limited life span we’re given – yet he also says the temporal now is within, provided by the eternal now. Interesting paradox –what do you make of it?

[JosephM]

rivanna, on Nov 3 2008, 05:43 PM, said:

Thanks, Joseph,

To me your view seems essentially the same as Tolle’s –if we were all aware of our thought processes & emotional patterns instead of being controlled by them, what a different world it would be.
I sense genuine optimism in your saying “the universe will take care of presenting you with what it has for you to do” etc. Maybe the difference between this and more biblical language for the same truth is that one is more abstract/philosophical, the other more personal, relational.

Paul Tillich says we can only experience “presence” within the limited life span we’re given – yet he also says the temporal now is within, provided by the eternal now. Interesting paradox –what do you make of it?

Rivanna,

I would agree with Paul Tillich's statement in that context. It is experienced within the span of life within form which is indeed temporal.

Yet "Presence" ,always here, (some call it the unconditioned, some Absolute reality, some Christ consciousness, etc.) is not at all a temporary condition. In my experience, there is no thought in presence. "Presence" is the eternal natural state of all things whereby there ceases to be separation between anything seen or unseen. It is without locality or time and all is known so that there is a subjective sense of being complete and in possession of all knowledge and unlimited power. True it is subjectively experienced by the senses which feed the thinking mind which is temporal in nature but presence itself is without doubt as to what it is, though it is inexpressible in words even though I have made a feeble attempt to do so here. So when ones life in form ends (perhaps in many cycles), all is, as it was before, "presence", which is unborn and eternal which is indivisible from who you are. Therefore, there is nothing to experience something because Subject and object cease to be separate so that one is in unity and one cannot then say there is a here or there or you or me or form or non-form. One is peace and all in All. It is indeed a paradox to the mind only.

Joseph