Archive for May, 2008
Saturday, May 31st, 2008
Chapter 6 — Practice
When the Buddha is gone, look to the Dharma as your teacher. Make the practice your teacher. The Dharma and the Sangha will be your teacher. —The Buddha Do not shout thy prayer publicly, nor yet speak it low in secret, but seek between these a middle way. —The Koran I will now close my [...]
No Comments » - Posted in Chapter 6 - Practice by Michael McAlister
Friday, May 30th, 2008
Authentic Communication
Communicating either with those not familiar with the Path or with those who reject it outright can be challenging. Unconsciousness is just about the most contagious ailment that humans carry, but Awakening doesn’t depend on another’s ability to share each step with us along the Path. Rather, Awakening can only ever depend on our ability [...]
No Comments » - Posted in Chapter 5 - Presence by Michael McAlister
Thursday, May 29th, 2008
The Pain Cycle
Whenever relationships are discussed in the context of spiritual practice, most of the questions concern unhealthy attachment. Whether we are conscious of it or not, dysfunction continually offers the ego a place to hide. For example, the ego would much rather attach itself to the known quantity of bad relationships than deal with the unknown [...]
No Comments » - Posted in Chapter 5 - Presence by Michael McAlister
Wednesday, May 28th, 2008
Relationships
Among the richest areas for practice is relationship. Many of us, whether we are in a committed relationship or not, tend to have our connections with people inform most if not all of what we do. Romantic relationships, work relationships, as well as friendships and family relationships, can pull us from a Big Self expanse [...]
No Comments » - Posted in Chapter 5 - Presence by Michael McAlister
Tuesday, May 27th, 2008
In Body: Compassion
Those who see worldly life as an obstacle to Dharma see no Dharma in everyday actions; they have not yet discovered that there are no everyday actions outside of Dharma. —Eihei Dogen Too often, people think that solving the world’s problems is based on conquering the earth rather than touching the earth, touching ground. —Chogyam [...]
No Comments » - Posted in Chapter 5 - Presence by Michael McAlister
Monday, May 26th, 2008
Relating to the Knowing
At some point on the Path, we find that we are in an unsettling place where our minds begin to realize that they don’t have the capacity to take us any further. It’s as if the small self has been busy extending a board over the side of the ship of consciousness, but at some [...]
No Comments » - Posted in Chapter 5 - Presence by Michael McAlister
Sunday, May 25th, 2008
Awake in This Life
Check out the link. The book is currently up at Amazon.com Awake in This Life
No Comments » - Posted in Uncategorized by Michael McAlister
Sunday, May 25th, 2008
Capital “K” Knowing
When the Eighth Sense reveals itself from the tenderness of the Ninth Sense, we give our experience over to what we might call a “conscious awareness.” We have previously called this Knowing. Using the capital “K” implies that it is an unattached version of recognition, far different from the regular, attached, egoic, lower case “k” [...]
No Comments » - Posted in Chapter 5 - Presence by Michael McAlister
Saturday, May 24th, 2008
The Ninth Sense
Just as the Eighth Sense is the felt sense of Awareness that is the Source of all things, it is also our ever-so-slightly contracted sense of this primordial Source. When we put our Witness to use, we see that it is the Awakened space that welcomes the very arising of all things. On the other [...]
2 Comments » - Posted in Chapter 5 - Presence by Michael McAlister
Friday, May 23rd, 2008
The Eighth Sense
Another way to refer to the Witness is to call it our “Eighth Sense.” By this I mean that we have our five senses of our physical experience: those of sight, sound, taste, smell, and touch. Then, in our mental experience, we have our thoughts, which can be counted as our sixth sense. Unlike the [...]
No Comments » - Posted in Chapter 5 - Presence by Michael McAlister
Thursday, May 22nd, 2008
In Mind: Wisdom
If the doors of perception were cleansed, everything would appear to man as it is, infinite. —William Blake The nature of God is a circle of which the center is everywhere and the circumference is nowhere. —Empedocles As the audience, or Witness, of the illusory and repetitious charade of ego on the Stage of Mind, [...]
No Comments » - Posted in Chapter 5 - Presence by Michael McAlister
Wednesday, May 21st, 2008
Chapter 5—Presence
Lift the stone and you will find me; cleave the wood and I am there. —Jesus Christ He who knows himself, knows God. —Muhammad Presence shows itself most often as a simple expression of full awareness. Almost everyone has had the pleasure of being in the vicinity of people who carry with them a certain [...]
No Comments » - Posted in Chapter 5 - Presence by Michael McAlister
Tuesday, May 20th, 2008
Being the Expanse
One of the biggest parts of our practice, then, is to neither indulge our feelings nor avoid them. We should just meet them with a committed openness so that we can witness them and therefore become free of our attachment to them. This doesn’t mean that we don’t feel anything. Becoming numb to our feelings [...]
No Comments » - Posted in Chapter 4 - Perspective by Michael McAlister
Monday, May 19th, 2008
The Truth
Awakening into an enlightened perspective happens when we intentionally open our hearts and minds and let go of all thoughts and feelings that relate to a separate sense of what we’ve always known as a self. This self isn’t anything fixed. It is our mistaken belief that this sense of “I” is the cause of [...]
No Comments » - Posted in Chapter 4 - Perspective by Michael McAlister
Sunday, May 18th, 2008
The Middle Way
From the infinitely open perspective of the summit, we realize that we are not what we think nor what we feel. From a limited, egoic view, we are simply an attachment to the activity of our minds, always believing we are only what we think and what we feel. In other words, the very things [...]
No Comments » - Posted in Chapter 4 - Perspective by Michael McAlister
Saturday, May 17th, 2008
Feelings as Thoughts
To get a little technical, feelings are deep thoughts. Consider that all of our sensations are energetic bodily states of various levels of intensity that are interpreted and then given a contextual meaning by the mind. For example, if you feel pain, what is actually being noticed by the mind is an intensity that corresponds [...]
No Comments » - Posted in Chapter 4 - Perspective by Michael McAlister
Friday, May 16th, 2008
In Body: Feelings and Emotions
The heart of man is nearer to the Truth than his intelligence. —Aurobindo God is in me or else not at all. —Wallace Stevens If you haven’t wept deeply, you haven’t begun to meditate. —Ajahn Chah Just as with time and thought, the mind generates scripts to be delivered on the Stage of Mind that [...]
No Comments » - Posted in Chapter 4 - Perspective by Michael McAlister
Thursday, May 15th, 2008
Still Caught
Only when we ultimately let go of our attachment to our mind and its activity of thinking can we uncover the ever-present Now. This doesn’t mean that we should get rid of any mental creativity we might find or should avoid thought in general. Nor does it mean that having the ability to intellectualize about [...]
No Comments » - Posted in Chapter 4 - Perspective by Michael McAlister
Wednesday, May 14th, 2008
No Mind
An attentive mind is an open mind. An open mind is a surrendered mind—one that neither clings nor avoids—which is the opposite of what minds normally to do. Minds are supposed to categorize and compartmentalize in ways that allow us to create order out of chaos. We get a sense of a surrendered mind when [...]
No Comments » - Posted in Chapter 4 - Perspective by Michael McAlister
Tuesday, May 13th, 2008
In Mind: Time and Thought
Past and future veil God from our sight. Burn both of them with fire. —Rumi What is troubling us is the tendency to believe that the mind is like a little man within. —Ludwig Von Wittgenstein The only version of time that is infused with Awareness is this very moment. The present moment, or the [...]
