quote:
Originally posted by Sparkle
Thanks for the nice post KM[
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Is it like this all the time or are there times when it comes and goes, when there is harmony and then adjustment?
Can you speak about the difference between "doubt" and "don't know"
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Hi Sparkle,
Thanks for the kind words, great questions - and cool Namaste Graphic!
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===As far as "all the time" - I take it you're asking about the cessation of doubt?
I've found that in clear-awareness, tracking things "in time" like that is a lot less valuable than I literally thought (and I'm happy to answer the question -- just including this as a directly-related FYI - For Your Information - for anyone reading who may not recognize that acronym).
Basically, cessation of doubt is ultimately a *result* of clear-mind ... only partial-mind can doubt.
So, if there's doubting - partial-mind is active/consciousness is attached to it - and simply being aware of this can often transcend partial mind ... which I've noticed (very recently, like *today*) ....
.... either extends in time-concept ("I should have done that!"; "I wonder if I should do this?" - with the "general stress" - low-grade or high-grade that is part and parcel of such thought-feelings) -- so allowing awareness to be here, now dissolves the "time shaft" as Nithyananda calls them.
... or constricts in space-concept ... the small-feeling "little me" feels like it's "me" against the world, or that "I may not get" or "I need to get" or "I may lose" .... and allowing clear-awareness to *expand* to it's natural spacious, here, now dissolves the "space-clench" ... as Kirtanman calls them.
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Recently though (to answer your question) .... there's probably been twelve hours of doubtlessness for every brief moment of experienced doubt ... a nice ratio.
And ... the brief moments of identification with doubt-thought are seen as emanating from the thought-me-idea ... and released, per the technique(s)/recognition mentioned above.
Along with the recognition that such moments are just the consciousness of not-knowing the perfection ... as opposed the consciousness, in clear-awareness, of being-knowing the perfection (wholeness).
Full knowing as "I Am" is much more the knowing of being the experiencing of the spectrum of Allness-Unity to Specific-Diversity and Back Again - ever-flowing .... ever-new .... much more a living, unbound fountain of life-awareness ... than a snapshot of such a fountain; much more living, unbound process-movement than "thing" or specific state.
As the saying goes:
"One minute a buddha, one minute a sentient being."
And "I" or "I Am" is as good a name for pure awareness as any ... because, even if there's not a "thought I" ... there's an inherent sense of awareness *being* the experiencer ... yet which "sense of I" doesn't conflict with teachings about no-self, either -- thought-doctrines are ultimately partial - the "Tao which can be spoken of is not the Tao."
![Cool [8D]](http://www.aypsite.com/plus-forum/Smileys/akyhne/icon_smile_cool.gif)
As far as Doubt & Don't Know go .....
"Hm."
Don't know.
![Clown [:o)]](http://www.aypsite.com/plus-forum/Smileys/akyhne/icon_smile_clown.gif)
Actually ... what I "don't know" is if I understand the question fully ... so I'll attempt an answer ... and if it seems, *by* the answer, that I didn't "get" the question .... please help clarify, if possible ....
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In the meantime:
Cessation of Doubt as a "hallmark" of enlightenment (referring to the teachings - which seem key in certain traditions - yet are not discussed much - hence my posting about "cessation of doubt" here, in hope that it might be helpful) .... is used as a benchmark of confirmation of awakening in certain traditions, and/or acceptance into the highest, closest levels of initiation .... because it is a sign that identification has shifted from the thought-me, to clear-awareness.
Cessation of Doubt as a *practice* is tied to the fact that as clear-awareness informs Jnana{Knowing}-subjectivity / Kriya{Action}-objectivity .... so accurate understanding and realization-oriented actions - inform the opening into knowing true nature to be clear awareness.
More simply put: hesitation-free action(s) in any/all areas of life only helps realization.
Hesitation/Doubt not only occludes realization - it indicates that thought-mind has gotten a foothold/"foot in the door" - and is exploiting the opportunity for all it's worth.
The solution?
Dissolve the thought-me by collapsing time-concept into presence or expanding space-clench into spaciousness .... and/or simply turn attention away from the hesitation and move/act intensely.
It's a lot more likely that realization-delaying concepts will persist by allowing hesitation to remain ... than by acting directly/intensely ... even if that action proves to be non-ideal.
This is a principle that I didn't get for a LONG time - and until very recently (another little clarity per the grace of clear-awareness).
Here's a link to an article by a Kabbalah-related blogger, who I thought put the pragmatic side of it very well --
Article Covering Some Kabbalah Views on Being Proactive.
Basically: the energy of proactivity and action is the energy of creation -- as whatever level of consciousness is being utilized.
Proactivity in terms of objective action (which inherently neutralizes doubt - at least during the actual instances of proactivity/activity) in the manifested/physical realm is a bit like steering a car ... a little action here seems to re-direct a whole lot of more subtle, "under the surface" energies.
One of the main points though, is:
ALL of this (Cessation of Doubt, specifically) is cyclical/bi-directional ... Cessation of Doubt is both a quality of clear-awareness .... and a method for facilitating the knowing of self as clear-awareness, by practicing it.
Blog Excerpt:
"While not necessarily spiritual men, Donald Trump, Bill gates, Warren Buffet, Steven Jobs and Sam Walton didn’t wait around to react to the markets and to opportunities; they made their own. They were proactive. They went out to create things, about a trillion dollars worth of things. They are not G-d. They are not supermen. They are just men being proactive, and that’s just in only one area of their lives.
If they can do it, why not you?
You have so many more spiritual tools available to you than they did. Don’t let doubt get in your way. Being proactive means not allowing any time for doubts to creep in. Just do it and do it and do it. Be like G-d. Or if you want money, lots of it, be like Warren Buffet.
There are 6 extremities and creating financial wealth is only one extremity. It’s what you do with that wealth and how you treat people along the way that makes someone spiritual.
Obama didn’t become President by waiting around to be asked. He is the consummate proactive person. And while I don’t agree with much of what he’s doing, he has continued being proactive and nonstop in his actions so far while President, not leaving room for the darkness to distract and sidetrack him.
It’s only while I’m writing that I’m actually creating. If I stop and think and ponder and research for 5 weeks and then write for 5 hours, I’m still only creating for 5 hours."
Regarding Not-Knowing .... it depends what kind of not-knowing you're referring to; if it's something that can possibly be confused with doubt .. it sounds as though thought-mind may be focusing on the sense that there *is* something *to* know - and has doubts about whether it knows enough (?), etc.
Does that sound like what you're asking?
In that case, I'd say that the not-knowing and doubt are both "symptoms" of identification with a thought-me ... which can be neutralized as described above in the short-term/present-moment ... and/or which will ultimately be dissolved via the effects of continued practices (it can't "not be" -- when partial-self/thought-me goes ... hesitation, doubt and not-knowing go, too.)
However, there's a whole other level of not-knowing .... "good not-knowing" - pure potentiality without fixation; clear-awareness without thinking there's value to "having information" - to knowledge.
As the Shiva Sutras say, in the second sutra of the first section:
"Jnanam Bandhah" - Knowledge is Bondage.
Knowing (oneself as the clear-awareness of reality), however, is Liberation.
Not-Knowing (anything limited) is the same Liberation - with a different description.
Christian mysticism covers this nicely is the famous text "Cloud of Unknowing".
Adyashanti is fond of saying that he knows so much LESS now than he did before enlightenment/awakening.
True knowing .... of the "know the truth and the truth will set you free variety" .... is much more like "being" than it is like "having information about".
Why?
Because only limited mind can "have" anything.
In clear awareness, knower-knowing-known all appear as display in the one field of clear-awareness.
Ditto non-knower/not-knowing/not-known.
There's also the not-knowing of perfection I referred to in another thread - which can sync up (definition-wise) with "doubt", from another angle.
Example: today, I did have a moment of thought-doubt (I can't even remotely remember what "about", nor care to - it's dream-memory now, anyway) ... and saw through it, per recent experiencing of clear-awareness ... because clear-awareness doesn't experience doubt.
So, there was momentary identification with a limited me-thought, which generated a doubt-thought ... which was promptly neutralize by expanding space-clench/thought-clench into clear-awareness .... which simultaneously brought awareness out of time-concept, and into reality.
It's like an "Ahhhhh" (<- pleasurable sigh) ... originating as an infinitely small point in the heart .... and expanding into infinity in a brief moment, happily dissolving boundaries, concepts and limitation as it goes.
Such a simple yet powerful teaching/practice - one there's deep gratitude for receiving-offering-sharing.
I hope this helps; the opportunity to converse, answer, ask, share is always helpful to me, and a genuine joy ..... and truly and deeply appreciated.
Intending Awakening for All,
Kirtanman