Trance

A man walking around thinking about himself is no different than his dreams while sleeping. As long as he does not exist to himself, he is asleep to life. In essence, there is no difference. You can introduce the beginning of a wonderful liberation if you would only slightly grasp this. No, we mustn't be like this. Take for instance a bad dream. While in the dream you have no ability to change the dream. You are at the mercy of it's direction and impulses. Your ego is on hold, it is powerless and you are trapped in it's story. Dreaming is an indication of deep sleep (REM). You are unconscious to yourself. A good dream will leave you sleeping, but a bad one (what we call a nightmare) may wake you up. Upon awakening, you may find your breathing rapid, you may be sweating profusely and your heart rate may be rapid, but as you gather yourself, you reach over and touch the loved one your dream was about and everything is okay. It was just a dream, a bad one, but just a dream. It may have temporarily had control of what you thought you were, but now that you are awake you see that it was just an illusion in slumber. Waking states are no different. A man walks around asleep if he is not conscious (aware) of what his body and movements are doing though his thought processes may be whirling a thousand miles a minute. The only way to snap the spell is through impartial, detached, self-observation. The difference between a man thinking about himself and impartial observation is nothing more than personalization. A thinking man believes he is his thoughts while a man in observation sees thoughts from afar and merely watches them pass by. He recognizes them and then drops them. A thinking man grabs hold as if he is mandated to do something about it. He does not realize that he doesn't have to do anything. He is unaware that he is free to drop any thought whatsoever. Incidentally, as a man grows more conscious of himself in his inward and outward environment (within the present moment), the speed of his thought processes are non-factors. Stick with these concepts for a few days. When they pop up, you will know it and you will know what to do. r

"Not too serious and not too lightly, rather seriously-lightly" Vernon Howard