Just One Look Forum Archives

Hi!

I have been at the looking for quite a few months now and I know I have been successful at getting a glimpse of me because I have been so intent on getting to it.

Sometimes I watch the video 'how to look at yourself' with the attention exercises at the start, just to make sure I am doing exactly what's being suggested.

One thing that I have noticed is that when I try to look, I sometimes wonder if I am supposed to notice something deeper than just my me-ness. Like a presence that is always there or something. When I first started the looking, it sometimes felt like what I was looking at was kind of separate from me but after a while, it just felt like a very ordinary sensation of being or aliveness.

I wonder if anyone has had similar experiences? Believing that there is a deeper you that you have not glimpsed yet. And if so, please put my worried mind to rest. I am hoping that this very easy to look at the sensation of me being here, alive, being is all I really need to be glimpsing!

Thanks to all you helpers!

George

Hello George,

what you wrote got stuck in my mind and an analogy occurred to me. When an infant first learns to walk a new world opens up. There is not much understanding involved, just a lot of trying. Same thing with learning to ride a bike - I remember being very determined to learn how to ride that damn thing without training wheels and eventually succeeded to master the basics, falling quite a lot in the process. Once I was able to ride it, there was enjoyment and amazement, but also the realization that there is so much more to it than not falling. All around me there were indications that I had just begun to discover the possibilities (this was right in the middle of the BMX craze in the eighties, just saying) and that there were exceptional people who had mastered exceptional skills with a bike.

It seems to me that the same is true for seeing yourself. The me-ness is all that is important, and very ordinary because it's always there and always the same. However, how that manifests itself in your actions and thoughts and words is in my opinion an endless journey of evolution and discovery. The new understanding that arises about life in the world as seen from this new perspective, how it changes and destroys the old beliefs, and how this evolution becomes an important part of life itself, is a lesson that won't stop until my body stops working. But all that began with that simple recognition of me. Once you had a single glimpse of this simple fact, life slowly starts to have an entirely different flavor.

This is my experience at least.

Wouter

Hi George.

I know that experience. That what we are looking for is hidden deep inside of me, as something abstract and hard to reach. Remember that what we are doing here is easy. That has been wery helpfull for me to see. The sense of me, beeing here as a person. That is looking at yourself. Locate the feeling of you beeing here, the same feeling you had yesterday. Thats all. If you do this, as time goes, you will see this in a wery natural and uncomplicated way.

I hope this is helpfull to you.

Niklas

A while back John said you are here, you are human, get over it. Or not. Rest assured, you are.

After looking you may still be careful but in a patient fashion. Handle with care all including your own thoughts. This is pretty simple.

The hallmark of the act of looking at yourself for me is that it is evident that there was never anything to do or to get, the freaky thing is that until the act of looking is taken and the results occur this is not evident. Who we are is inconceivable, so any concept or idea we have is irrelevant, and who we are is already the case so the only shift that occurs is the departing of the fear of life and the contact with life directly, which is uncomfortable for awhile. Everything is as it is and nothing is wrong or other than as it is, after the fear breaks up, this is ever present in contrast to the programming that continues until it ends, which is now seen for what it is.

Love.

David

Thanks Niklas!

I've been a little lazy at responding to some replies but I'm going for it now

Thanks for this response! Really helpful to be reminded that what I'm looking at is much more simple than the supreme presence/being, my mind is projecting that I need to find.

Also, Paul and Wouter, thank you both aswell! I always appreciate the kind responses on this forum!

All the best!

George

Thank you George!

I am also lazy at times and responding in this forum can sometimes bee a challenge for me. I think the reason for this is, that it is just recently that I have discovered that this is for real. This is not a new interest that really dosnt have any effect on my daily life when I logg out. I can really feel that what we are talking about here is about me and my life. It has taken some time to see this. I have had a distance to this forum as I have had a distance to my life.

I am sorry George, I just try to get used to write here and express my self. I hope you understand.

All the best to you.

Niklas

George,

I took John's words about just one look literally without any problems right there in the beginning, trusting that this is not another meditation practice. I tried the looking without any sense of success, and addressed this in one of the Open House meetings. I felt that I can con myself into thinking that I've looked when in fact I haven't. John replied that the capacity of putting oneself down at every opportunity, even with looking at oneself, is quite surprising, or something to that effect, as far I remember. I was chastised and later became convinced that I had done the deed.

These days I'm sure of it. I was very relaxed about it after the initial hick-up. I tried looking when it occurred to me, for a couple of months, perhaps, then dropped it. I felt a faint, nice sense, a very brief and pleasant feeling, a few times when looking. I hardly look anymore. I have no interest in it. I'm not concerned about me, except as an abstract philosophical question (and as a mechanical reflex of inferiority complex). It's been nearly two years. I still suffer most of the time, but I'm able to let it roll more easily. I don't get so hung about it as I used to. The mindfulness practice of attention mastering is helpful. Keep at it, is my advice, for what it's worth.

Seppo

I can really feel that what we are talking about here is about me.