I wrote this for another forum and thought I'd like to share it here. As you know, I am John. I have been on a rather eclectic and determined spiritual/psychological path since I was 17 (1967).
In 2000 My wife, Lynn Marie, and I published The Awakening West - Evidence of a Spreading Enlightenment; which was a series of conversations we had with the likes of Adyashanti, Eckhardt Tolle, Lama Surya Das, Byron Katie, Isaac Shapiro, Gangaji, etc. The book began when I started seeing westerners awakening and I knew it was the most important news that wasn't getting any press; after a brief time it became obvious that Lynn Marie was equally involved with it. Some of these people became our friends and some became and remain our teachers. Anecdotal-ly, when we first met Adya, there were about 20 people in the sangha!
Since the 1980s I have been aware of Celestials, Ascended Masters and Galactics. I've done a little channeling and I seen a few UFOs.
I have always been a two-fisted reader and my whole life has been spent in practices, the collection and study of maps of human consciousness and pursuing the most efficient and effective ways to help us all evolve and awaken together as soon as possible with a minimum of suffering. This has included Advaita Vedanta, Kashmiri Shaivism, Tibetan Buddhism, many, many channeled works, time with Sai Baba, Mata Amritananda Mayi (She married Lynn Marie and I), the Oneness Movement, systems theory, new physics, chaos theory, neuro-physiology, interpersonal neurobiology and attachment theory, etc.
My life is dedicated to awakening and assisting everyone I can in whatever ways I can and most especially in their awakening; this has been so for at least the last 25 years.
In my work I am a psychotherapist trained and skilled in working with trauma and spiritual emergence, and I do a form of neuro-feedback called Brainwave Optimization (BrainStateTech..com) which is derived from mapping the brains of two 40-year meditators, Tibetan monks, who also served as heads of very large monasteries; so they were not only very skilled with consciousness and quite awake but they were also functioning as conscious CEOs in the world. I call my business The Quiet Mind. Brain training can really help.
Most recently, I have become deeply drawn into the support system for awakening and co-creating a community of mutual benefit offered by BalancedView.org. I have, over the years, participated in several Tibetan (mostly Dzogchen and Mahamudra) and a number of western Sanghas, including each of those named above and I have never seen so many people moving so rapidly into clarity, complete mental and emotional stability and spontaneous, universal kindness, generosity and helpfulness as I have witnessed in the Balanced View community.
In brief, the founder, Candice O'Denver, awoke almost 30 years ago & had a vision (like we all do) of awakening our whole species. She traveled extensively, studying communities and cultures oriented toward enlightenment, providing support and building community. She discovered what was essential and worked and she recognized what was cultural or religious "baggage" that was limiting the possible audience or, at times, obscuring the essential truth. This simple truth is expressed in universally accessible language within Balanced View. What follows is my understanding of this support system that I am finding immeasurably helpful.
Simply, there are four legs that support our awakening together. The first is a simple practice of short moments of open intelligence repeated many times until open intelligence becomes continuous and obvious in all moments and in all situations. Open intelligence is revealed in one's own experience by stopping thought for a moment and noticing that there is innately, an always present, open alertness which is cognizant. This intrinsic knowing-ness of whatever is appearing as the present moment is our open intelligence and it is our access portal to universal intelligence. Usually, immediately, the next thought, emotion or sensation appears. And, most of the time, we start following it and loose awareness of our open intelligence or, our self-knowing awareness. Nevertheless, we can only know the emergent appearance of the here-and-now (our "data") because it appears as an expression both within and of open intelligence; self-knowing open intelligence and our data are always co-arising as the actuality of our present moment. We just have been trained to pay attention to the data side of things (indulge, avoid or replace), and haven't noticed or trained-up the open intelligence aspect of our being.
So far, this is not substantially different from a pointing out instruction from any of the, now, many non-dual teachers. If we already have recognition, it is obvious and if we don't, it is simple. Where Balanced View differs is in how the practice is applied and in the other three "Mainstays" of support. In order to train up open intelligence and become, mentally and emotionally stable and, be ongoing-ly beneficial to our community and our world, our direct experience of open intelligence needs to become more frequent and of longer duration; we practice disengaging from our labels, descriptions and stories and allow everything to be as it is while we take a short moment. Then we do that again; and again. Thus, we teach ourselves to rely on open intelligence rather than our data. (Our data being the way we have constructed our identity and the world in the polarized duality of the 3-D consciousness which we fell into when we arrived here.)
To support this Balanced View provides many trainings available world-wide - on the web and by phone. One connects with a trainer who becomes an ongoing, personal ally; a trainere is one who has come into complete mental an emotional stability by relying on their own open intelligence, the trainings, their trainer and the world wide community (the fourth leg of support).
One brief, recent example from my life & then I'll go. I've been working a lot for weeks and weekends on end. Last night, (Friday) Lynn Marie and I had scheduled time to be together; I was really looking forward to it. When our time together was about to begin, she gets an "important" phone call. (It ends up taking over an hour.) Initially, I've got lots of data about her - thoughts, emotions, stories, imagined conversations - perhaps, you can imagine. I realize, this is a perfect opportunity to take a short moment. I begin to notice not just the way I feel, my posture, my attitude, the world I am constructing, but also the un-affected expanse of open intelligence in which this whole movie has appeared. By choosing to notice the open intelligence the mental/emotional elaboration of my movie died down and the energetic, somatic way I was holding myself and my world came foreground in the openness. As I let is be as it is, the whole, temporary patterning releases into a rush of loving aliveness and I found myself choosing to watch some of the trainers on the BV site. Because, at this time, in truth, nothing is more important to me than training this up and spreading information about this system that works to do that. Later, last night, we had a wonderful, intimate, loving time together in full support of our own and each others embodied awakening. Is that cool, or what?
...so, this re-introductory letter has become a bit of an essay and a plug for what I have discovered that seems to work better than anything else I have seen that is creating communities of very unique individuals around the world who are living as if they are one, in support of each other fully embodying, in all relationships, the indivisible truth of our being. I am certain there are many millions of us who are committed to this who have bee doing every thing we can find and/or be led to do to assist in the co-creation of this new world where each of us recognizes the one we all are. IMO, this is how we create the Era of Great Benefit.
What I would suggest, if any of this is of interest to you, is that you go to the website at http://www.balancedview.org/, click on "start here," scroll down to "videos," and take a look at a few of these people. IMHO you will be impressed, as I first was, by their ease of being, their genuineness, their clarity and their radiant and open hearts. And, don't just watch Candice. "By their fruits shall ye know them." Look at the people who have become trainers though engaging in the full algorithm of these Four Mainstays. These people are, IMO, amazing.
If you choose to explore this, I would love to learn how you respond.
May all things go well for you,
Bless you more,
John
that no one has commented on this in the 12 days since it was posted. IMO, what I am writing about here is an incredible system of support, unlike anything else that is available, for our awakening and no one appears to have even looked into it. It makes me curious about how I may have seriously mis-understood the focus of others on G-spot...
Hi John-
Working on it - been busy. For some reason my computer was having a hard time loading the videos, now they are working.
Wendy
Thank you for looking at this, Wendy.
Sorry, John. My internet connection is slow and I couldn't play the videos at http://www.balancedview.org/ Likewise, much of the text must be downloaded in pdf form, so I can't get the total picture.
Is it possible you could give us a summary in a nutshell? (Don't mean to undermine the quality of their work by cutting to the chase), but for those folks who are pressed for time, it might help peak our interests.
I've recently written a piece that I think responds to your question. I am posting it separately under the title, What's Right Now? If it doesn't completely cover your concerns, let's continue the conversation.
Hey John,
In "true" g-spot fashion for such a post I will do the most normal thing....I'm not going to mention your writing,....Lol.... but I thought your comment was funny...hehehe
C'mon dude, it has always been like this here, Fred is the only one who will always get a real response to something like that, and as has been seen, he can get the opposite, but with the odd exception this is totally true to the place,
The ones that I find funniest, you all know I have a weird sense of humour, are the people who have just arrived from the course with all the energy from it still bubbling away, they have been desperate to get in to the forum, maybe even trying to talk their way in before they have completed the course, they have something to share, their lifes work, website, writing, community...they are passionate and after a lifetime of people not quite getting or appreciating their work they know this is the place!...for sure these are the people who will know how awesome this sharing is and ........etc....
What will the replies be......."nice to meet you, thats very beautiful" "thanks for sharing" "love the way you express yourself looking forward to all you can share here" "do you have any links"
Then they are gone....Lol
Then you will see a post....."the 1000's spin on how we are getting screwed" by some dude I do not know, and wow, that will do well here, great piece, people are sending it out to their networks before they have even properly read it, no time to important, must get it out there...this needs to be viral!.....still havent read it but had time to search out evrything connected to it and share the links and everything else....
And yes there is some exageration in that, obviously, makes my point easier to see and while cynical it is true that people don't respond to personal pieces or join in with other members in their own creations,
I never understood why it is like this, bugged me for years but now, it's just how it is and I'm surprised you hadn't noticed it John......
so to end,
Thanks for sharing John, I really enjoyed it....
.......
L
Jez
...just now for the first time! I don't visit G-spot every day and don't catch everything, let alone everything of value.
I keep telling people that the world is waking up, but I have little "evidence" to show them. What you're offering here is that kind of evidence -- and it's about the essence of our own evolution individually and as a group. And so for people who catch this simple but elusive fact, what you offer here can be a godsend, just what they might need to really move their own process at a fundamental level. I had no idea that anything like Balanced View existed.
But you know, not everyone gets it -- even among people who talk and feel sincerely about awakening and Oneness and spiritual things. And that's understandabled, even to be expected. What you're talking about is the space of not-thinking, in which everything in our lives and in our universe, really, happens. It's the simple moments of "open intelligence", empty of thinking and concern and planning, that are what we 've been looking for -- what we are. And its true depth and potential are unlimited. You know this, you've lived with it for a long time. But for most people, even spiritually sensitive people, its very simplicity and commonness makes it easy to overlook, or if noticed at all not valued. It's literally nothing. But it's also everything. Like gold taken to be brass.
It was evident to me that you were involved in some kind of ati yoga practices, but I had no idea about your extensive work and devotion to helping people to wake up -- you and your wife. I know it's superfluous to say this because you've just been true to who you are and what you value, but Thank you!
I have been aware or your deep understanding of what it means to embody awakening and have appreciated your comments on the forum. (I haven't commented very much.) I appreciate your acknowledgement and thank you as well. The more of us who spend more of our moments as open intelligence the more quickly our human species of consciousness will release its dualistic fixation on separation and resolve into intuitive recognition of our intrinsic interconnectedness, IMO. This is why I find the universally accessible language and support system of Balanced View so valuable.
PS I don't care what beliefs or ideology someone holds - left, right or over-the-top - if we are still seeing from within the frame of polarized duality and there is an "us" and a "them", we are fundamentally mistaken and living in a conceptual abstraction. Another recent piece I posted here speaks to this: "What's Right Now?" http://www.gatheringspot.net/topic/general-discussion/whats-right-now
If anyone else is having trouble even getting the homepage to load at http://www.balancedview.org/, here's an alternative. Some of the videos can be found at: http://www.youtube.com/user/balancedviewvideos?feature=results_main
Mine is sort of akin to Jez's. When I read your comment of displeasure concerning no comment yet about your forum post, what I thought about was your tact John. You were claiming to know something about how to escape this us v. them self-inflicted prison, but your tact toward the g-spot community revealed that even you are still somewhat stuck in the us v. them paradigm revealed in the judgmental tact you chose to use.
After all that learning about such cool lofty notions and ideas, you used the same tact that someone else might use who knows absolutely nothing about the things we tend to discuss here at the g-spot somewhat frequently over the years. So someone that might not know anything about what you are talking about in that forum post, the only thing they may get from what you said and the way you judgmentally and impatiently said it is that your apparent behavior is no different than mine, so why should I believe you are truly on to something as fantastic as you propose???
Sometimes the impression we leave leaves the idea we intended to propose in the dust if you know what I mean. We can end up appearing like just one more form of self-involved zealot du jour to those we so desperately wish to assist during these very amazing times of change and awakening....
our credibility can be erroded so easily with so few words in this free will chess game...
on a personal note - I think a real game changer is headed our way that will be the real wake up call. That is when our real work begins, those of us who have been anticipating it, those of us who will not be caught off guard and can help calm and lead at such a sobering time of real paradigm shift...
I just re-read my post about no one having commented on this post where I asked for feed back after 12 days and my re-considering my conclusions about the people's focus on this forum. I am not understanding how you understood that to constitute an us/them frame of reference. Please, share.
I guess I just don't get the whole oneness thing. I do care and want to live in a community where none are excluded, unless they choose to be. I want everyone to be taken care of and while I feel it is impossible to do this, I do my best to help those who are calling for some kind of help. However, I still prefer to think of myself as seperate from these people. I can get that all are different reflections of a single whole but I guess I don't understand the great value in that philosophy - it doesn't seem to be necessary to produce compassion for "others". I also highly value diversity and feel that the "whole" is stronger when it's parts are highly diverse. Am I on the right track here or am I missing some part of the message?
"It makes me curious about how I may have seriously mis-understood the focus of others on G-spot"
This is the quote from your follow-up post that struck me as fairly presumptuous John. What I get from that is a subtle challenge to those here at the G-Spot - a subtle and presumptuous jab at those here concerning priorities of thought and action based solely upon no "as of yet" response to one of your more recent posts. It subtly and insidiously infers something lacking in direction in those being addressed and presumes some form of teacher position by the author prior to the projected students freely and willfully electing the author for such a position.
What I see is an all too common human behavior that comes from those who have much emotional and intellectual investment in their particular field of study or expertise. What it makes me think about is that no matter how much the collective we learn, we have a strong tendency to become arrogant prior to actually incorporating and integrating that which we have become excited about learning.
It reminds me of those who have just become Christians or any religion really, and they want everyone to have what they have, as if (as Wendy so perfectly related to) what they have discovered (in their amped up certitude) is perfect for everyone - it would be a miserable design if that were the case. I am glad it is not. The most glaring cases of this kind of nonsense is when someone from a religious order tells you you're going to hell if you don't follow them...
It is most likely why those more advanced interdimensional beings don't interfere more than they do, due to the inalienable inherent right to one's own personal confusion for as long as one wants it that way (Law of One relates often to this right to personal confusion and free will).
It is by no means a novel thing for one to be excited about something and then to be somewhat dismayed/disappointed when one of the groups he or she has elected to engage is not quickly responding as was expected by the author. Nothing new here at all - something we all struggle with as human beings struggling to be "born again", to awaken, to fade petty concerns that we are sometimes inclined to blow out of proportion and become lost in for a "spell" or "season"....
The last thing we need all of this to become is just one more religion with some new list of dogmas.
What I am sure of from my own experiences and those around me - the collective human we are very inclined to adopt and create unnecessary soap operas during the good times - during the bad times we just plain don't have the time for it, LOL
Another thing of some interest to me is what "James" (from WingMakers) said about the Human Mind System that is so extensive and invasive that it actually contains even those so called ascended masters we like to prop up at times in the new age movement. Any temptation to follow another is just one more way to stay lost in this HMS that keeps us churning the same old same old, looking for saviors that don't exist, avoiding the task at hand - to become our own ascended master in one more unique fashion. Terence McKenna had it right IMHO - this whole Cosmos Creation is one big novelty engine and it is not looking for any one of us to follow anything - it is always looking forward to something brand spanking new... always in the process of giving birth to novelty...
Does this make any sense to you?
It makes sense and I can see the disappoinment I was experiencing when my "awakening" friends at G-spot weren't at all interested in what I found to be an extraordinary support system for what has been the primary focus of my life...Point taken. Thanks, Chris. It is good to be humbled.
Bob. I agree language is slippery and fixating on states even more slippery. One of the things I appreciated from the start with Balanced View was the simplicity and universal acceptability of its languaging. Who among us cannot relate to "open intelligence" as what we notice when we stop thinking for a moment & sense an alert and knowing presence? And then, all the rest is "data" which appears and passes within "open intelligence."
Although I love the teachers and traditions I've been exposed to and studied, none of them can reach the numbers of us around the world that IMO need to shift consciousness for our species to thrive. And, I believe that the language, structure and processes of BV can.
It seems to me that we're ALL demonstrating right here in this thread the simple fact of human limitations, quirks, and conditioned reactions. It seems that no matter what experiences or understandings or knowledge of nonduality, ahimsa (non-violence), or "oneness" anyone may have (or not), old patterns tend to persist -- until they don't anymore (assuming there is such a time).
Our tendency (in my observation) is to imagine that people who apparently have had an awakening experience (especially people who take on the role of spiritual teachers), have jumped totally into the ocean of nonduality and therefore they should live in perfect oneness with no more limitations, quirks, or conditioned reactions. ;-) ... In our dreams. Speaking of this phenomenon, a Tibetant teacher said, "The eye of Awareness [realization of oneness] may become open, but it blinks a lot." (His comment drew a lot of knowing laughter.) He was encouraging us to throw out thinking in stereotypes and "should's." He was suggesting that we be patient and charitable towards ourselves and others in this regard.
Truly, I've seen people who have experienced deep awakening (experienced teachers even) get caught in petty, self-oriented behaviors. They demonstrate that the "ego" pattern can appropriate anything, even a bona fide awakening experience. Not good PR for the whole idea of awakening to oneness. But there you have it. The reality is what it is. "Purification" of all the old crap is a gradual process; we're all just kids learning; no one has "arrived." Again, charity and patience -- as well as discernment and even caution where teachers are concerned.
About this word, "awakening." It's used a lot at G-spot and "out there" these days. And each of us knows (or kind of knows) what we mean by this word, and we use it as if everyone else meant the same thing. (I know I'm guilty of this.) Not so, I think. In the swamp of ideas and words, meanings get very slippery. And because our meanings may differ, our whole understanding(s) of "awakening" or anything else may differ as well. Maybe this needs patience and compassion as well -- for ourselves and one another. I wonder if it's possible not to expect anything in particular from one another... That's a real question.
Wendy, I want to address what you said about oneness and "other." Here's how I see it: This Oneness thing is a problem because we try to talk about it as if it were "something." And so we bring it into the realm of words and ideas, which is the opposite of what it's all about. It 's really just an ordinary experience at the heart of all religious and spiritual quest. But it's unbelievably simple, and it's with us all the time, if we can only recognize it. When you relax your mind and being and let go of thoughts and concerns (rest in the "spaces" between thoughts), there it is. In that "space" there's no thought of myself or "other". That doesn't mean that we don't see the person sitting across from us or appreciate his/her uniqueness. But we're not framing the experience in thought, and since "self" and "other" are thoughts, then there is only the experience of the totality of what is at that moment ("oneness"). It's the simplest of things, but it tends to elude us because we're always so caught up in our heads. (It's also capable of cultivation and deepening.)
That said, if this notion of oneness or nonduality doesn't ring your chime, forget about it. You're evidently living it in a way that's appropriate for you anyhow. You're a loving, caring, and discerning person, and if this oneness thing has any reality at any level, it's operating behind the scenes in and for all of us whether we "understand" it with our heads or not -- or whether we experience it directly or not. So yes, I agree that we don't have to see or believe in oneness to be compassionate -- because compassion is an expression of who/what we are. All the words, the "spiritual" language, can be just obscurations. It's what we see, say, and do that matters. That's the real Truth, and the words and the ideas mostly obscure things -- IMHO. As a caring and compassionate person, you're demonstrating that "oneness," which makes itself felt as a deep connection amongst us all. And so it seems to me that you "get" it very well where it counts most -- in your heart.
Thanks Bob and John,
I had never heard the words open intelligence before and it sounds so different (sounds full) from the emptiness or silence that is used in the religious traditions I am familiar with, hence a bit of confusion. Hopefully this will work for many people. There should be many paths leading to enlightenment to get all us diverse beings there. A different usage of awakening too - I thought this as seeing truth beyond the lies we are fed, rather than an awareness of the spiritual realm but I suspect they go hand in hand.
Wendy
We all seem to be going thru 2 phases or stages of "awakening." For me, they have been simultaneous with one or the other coming foreground at various times. One is awakening out of our ignorance/denial of what's been going on on this planet, who's been running things, etc. The other has involved glimmers, intuitions and opening up of altered or enhanced states of consciousness - whether assisted by prayer, fasting, meditation, crisis or trama, substances or spontaneously (Collision With The Infinite - Suzanne Segal).
For me, over time the focus has become more and more clarified and my interest in interesting states has taken a back seat to my interest in living - now and now and now - as the open intelligence (the awareness of now) and expressing that in whatever ways I can that for the benefit of myself and each other.
Interesting states come and go as do all other data. They come and go in, of, as and through the ever-present open intelligence - like rainbows in the sky.
In my personal experience over the last 8 months, the more I focus on/as open intelligence and allow everything to be as it is, the more frequently I am experiencing open intelligence as the ground of my being and the longer it lasts in an uncontrived way and the more flimsy and transparent my "data mind of duality" is becoming.
I can't thank Candice and Balanced View enough. I can't imagine not wanting to share something that has been so enormously helpful to me in what is dearest to my heart. I can, however, imagine shutting up about it, if someone indicates that it is not of interest to them.
I find I have been wanting to add an addendum to my earlier post in response to you. It concerns the thing about wanting to be a "teacher." Although at one point I did have this as a goal or aspiration, my attitude toward it has (IMO) matured.
I have no interest in being anyone's external authority. Period. IMO, that is useless, sticky, entangling and dis-empowering. If anyone is interested in what my experience has been and what I have personally found useful and/or valuable, I am more than happy to share and assist in any way I can. If someone has no interest, I wholly respect the fact that their spirit/soul/higher self/guidance has their back and will take them wherever they need to be. I support them in their choices.
not to beat the dead dog too much longer, please remember that I was not actually initially responding to your beautiful forum post of sharing. I was sharing my thoughts and feelings about your "I Am Amazed" follow up post in which you made it clear that you were dismayed and disappointed that no one had responded yet to your forum post. You used the more vague term "amazed", but I think you and I know that you were simply disappointed with the total lack of feedback to date.
If all you did was post your original forum post of personal experience for sharing with others and then let it go in peace and humble respect to and for whoever, then I could totally believe what you just posted above. There are so many of my own forum posts that went unanswered, so I definitely know that feeling, as do many others who post.
IMHO it is that 2nd post that is quite revealing about intent and speaks for itself...
This is not to be taken as a negative view for that would be one more useless detour as well you know...
Namaste Dear Brother, I'll be in the back yard burying the dog, LOL
I am not in any fixed state. But rather, I seem to range back and forth along a set of spectra including degrees of identification with any position. So, yes, the reaction was one of disappointment. And, yes, I have no interest in becoming anyone's external authority. The trend over time seems to me to be less and less identification with positions and states and more and more seeing through my conditioned and habituated fixations.
And Chris, at this point, I suspect burying the dog is a good idea.
I for one would love to spend some time looking into BV, but I spend half or more of my life offshore and all sources of streaming video and audio is blocked. This means that I must try to condense a years worth of research into less than 6 months. Then of course there is time spent enjoying my children and grandchildren and lord knows my wife thinks I spend way too much time on the computer
So , there is my excuse for not weighing in sooner. The situation did spark a very interesting conversation after all. I only wish I was as eloquent as you, Bob and Chris.
Wendy, the oneness thing is a hard one to fully embrace. I mean we are clearly individuals but we are connected and part of a whole which could not exist without any one of us individuals. There would still be a whole somewhere but it would be different.
I am glad that all of you are part of my whole. This has been a valuable community for my own growth as an individual so Thanks!
This is in reponse to your request for feedback, John. I wish I had something more positive to say, and it's not for lack of trying, but I found the Balanced View site not to be very user-friendly. (At least for this user.)
If it hadn't been for your glowing endorsement of the Balanced View website, I would not have bothered watching an entire video and reading an entire pdf on this subject. I found the content of both to be long-winded, vague theories without any particulars on how to achieve this proportedly wonderful state of being.
I watched Candice's video on “Clarity” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eiwp2dDAv-A and I read the 23 page pdf called, “Open Intelligence Now" http://www.balancedview.org/resources/books/. I can't say I'm any closer to understanding their basic premise anymore than when I began. The pdf goes on and on about the benefits of open intelligence but it never clearly defines what it is, how to recognize it, or how to achieve it.
I thought I was close to understanding the concept of open intelligence when the pdf used the example of physical pain – the choice and consequences of focusing on the pain 24/7 vs. focusing on one moment at a time (OMAT). That part I understood. But then the text moved on to another topic without any 'how-to' instructions for practicing and/or achieving open intelligence.
There was a time in my life when I experienced excruciating physical pain 24/7. It was so debilitating that I begged God to either take my pain or take my life. (Eventually, by visiting a series of health practitioners I was able to overcome the pain and move on. Trying not to think about the pain also helped a lot.) But, I do not understand how open intelligence can help such a challenge. In my case, one moment filled with constant, excruciating physical pain was the same as the next painful moment, so I don't see how focusing on OMAT would've made any difference.
So please excuse my ignorance, but what is the definition of Open Intelligence/Clarity/The View? (The pdf said the terms are synonymous.) Is it mass consciousness, connection to source, living in the now? Is it any or all of these things or more? How do you achieve this state? Where the heck is the set of instructions? Can you recommend a particular video or pdf to learn the basics?
Thanks, John. I'd really like to explore this and see if I can derive some value from it.
Thank you, John. I will be perusing this during the next coming weeks. I thank you for posting some of your life's work.
Namaste
Fairy
I hope it is ok - I sent your feedback about the BV site to them...
Here are some videos I have enjoyed which I feel offer pretty clear, simple pointing out instructions for recogniziing and re-recognizing our alert presence in the midst of "data."
Pure Power - Aminah, 7/25/12
http://www.balancedview.org/resources/video/mediaitem/650-pure-power-aminah-7-25-12/
Effortless Discernment - Margareta 7/28/12
http://www.balancedview.org/resources/video/mediaitem/648-effortless-discernment-margareta-7-28-12/
Wired for Benefit: Jochen - 4.03.11
http://www.balancedview.org/resources/trainer-channels/user/51-Jochen%20Raysz/
Acknowledging Perfection: Carie - 5.20.12
http://www.balancedview.org/resources/video/mediaitem/568-acknowledging-perfection-carie-5-20-12/
An Unending Education: Margareta - 8.07.12
http://www.balancedview.org/resources/video/mediaitem/676-an-unending-education-margareta-8-07-12/
Natural Benefit: Kat - 8.02.12
http://www.balancedview.org/resources/video/mediaitem/664-natural-benefit-kat-8-02-12/
Another pointing out instruction that I received, from the Bon Dzogchen tradition of Tibet, goes someting like this. Instead of following the proliferating flow of thoughts, look back at whatever thought is happening now. As I do this, the thought dissappears and I seem to be looking into an open space. Is this what happens for you? (if we were in person, we'd talk about this before proceeding.)
Then, the instruction continues asking us to look at what's looking. And, again, whatever I may have thought, imagined &/or projected as "the looker," disappears and what can be noticed is an unspeakable state which is characterized by alertness, openness and a cognizance which notices both the empty alert openness and whatever happens to be appearing within it, which constitues the phenomenal now moment. Is it like that for you? (Again, if we were in person, we'd talk about this before proceeding.)
From here its useful to recognize that nothing ever appears other than as a function of and, always within this directly experiencable, if difficult to describe, open intelligence. This includes all the phenomena of our moment-to-moment experience: our sensations of the world and our body, the distinctions, labels, descriptions, evaluations, ideas and beliefs of our minds, the mental/somatics of our emotions and the situations we experience, which are composed of sensation, mind and emotions.
Everything that exists for us, exists within our living awareness. Hence the famous quote from the Heart Sutra, "Form is emptiness. Emptiness is form."
Experience changes; awareness doesn't. And yet, paradoxically, in experiencing there is no dividing line separating experience from awareness; they are mutually pervasive in a non-dual, seamless whole. Look for yourself and see if this is so.
Experientially, the initial glimpse of our open intelligence may rock our world or it may seem like not a big deal. In either case, if we choose to return to it again and again, re-recognizing and noticing more and more about what it is like - the way awareness is always just here, peacefully taking it all in, the way it is never damaged or harmed by our difficult and painful states, the way it is intrinsically calm and still an available, etc., etc.
Noa, (& others), I'd love to know if these words assisted you in "grokking" what BV is all about.
Hi John,
There is a clarity in what you are saying John I can understand the concepts and constructs of this all. Where I come a little unstuck, is the continued reference to the Trainings, obviously there is a need to be trained in how to bring this open intelligence into our everday lives I understand that.
So I looked at how the training works, I could be wrong here, it did seem to me there are very many steps and scheduled meetings/trainings, each one having an ever increasing price tag.
Could I ask you John, how much money is spent to complete the whole course, what I saw seemed to indicate substantial investment?
Thanks for taking the time to "clarify" the process, John. I'll start "viewing" the videos you recommended and keep an "open" mind about it. (Funny how that language fits here.)
Noa, I'd love to hear your impressions and responses.
The "fees" are suggested donations. Everything is free. Or better, give what you can, if you find it valuable. The system is oriented toward both helping individuals recognize & stabilize in the recognition of open intelligence in all situations and circumstances and co-creating social relations (including businesses and non-profits) grounded in open intelligence.
The downloadable books, the videos, the audios, the calls, the meetings are a globally accessible way of helping us keep our attention on the awareness of now and become disengaged from the data enough to let it be as it is. Everyone is invited to watch a number of videos & been to a number of calls &/or meetings in order to sense whether they are interested in pursuing this particular path further. If so, they are then eligible to take the basic training and then the 12 Empowerments which takes a very detailed look at our individual data - so we have an understanding of the people, situations, issues that are sticky for us as well as how we have tended to avoid, indulge or replace our data and how well that has actually worked for us.
Initially, I had a lot of reactions to the structure & the repetition but I was getting something from it and so I persisted in just showing up - which was their advice. Over time, 8 months, I am very glad I did. I am freer, clearer and happier now and I am increasingly able to rest as open intelligence and let things be as they are and allow my data to flow by.
One of the most intersting changes for me is in my response to the "Clarity Calls." Initially I thought it was stupid to take turns reading a somewhat repetitive text and then picking out a line or two we responded to an making comments on it base on our own experience. However, I now love these calls. In part because there are ususally people on them from various locations around the world who are have been involved for various amount of time in BV. It is usually obvious that the longer people participate the clearer they are and the more mental and emotional stability they have; the inverse is also, usually, apparent the more briefly people have been involved the more they are perceiving themselves as the victim of their data (sensations, emotions, thoughts & circumstances.)
Secondly, the calls serve as an experiential example of what it is like to be in community where people wholly support each other in relying on their open intelligence, in not indulging, avoiding, replacing or analyzing their data and in bringing forth their strengths gifts and talents. IMO, it creates a glimpse of what we can create together.
There is lots more I am appreciating about the ways BV is organinzed and works...but I would suggest you engage with it in whatever way you are drawn to (if you are) and don't take your "data" about it too seriously; keep showing up and notice what happens for you in a month or two.