Quote:
Originally Posted by ludlow  Here's a conundrum that has arisen for me in reading on these subjects. I'd be enormously grateful for anybody's thoughts.
1. Many Buddhist texts I've read, and also Eckhart Tolle's book The Power of Now, emphasize the point that you are not your thinking mind, and that by learning to quiet the thinking mind, you can access a far more spacious plane of consciousness or Being. This plane transcends the separateness of individual people and is, in some way, the primary "stuff" of reality.
2. Meanwhile, subjective reality as I have understood it so far (along with The Secret, and a lot of personal development stuff that doesn't use the term "subjective reality") seems to suggest that thoughts create reality. What you think about, you create more of. Thought is the primary "stuff" of reality.
I've come to hold belief 1. through some success with meditation. I *want* to believe 2. as well, though I'd say I'm not there yet.
But are they just inherently contradictory? Or can they be reconciled? If getting caught up with thinking is somehow a distraction from Being, does that mean you have to reject the idea that thought is the basis of reality? Can you believe in some kind of Zen-like "enlightenment" and also believe in The Secret?
Does this post even make sense?
I think I'll stop there before I confuse myself even more... |
Here's how I see it. It's a melding of both perspectives.
Consciousness is consciousness, that vastness which we cannot explain in words. Subjective reality/law of attraction/thoughts held in mind produce after their kind fits in as a filter of consciousness.
Consciousness/God/Spirit is always there and all there is and our thoughts and perception filter how it is expressed.
The Law of Attraction is helpful because it helps us to attract what we want rather than what we don't. We shift our thoughts from what we don't want to what we do want so that our filter on consciousness changes.
However, if your objective is to manifest pure Spirit/Consciousness/God here on earth as the great mystics did (Buddha, Jesus), you get all thought, all filters out of the way.
This is where the practice of meditation and being in the now come in.
I used to see them as opposite too and felt that I only wanted to activate the law of attraction. I didn't want to be some airy, fairy mystic walking around on earth penniless with a bunch of followers. This was my idea of God on earth, but what if God is infinite supply, radiant health, unconditional love as He is described in many scriptures (not just Christian). It would mean that me manifesting Spirit on earth (enlightenment) would manifest all of those things. That would also explain a lot of the "miracles" that are documented. It's just pure Spirit in full expression.